Mayim Bialik Will Skip Israel Independence Celebration Amid Conflict With ‘Big Bang Theory’

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By JTA April 9, 2018

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s annual Independence Day celebration on Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl, whose torchlighting ceremony is a highlight of the country’s civic calendar, has been beset by a number of high-profile cancellations and almost-cames.

Mayim Bialik had made a pitch to light a torch as the representative of Diaspora Jewry in a Facebook post. Hundreds of her followers reportedly sent nominations to the Diaspora Affairs Ministry.

But when she was chosen, she discovered that she would not be able to attend due to the shooting schedule for the popular television series “The Big Bang Theory,” where she plays nerdy neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler.

For the second year in a row, the Ministerial Committee for Ceremonies and Symbols asked for nominations of a Diaspora Jew to light a torch. Now that Bialik has declined, there will be no Diaspora torch lighter.

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