Adam Brody’s TV mother, Tovah Feldshuh, pushes back on genocide comment
Veteran actress claims 'Nobody Wants This' costar took page from 'Hitler's playbook,' while clarifying that her role is to be kind to everyone on set
Netflix’s “Nobody Wants This” may center on an interfaith romance, but questions of Jewish identity and Israel have unexpectedly taken center stage.
After star Adam Brody accused Israel of committing a genocide in Gaza and called for a “free Palestine,” veteran Jewish actress Tovah Feldshuh, who plays Brody’s mother on the show, pushed back.
“To accuse the Jewish people of genocide is wild,” said Feldshuh in an interview with The New York Post. “It’s right out of Hitler’s playbook. You take the victim, and you make the victim the perpetrator.”
Weeks before the hit rom-com returned for season three to the streaming platform, Brody, who plays progressive California Rabbi Noah Roklov, was asked about the conflict.
“Put me down as thinking it’s a genocide. Put me down as wanting a free Palestine,” said Brody to GQ.
Feldshuh plays the role of Bina, a Jewish Russian immigrant who is Brody’s sometimes overbearing TV mother.
It’s a familiar setup for Feldshuh, a veteran Broadway, television and film actress, who has often played Jewish characters in her decades-long career.
Feldshuh told the Post that the continued existence of the State of Israel is crucial to the well-being of the democratic and free world.
“Of course, Israel needs the United States, [but] the United States needs Israel, believe you me,” said Feldshuh.
Feldshuh said the world is in a “horseshoe effect,” where socialism and antisemitism are trying to meet.
She noted, though, that political disagreements seldom arise on set.
“My job, as Bina but also as Tovah, is to love the people on set at my place of work, to be kind,” she said.
Feldshuh added that she has never felt prouder to be cast as a Jewish matriarch, against the backdrop of global antisemitism.
“Thrilled and proud, and that will never change,” she said.
Other colleagues on the show have disagreed with Brody’s comments, including a rabbi who coached him on set and the show’s creator, Erin Foster, who has said the show is inspired by her own real-life romance with her husband, Simon Tikhman, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants.
Foster grew up Christian and converted to Judaism in 2019 before marrying Tikhman.
She said in a recent podcast that she disagreed with Brody’s comments and has called the show “a love letter to Judaism.”
Season three of “Nobody Wants This” is currently streaming on Netflix.