Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Jewish activist and IfNotNow co-founder is on a ‘Jeopardy!’ winning streak

(JTA) — Activists on the Jewish left celebrated over the weekend as Emma Saltzberg, a Jewish activist who helped co-found the Jewish anti-occupation group IfNotNow, extended a “Jeopardy!” winning streak that has some comparing her to the game show’s most successful contestants.

Saltzberg has taken the lead for three episodes in a row and currently has a total of $54,199 in prize money. Saltzberg, a consultant who lives in Brooklyn, is a senior fellow at Data for Progress, a progressive think tank, according to her Twitter bio.

Several progressive Jewish organizations celebrated Saltzberg’s wins on social media Saturday.

Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, a social justice organization based in Brooklyn, even broke with its usual policy of refraining from posting to social media on Shabbat to celebrate Saltzberg.


Get the Forward delivered to your inbox. Sign up here to receive our essential morning briefing of American Jewish news and conversation, the afternoon’s top headlines and best reads, and a weekly letter from our editor-in-chief.


The left-wing magazine Jewish Currents also celebrated Saltzberg, who has contributed to the magazine.

Saltzberg caught the eye of more than just Jewish viewers. A five-time winner on the show, Tyler Rhode, tweeted about her Friday evening, “The #Jeopardy champ is legit. One to watch. ???.” The robust fan community responded with agreement, some offering analyses of Saltzberg performance at the buzzer and correct-answer ratio that they said put her in the same league as Amy Schneider, the woman who recently won 40 consecutive games.

Saltzberg’s streak — which included coming up with the Yiddish word “bupkis” last week — comes amid a string of notable Jewish appearances on the beloved game show. In December, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl appeared as a visual clue to help contestants come up with the question, “What is rabbi?”

Earlier that month, the show devoted an entire category to Yiddish theater, and cholent, the slow-cooked Shabbat stew, was featured in a clue near the beginning of the season. Mayim Bialik, the Jewish actor who is sharing hosting duties while the show seeks a permanent replacement for longtime host Alex Trebek, explained the traditional Jewish food to the stumped contestants. This week, Bialik will host the show’s college tournament, which is airing in addition to the regular episodes.

Saltzberg will face off Monday night against a nursing student from North Carolina and a social worker from Louisiana.

The post Jewish activist and IfNotNow co-founder is on a ‘Jeopardy!’ winning streak appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

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.