Daytime Soap’s Jewish Twist
‘The Young and the Restless” stud Brad Carlton — whose six-pack abs, chiseled features and dark good looks might be responsible for a healthy portion of the CBS soap’s Nielsen ratings — recently dropped a bombshell of sorts: He’s Jewish.
Earlier this summer, viewers learned that Brad — played by 21-year “Y&R” veteran Don Diamont — is actually named George Kaplan and is the son of a concentration camp survivor who escaped the gas chambers by cataloging stolen Jewish art for the Nazis. This week, the JTA reported that upcoming episodes of the steamy daytime drama will portray Brad attending Yom Kippur services and asking forgiveness from two characters he has wronged during the past year.
In the show’s WASP-y Midwestern stronghold of Genoa City — where the polished and buffed residents tend to grapple more with each other’s bodies than with issues of religion and persecution — Brad’s Jewish identity and the Holocaust story behind it are a major departure from the norm.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30