Jewish ‘Stranger Things’ star Noah Schnapp visits Israel
The actor had his bar mitzvah there years earlier

(Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Turner)
A version of this article originally appeared on Kveller.
Jewish actor Noah Schnapp, who plays Will Byers on the Netflix hit “Stranger Things,” is currently in Israel, where he appears to have been hounded by some fans and paparazzi.
The actor, 18, shared a picture from the Western Wall on his Instagram stories, captioning it: “learning so much about my culture. So inspiring.”
Schnapp, whose parents are both Jewish, was seen wearing a kippah on his head and teffilfin wrapped on his arms. Schnapp was on a tour of the city organized by Aish Global, along with fashion influencer Moti Ankari and actress and producer Rachel Katsner.
Will from stranger things at the kotel pic.twitter.com/bJ9X5AiU5m
— jewboy media (@simmy_cohen) July 18, 2023
Schnapp, now 18, who has both Russian and Moroccan Jewish roots, was also seen enjoying Tel Aviv and bopping to a song by Israeli singer Mergui. “In love with this place,” he wrote in one Tel Aviv photo he posted in his stories, in which he’s overlooking the Mediterranean at dusk on a city balcony.
This wasn’t Schnapp’s first visit in Israel — the actor had his bar mitzvah there half a decade ago.
And while Schnapp’s character in “Stranger Things” is not Jewish (even if his mom is played by Winona Ryder, née Horowitz), he did play a young Jewish boy in the 2019 movie “Abe” and a young shepherd helping smuggle Jewish refugees out of Nazi-occupied France in the 2020 movie “Waiting For Anya.”
In “Abe,” Schnapp’s character blends the cuisines of his mother’s Jewish family and his father’s Palestinian parents to forge a truce between the feuding branches of his family tree.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
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.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
- 2
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 3
Fast Forward How Coke’s Passover recipe sparked an antisemitic conspiracy theory
- 4
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion This Nazi-era story shows why Trump won’t fix a terrifying deportation mistake
-
Opinion I operate a small Judaica business. Trump’s tariffs are going to squelch Jewish innovation.
-
Fast Forward Language apps are putting Hebrew school in teens’ back pockets. But do they work?
-
Books How a Jewish boy from Canterbury became a Zulu chieftain
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.