Boy George in Israel: Emotional Nova visit, meeting Herzog and a pro-Israel anthem reviewed

From Boy George’s emotional Nova visit to the Adam Brody controversy on Netflix, here’s what Israeli and Jewish culture are talking about this week.

Boy George has never done anything quietly, and his latest visit to Israel is no exception. On this week’s Jerusalem Playlist podcast, social media manager Ezra Taylor and culture correspondent Hannah Brown unpack how the Culture Club frontman went from a 1980s icon of flamboyance to one of Israel’s most outspoken celebrity supporters. 

Brown, just back from the Nova festival site where the singer paid his first visit, describes a somber but peaceful scene and a star who said he felt something spiritual in the air. She also recounts his meetings with President Isaac Herzog, philanthropist Sylvan Adams, and former hostage Omer Shem Tov, who was held by Hamas for 505 days. The conversation turns to his new song “We Will Dance Again,” which takes on the war’s most contentious arguments from its very first line, and to his upcoming concerts, one of which sets aside 1,500 tickets for Nova survivors and their families.

Is the new Boy George song good?

Is the song actually good? Hannah’s candid answer, and her Dr. Seuss comparison, alone is worth the watch.

From there, the hosts head to Netflix and Nobody Wants This, the romantic comedy about a rabbi (Adam Brody) and the non-Jewish woman (Kristen Bell) he falls for, a show whose central question is less “will they or won’t they” than “will she or won’t she convert.” The series has deliberately steered clear of politics, which made Brody’s offhand accusation of genocide all the more jarring, and prompted co-star Tovah Feldshuh to push back publicly. 

Brown admits she nearly skipped the new season because of it, then ended up binge-watching the whole thing. Her case for why the show transcends its off-screen drama, and why it remains one of the warmest portraits of Judaism seen through an outsider’s eyes, offers a thoughtful take on separating the art from the actor.

The episode closes with two homegrown stories that deserve more attention than they get abroad. The Cinema South Festival in Sderot turns 25 this year, and Hannah, who first attended in 2004, shares an unforgettable memory of Richard Gere being swarmed by the entire town and then presented by the mayor with a piece of shrapnel from that morning’s rocket attack. Run by Sapir Academic College, the festival has grown into a creative hub for southern filmmakers, including a workshop for Bedouin women telling their own stories.

Finally, 86-year-old Israeli screen legend Yehoram Gaon returns in Love, Statistically Speaking, playing a widowed actuary convinced his numbers are running out, opposite rising star Meshi Kleinstein. Shot in and around Jerusalem’s YMCA, it’s the kind of sophisticated light comedy Israeli cinema rarely makes, and it’s headed to Jewish film festivals in the US soon.