Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Why It’s Always Fun To Talk Judaism With Woody Allen

It’s no secret that Woody Allen has a deep disaffection for organized religion. And it definitely ain’t a secret that Judaism, the filmmaker’s born religion, is the most frequent target of his jokes.

(Here’s my personal favorite, from “Zelig”: “I’m 12 years old. I run into a synagogue. I ask the rabbi the meaning of life. He tells me the meaning of life but he tells it to me in Hebrew. I don’t understand Hebrew. Then he wants to charge me $600 for Hebrew lessons.)

So why even bring up Judaism, as the New York Times’ David Itzkoff did in an interview with Allen earlier this week? Well, because you get quips like these:

Itzkoff: Should I wish you a happy Jewish new year? Allen: No, no, no. [laughs] That’s for your people. I wish I could get with it. It would be a big help on those dark nights.

Allen, whose new film, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” is currently showing at the Toronto International Film Festival, expounded on a handful of his favorite topics, such as New York, aging and himself.

Itzkoff did get Allen to discuss faith, a concept that pops up in the movie — the Tall Dark Stranger in the title refers to Death. Naturally, in Allen’s eyes, it’s worthless.

“To me, there’s no real difference between a fortune teller or a fortune cookie and any of the organized religions,” he said. “They’re all equally valid or invalid, really.”

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.