From ‘Yentl’ to Netflix: 50 years into her career, actress Tovah Feldshuh gets a close-up

LOS ANGELES, California – For more than five decades, Tovah Feldshuh has built a career on refusing to play it safe.

The actress has portrayed historical figures including former prime minister Golda Meir, taken on Broadway roles ranging from Jewish heroines to Shakespeare’s Juliet, and appeared in acclaimed television series such as “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.”

Now Feldshuh is being introduced to a new generation through Netflix’s hit comedy “Nobody Wants This,” in which she plays Bina, a strong-willed Jewish mother who disapproves of her rabbi son’s relationship with a non-Jewish woman.

The long career and Jewish identity of the 77-year-old are the subjects of “Tovah,” a new feature-length documentary directed and produced by filmmaker David Serero.

The film features a roster of Hollywood figures reflecting on Feldshuh’s life and legacy, including Dustin Hoffman, Oscar Isaac, Kristen Bell, Patti LuPone, Stephen Schwartz, Peter Gallagher, Rachel Bloom, Katie Couric, Joy Behar and Erin Foster.

The 57-minute documentary will have its Los Angeles premiere on September 2 at Sinai Temple, where Feldshuh is expected to attend along with her “Nobody Wants This” co-star Adam Brody.

Feldshuh and Serero spoke with The Times of Israel together in a Zoom interview ahead of next week’s Los Angeles premiere.

Feldshuh said the documentary has provided an opportunity to look back on a career she has never been particularly interested in viewing as finished.

“I am very proud of my career at this stage, my life at this stage, my values, and I’m happy to stand up for the Jewish people,” she said.

Serero said the film is about much more than celebrating a successful actress.

“I’ve always been inspired to make movies about people who are, in a way, changing the game in their professional field,” Serero said. “Tovah, she’s not only an icon — she’s an inspiration for so many people.”

Yentl, Golda, RBG and Dr. Ruth

The documentary traces Feldshuh’s rise from an ambitious young actress to a Broadway institution, incorporating archival footage and interviews with the people who have watched her career unfold.

It also explores her commitment to portraying complicated, intelligent and powerful women — as well as her activism and philanthropy, including her work through the Feldshuh Fund for Women’s Health, which subsidizes care for uninsured women who work in entertainment.

Feldshuh has portrayed a range of Jewish characters, on screen and off.

She played the title role in “Yentl” on Broadway in 1975, and starred in the groundbreaking 1978 miniseries “Holocaust” alongside Meryl Streep.

Feldshuh played Meir in “Golda’s Balcony,” the longest-running one-woman show in Broadway history, in the 2018 film adaptation of the play, and in the 2006 film “O Jerusalem.” She got to know former US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to prepare for her role playing Ginsburg in the 2019 play “Sisters in Law.”

In 2021, she played her late friend Ruth K. Westheimer — better known as the famed sex therapist Dr. Ruth — in a one-woman off-Broadway production.

Aside from Jewish roles, she succumbed to zombies in season six of “The Walking Dead” and sparred with prosecutors in appearances spanning a decade in “Law & Order.”

A response to antisemitism

Feldshuh’s willingness to speak openly about her Jewish identity has become increasingly prominent in her public persona, particularly as she has watched antisemitism and debates over Israel become contentious in Hollywood and beyond.

Prior to the Hamas terror group’s October 2023 attack on Israel, Feldshuh used her platform to push back against antisemitism.

After the start of the war, she advocated for the Israeli hostages in Gaza, speaking at a massive rally in Washington, DC, meeting with hostages and performing for their benefit.

“In this moment of global antisemitism, it’s very important to stand up straight and have courage and have pride,” she said. “I remember my father banging against my chest, gently, but he said, ‘Remember who you are, because the world will remind you anyway. So, take it and love it.’”

“I love being Jewish. I have no shame about being Jewish,” she added.

Feldshuh said family members have sometimes urged her to be more cautious about speaking publicly.

“They said, ‘You’re damaging yourself,’” she recalled. “But so far, so good. So far, people are so grateful that anybody has any guts [to speak their mind].”

“Tovah” had its official premiere at the Boca International Jewish Film Festival, in Boca Raton, Florida, in January. The film won the festival’s award for best documentary feature.

The documentary is currently on the Jewish film festival circuit, with upcoming showings in Nashville, Tennessee, and Washington, DC, and the film’s team is hoping the documentary will be available for streaming by March 2027.

At next week’s screening in Los Angeles, Feldshuh will participate in a Q&A session with Serero and Sinai Temple Co-Senior Rabbi Nicole Guzik.

Philanthropist Julie Platt, who appears in the documentary and is a congregant at Sinai Temple, was instrumental in bringing the premiere to the Los Angeles synagogue, Serero said.

‘I have a fourth act ahead of me’

Serero sees Feldshuh’s influence as extending beyond her individual performances.

“For me, Tovah is the Muhammad Ali of theater,” he said. “She really changed her industry. She introduced the Shakespeare theater people to the Jewish characters, to the Jewish culture.”

Her renewed visibility through “Nobody Wants This” has given Feldshuh another opportunity to connect with audiences who may have never seen her on Broadway or in one of her many dramatic roles.

Bina, the character she plays on the Netflix series, is a formidable Jewish mother whose traditional expectations collide with her son’s romantic relationship. The role has made Feldshuh recognizable to viewers who are decades younger than many of her longtime theater fans.

“I plan to work well into my 90s and to live to 104,” Feldshuh said. “I have a fourth act ahead of me.”

Serero believes that appetite for life is at the heart of what makes Feldshuh compelling to audiences watching her onstage or onscreen.

“What they take is a little bit of Tovah with them in their life,” he said. “They take that joy, that desire of life, because that’s what she does.”