A show about a French detective, a podcast about Anne Frank and a caper featuring a nun in love with Jesus got us through 2023. Photo by Canva/Getty/Netflix/NBC Universal/Bravo

At the end of a difficult year, the great tradition of the end-of-year list may seem like a silly exercise. 

But it is also a tradition that, while ostensibly modern, contains an ancient Jewish impulse.

In the fall of every year, when the Jewish calendar resets, we all take stock of our lives. Even in those solemn days there are reminders of joy that have always been a partner of tragedy and uncertainty. And so the Forward staff has remade that tradition for the Gregorian calendar, and put together a list of some of the cultural experiences that we loved in 2023.

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Among them: guilty pleasure reality TV, a Stephen Sondheim deep cut and our very own podcast about the history of the play The Diary of Anne Frank.

Here are just a few of our favorite things.

Nora Berman, deputy opinion editor

Real Housewives of New York (Peacock)

I am still a novice in the ways of the Real Housewives universe, but I really enjoyed the reboot of the New York cast this year. Featuring stars like fashion designer and iconic lesbian Jenna Lyons, the 14th season reboot dove deep into topics that are typically not part of RHONY fare: infertility, poverty, chronic illness and how to cope with family members suffering from alcoholism. There is still drama over stolen sunglasses, flirting with husbands and other, more typical storylines of the ridiculously wealthy. But the women at the center of this season brought nuance and light to conversations typically not had in popular culture. 

Rachel Fishman Feddersen, publisher and CEO

Playing Anne Frank, Forward podcast

It’s my fave podcast of the year for its vividness, energy, poignance and (so important) economy. So many great vignettes: There’s the part where all the writers who were blacklisted in Hollywood get scooped up by the Broadway producers who care more about talent than communism. Or where one of the teenage actors is furious with his parents for showing up to the same anti-Vietnam protests he goes to. Or where the actors today say their lines from 50 years ago. Plus political, social, and theater history … It’s just too good! Go listen!

Mira Fox, culture reporter

Mrs. Davis (Peacock)

When a nun on a motorcycle jumped through a giant donut in the pilot episode of Mrs. Davis, I knew this show about the aforementioned nun and a cowboy battling the AI ruling the world was basically tailor-made for me (a religion nerd). There’s magicians, a plot about the Vatican, a journey into the literal belly of a beast, biting commentary on capitalism and a sexy Jesus. It’s definitely not for everyone — it is very surreal with a zany sense of humor, and obviously sacrilegious — but it mines myth and symbolism in unexpected ways for a wildly creative take on, well, the meaning of life and God.

Deb Greenberg, director of development operations

The Frogs by Stephen Sondheim, based on Aristophanes. Featuring Nathan Lane

All my theater geek friends are talking about Sondheim’s last musical, but for me, the cultural highlight of the year was the concert version of one of his earliest works, The Frogs. If you’ve heard of it at all, you know it as the one that was originally staged in Yale’s swimming pool. While a lesser work of a master of musical theater, what makes it special is the inside peek at what Sondheim’s music would become. Motifs that he would later fully develop float through the score. Listen to “Invocation” and “Instructions to the Audience,” and you will hear snatches of Toby’s music from Sweeney Todd and “Rose’s Turn” from Gypsy (which Sondheim wrote the lyrics for). For a Sondheim fan, it’s a rare treat.

PJ Grisar, culture reporter

Stereophonic by David Adjmi

Adjmi, a playwright who hails from Midwood’s Syrian Jewish community, captured the agonies and ecstasies of creative collaboration and exploded them onto an Off-Broadway stage, turning it into both a functional recording studio and pressure cooker. The unnamed band we observe recording an album, playing radio hit-ready music by Arcade Fire alum Will Butler, are basically Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac, complete with their panoply of personal and personnel problems. They are in abusive relationships with their muse and each other. And yet, we understand why they can never break the chain, as it were. I hope this has a second life in a Broadway house that isn’t too too big — the intimacy is key.

Beth Harpaz, reporter

Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)

I watch very little TV, but Only Murders in the Building has been a guilty pleasure, with Meryl Streep’s wacky heroine adding to the fun of the latest round of hijinx from Steve Martin, Martin Sheen and of course, Selena Gomez, whose eyerolls at her elders’ every moves provide the necessary sour pickle to their naughty but ridiculous schmaltz. This season includes an ersatz musical that’s better than some things I’ve seen on Broadway. I actually miss hanging out with this crew, the way I miss seeing friends and neighbors when they’re on vacation, when I’ve run through all the available episodes.

Adam Langer, executive editor

Lupin season 3 (Netflix)

An extremely loose adaptation of a classic French series about a gentleman thief, it’s the best superhero movie for people who don’t like superhero movies, which is to say me. Close runners-up: Killers of the Flower Moon, Perfect Days, Stereophonic.

Lisa Lepson, vice president of development

You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah (Netflix)

I laughed, I cried! My 12-year-old son and I both cringed and blushed during certain scenes. Adam Sandler continues to make Gen-Xers proud. 

Chana Pollack, archivist

Three Yiddish Plays by Women (Bloomsbury Press)

Miro, my translator spouse, translated a play in this anthology, written by Lena Brown in the early 1900s. And it’s got everything you could imagine in it — for a play written in 2023: Abortion decisions! Childlessness by choice! A roguish invitation to run away to Kansas City! The three plays were presented at YIVO, and impish academics Elissa Bemporad and Alyssa Quint (aka: The Elyssas) had Yiddish-Irish theatrical polymath Caraid O’Brien bring the (long deceased, definitely unheard of) Yiddish playwrights to life in a dramatic tableau. O’Brien, in her role as each of the writers, queried various translation choices. “Would Lena Brown have used the term ‘abortion’ af mameloshn Yiddish?” she demanded of the actor reading the role of hapless suitor. 

Rukhl Schaechter, Yiddish editor

Oppenheimer and The Einstein Effect

I enjoyed watching Oppenheimer as I was reading our news director Benyamin Cohen’s excellent book The Einstein Effect. As one who understands little about physics, let alone the theory of relativity, Cohen’s explanations of how we do things every day that are based on the theory (like ordering an Uber or crossing time zones in an airplane) gave me some wonderful insight into the film’s discussions about how the atomic bomb works. Well, kinda.

Talya Zax, innovation editor

Love Island UK

Love Island UK hides a surprisingly intricate social experiment that I’ve come to think of as an effective simulation of how people cope with the idea of a fickle and all-powerful god. The contestant couples exist entirely at the whim of the voting public, who pass judgment on their likability and compatibility at irregular intervals, with the ability to throw them off the island if they or their love stories aren’t compelling enough (shades of the Edenic expulsion). Islanders’ success depends on their ability to balance efforts to form a genuine romantic connection with efforts to win the hearts and minds of a body whose approach to decision-making remains entirely obscure and unpredictable — a neat parallel for religious observance, in which the pursuit of an individually meaningful life must be balanced with efforts to follow the strictures of a fundamentally unknowable entity. It’s giving drama; it’s giving entertainment; and it’s giving cowering before the vengeful almighty. Who could ask for more?

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