There’s a Jewish character in Netflix’s ‘Beef.’ It has no lines
The House of the Book as seen in Netflix’s Beef. Courtesy of Netflix
By Louis Keene April 21, 2023
There aren’t many kosher offerings in the cast list of Beef, the popular new Netflix show about a road-rage incident that takes on epic proportions. But architecture aficionados might spot a well-known Jewish landmark playing a background role.
The House of the Book, a performance hall on the Simi Valley, California, campus of American Jewish University, features in the 10-episode miniseries as the palatial residence inhabited by Jordan, an opulent one-percenter played by Maria Bello.
Designed by American Jewish architect Sidney Eisenshtat in the Brutalist and Futurist styles and completed in 1973, the cylindrical concrete building sits at the top of a hill on the 2,700-acre Brandeis Bardin campus (which is not the property hosting the Ziegler School of Rabbinical Studies that was sold by AJU last year). And its Beef cameo is hardly its first time on screen — it previously loomed in Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Power Rangers and a Chris Brown music video.
According to the Netflix blog Tudum, location manager Michael Percival decided to drop by the famously photogenic structure while on a scouting trip for the A24-produced comedy. He quickly realized it could be used for more than just establishing shots.
“Once we walked into it, it was just sort of instant,” he told Tudum. “[It] offers so many unique looks to it, and the structure, with its round rooms and the very high ceilings and curves, added a lot of [drama] just by the architecture.”
Eisenshtat, an Orthodox Jew who died in 2004, was the creative force behind several of Los Angeles’ most famous Jewish institutions, including the Expressionist-style Sinai Temple and Temple Emanuel, a Modernist-style brick building in Beverly Hills.
Initially greeted with raves, Beef, which stars Ali Wong and Steven Yeun, has recently faced criticism over the casting of David Choe, a comedian who in 2014 joked about sexually assaulting a masseuse.
Architectural Digest, writing about the House of the Book turning up in Beef, called it “an architectural marvel.”
The Forward reported this week that former Ziegler School students have alleged a culture of sexism, sexual harassment and homophobia at the Conservative seminary, which was founded in 1995. An AJU spokesperson said the school could not comment on the accusations because it had not seen them, but that there were a “range of measures in place at AJU to foster a safe climate for all students, staff, and faculty.”
American Jewish University sold its 22-acre Bel Air campus last year to Switzerland-based education corporation EF.
Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled Sidney Eisenshtat’s first name.
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