Artist turned activist Jonah Platt felt he had no other choice but to stand strong as a voice for the Jewish community.
About a year ago, the “Wicked” actor saw a gap in the podcasting space that he believed he could fill as a proud, Jewish public figure. As ideas floated in his head about what this could look like, Hamas horrifically attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and killed over 1200 people. Platt realized that being a Jewish advocate mattered now more than ever.
“Oct. 7 happened, and I had been seeing that I am able to provide a service to folks on social media — help them as a filter, as a contextualizer, as a calm voice in this chaotic time,” Platt told TheWrap. “I wanted the podcast to be able to be an extension of that.”
A week before the first anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attacks, Platt — who is the brother of actor Ben Platt and son of producer Marc Platt — launched his podcast “Being Jewish With Jonah Platt.” He saw this as an opportunity to break down the barriers of what being Jewish means and normalize cultural conversations.
“We’ve spent the last year being so reactive as a Jewish community to defending against the explosion of anti-Jewish hate and all this stuff going on in Israel,” Platt said. “I wanted to get back to what’s been an original mission of my Jewish advocacy, which is celebrating being Jewish, being proud of being Jewish and being publicly Jewish.”
But Platt reiterated that his position is that of a non-professional Jew. The show serves as a chance for his star-studded guests to share a new side of themselves, learn more about the faith and debate what it means to be Jewish.
“Being Jewish With Jonah Platt” is not just for Jewish listeners, though. In fact Platt acknowledged that much of his own social media following is not Jewish. His mission is to include people from all perspectives and provide a fuller picture of his guests’ personal relationships to Judaism, exploring a wide array of topics including sports, entertainment, politics, food, music, business and more.
“I’ve always felt both inside of the Jewish community and outside we have problems with understanding the full range of Jewish identity. Sometimes there’s exclusion within the community, and there’s a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation outside of the community,” Platt said. “I hope to really illuminate for people, Jews and non-Jews, how diverse and beautiful the connection to being Jewish can be for each specific person.”
Since the show’s launch, Platt has had on actors like Skylar Astin (“Pitch Perfect”) and Jackie Tohn (“Nobody Wants This”) as well as activists like Van Jones and Montana Tucker. One of Platt’s favorite conversations was with his own rabbi of over twenty years, Rabbi David Wolpe.
Platt teased a couple future guests during a wide-ranging interview with TheWrap, including Gail Simmons of “Top Chef” and journalist Megan McCain.
How do you think people will be attracted to your show even if they’re not Jewish?
One of the reasons I’m having all these notable guests is that I’m hopeful they’ll bring their own audiences with them. Other than the rabbi, no one else I’m having on is known for their outward facing Jewishness. They are known because they are an actor or they’re a chef who happen to be Jewish and are connected to that identity, and now I’m finally giving them the opportunity to open up about it. I hope a lot of my audience will be people who come with the people that they already admire and will now learn this very candid, deep, new side of their hero that they hadn’t had access to before.
Then the other way is, I do have, I wouldn’t say it’s the majority, but I certainly have a significant portion of my followers online that are non-Jewish, and come to me for insight, because they see so much of the counter narrative to things, and then I’m their one voice of reason on the other side that they can come to as they try to understand.
I’m also making sure to have non-Jewish guests as part of the show, and that’s super intentional, too. I’m bringing in people who may have a connection to the Jewish community, they’re an ally to the community, but that they themselves are not Jewish because I want all allies and well-meaning people to come to the table for this.
What was the most surprising topic that you explored this season?
I asked Kenny Hamilton, who was a Black Jewish guest on the show, did he feel welcomed right away by the Jewish community? And I was surprised that his answer was yes, honestly, because I’ve heard from other Black Jews that a lot of the time they feel othered by the community at times. So I was really happy to hear that that is moving in the right direction, at least.
In terms of me surprising my guest, I had Rabbi Wolpe, who is a very well known, respected figure nationally, as well as my own family’s rabbi. He had once spoken to me about why it’s OK for Jews to get tattoos, but I guess it’s not something he’s really spoken about publicly. So I put him on the spot about it, and I didn’t realize his reaction was gonna be like, “Oh, we’re gonna talk about that, huh?” So that was fun. He was totally game, but I definitely caught him off guard with that.
That’s exciting to have someone who has guided you in your faith be a voice to a greater audience on your show.
It made for a really great conversation because we had such a great rapport from knowing each other personally. I’m a very questioning Jew when it comes to theology and philosophy. Even as a teenager, I was always asking him, “Well, how could this be true? And how is this right?” We’ve always had a nice, intellectual connection there, so it was nice to get to play it out on my show.
Many people are not as open about their faith for fear of judgment or associations made about them. How do you think this podcast will address those issues, and how has it given you a platform to be proud of being Jewish?
One of the reasons I’m making this show is to normalize Jews talking about Jewish stuff. It shouldn’t be weird or uncool or uncomfortable to just talk about who you are with people with whom you share that or not. It’s natural and wonderful to do that. Other minority groups do that a lot, and they excavate who they are and are proud of their identities, and they debate their identities like, no problem, because it’s natural.
I call it sort of like a boogeyman fear. I don’t think a lot of Jews even know what it is concretely they’re afraid of. There’s just this fear that something bad is going to happen if I talk about being Jewish. I want to get rid of that and just keep having notable people, Jewish and non-Jewish, talking about Jewish stuff and show it’s OK. None of us are evaporating into dust. We’re not lame. You don’t have to have a PhD in Jewish studies to have this conversation.
No matter what your faith is it shouldn’t be lame that you have something that brings significance to your life and gives you guiding principles or values.
You mentioned you have always been someone that’s questioned your own religion.
Questioned everything.
Was there a point in time where you stepped away from Judaism?
I’ve never stepped away from it. It’s always been a core piece of my identity. It’s just sort of which part of it is speaking to me has changed and ebbed and flowed over time. It’s like the light’s always on, but sometimes it might be in the background or might be a little bit dimmer. That’s not the case for me now.
There have been times where the religious piece of it, or my relationship with God — I’m not a very spiritual or strong faith person — I struggle with that. I wish I were more because it’s very comforting. Life would be a lot easier if I believed everything was sort of taken care of in a certain way. So I grapple with it constantly. But part of being Jewish is grappling and questioning. It’s in the tradition. We have whole religious texts that are just people disagreeing about interpretations of things, so it’s part of the value system and the culture is to debate and to question and to wonder. It’s something my wife loved when she converted.
That’s something, again, that I want to show with this podcast is, there’s no wrong way to be Jewish. It’s an individual journey for everybody.
In the trailer for your show, you said 0.2% of the world population is Jewish. So what does it mean for you to contribute to the Jewish legacy and expand the reach of Judaism with this show and with your advocacy work?
Any expanding of the Jewish story that I’m doing would be amazing. I haven’t thought about it in those terms.
I’m just doing what feels right to me to be doing in this moment. I honestly feel like I have no choice, it’s like I have to be doing something. I have to be doing this, and if it’s reaching people and making people feel more accepted or safer or less alone, or enlightening people and teaching them something new that they didn’t know…all of that is a win for me, even if it’s 10 people that happens to.
The best case scenario would be that this becomes so popular, to the point where everybody starts feeling comfortable talking about Jewish stuff and being more proud and openly Jewish, and it just feels so normal and celebrated that people don’t have to think twice about it anymore. That would be the dream.
New episodes release weekly on Spotify, Apple and all other audio platforms Tuesdays, and the show also airs on the Jewish Broadcasting Service every Thursday at 8 p.m. ET.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
