B’nai Binge: Streaming Jewish Movies and Series at Home

First Installment 3/25/2020

Laurie Baron

You’ve got more time on your hands than you have ever had, but also more anxiety about the coronavirus pandemic is over.  Since we can’t gather together to watch the Jewish Film Series, here’s the first installment of Jewish programming you can stream in your home.    

Chai Flicks: A subscription streaming service for Jewish films. www.ChaiFlicks.com

Family Business (Netflix): A French Jewish family converts their failing kosher butcher shop into a marijuana store. 

Fauda (Netflix): An Israeli counterterrorism unit combats violent extremists in the West Bank.

Headhunters (Amazon): A group of Nazi hunters stalks German war criminals living in the United States.  If you like Quentin Tarantino movies, you’ll love this, but many Holocaust survivors and scholars have been offended by its over-the-top treatment of the Holocaust. 

The Kominsky Method (Netflix): If you haven’t caught the comic chemistry between Alan Arkin and Michael Douglas navigating the vicissitudes of aging, get ready for some laughs and tears.

Maktub (Netflix): Two Israeli criminals survive a terrorist bombing and decide to repent by fulfilling the wishes contained in notes placed in the cracks of the Kotel. 

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon): A Jewish wife and mother gets divorced from her husband to pursue her career as a standup comedian in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Otherhood (Netflix) Three mothers, one whom is Jewish, played by Angela Bassett, Patricia Arquette, and Felicity Huffman cope with their relationships with their sons have left home.

The Plot Against America (HBO) Based on Philip Roth’s novel, this series traces how a Jewish family responds to Charles Lindberg becoming president and implementing fascist policies.  

Russian Doll (Netflix): Natasha Lyonne plays a Jewish woman dies every evening her birthday party is held and returns the next day to celebrate at the same party.

Shtisel (Netflix): This Israeli soap opera about an ultra-Orthodox family surprisingly has attracted both Gentiles and Jews.

The Spy (Netflix): Sacha Baron Cohen plays the Israeli spy Eli Cohen.

To Dust (Amazon): A Chasidic Cantor whose wife recently died obsesses over how her body with decompose.