Steak and scotch: How Mandy Patinkin, Joshua Malina and other Jews are watching the presidential debate
Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody in New York City in February 2020. Photo by Getty Images
By Benyamin Cohen, Lauren MarkoeSeptember 10, 2024
The much hyped and likely only debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is just hours away — and American Jews are ready with Scotch, debate bingo cards and, in the case of actor Mandy Patinkin, kichel.
This is a high-stakes, 90-minute face-off in this compressed election cycle which will help determine the next leader of the free world. It starts at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
We asked some prominent Jewish Americans to share their watch plans with us.
West Wing actor Joshua Malina, who is across the Atlantic preparing to star in the European debut of the stage play What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, had plans to stay up for the debate.
But he got sick.
“I find myself in London, stricken with Covid, this erev debate,” he emailed, using the Hebrew word for “pre.” “So for me the question is more whether I’ll manage to stay up late enough to watch at two in the morning!” (And just in case you’re worried, yes, someone has brought him some soup.)
Israeli-American rapper Nissim Black will also have to skip the debate. He’ll be performing a concert at the State University of New York at Oneonta. He said his expectations for the debate are “low.”
“Hopefully I will have a nice big kosher steak after the concert and I’ll maybe watch the highlights,” he wrote, adding a reminder: As with all politics, “it’s important to remember that everything ultimately is in Hashem’s hands.”
Jeremy Ben-Ami, the leader of J Street, which calls itself the “political home of pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy Americans,” said he’ll be bringing his comfort food to nosh in front of the TV, something salty, like pretzels, “And a stiff whiskey drink (or two.)”
He’ll also be downloading at least two different debate bingo cards, and will watch with whomever in his family “can bear to watch with me.”
Mandy Patinkin, the actor and activist, has the most elaborate debate-watching plans.
He’s got a dream menu: Bubbe Celia’s pletzel, Aunt Lilian’s cinnamon sugar kichel and Philadelphia cream cheese hors d’oeuvres. Plus his mother’s famous tuna burger — the recipe for which, Patinkin helpfully points out, you can find in Doralee’s cookbook, for sale on Amazon.
He and his wife, Kathryn Grody, will be heading over to their son and daughter-in-law’s home in upstate New York. After the grandkids go to bed — the youngest is a mere three weeks old — they’ll head into the living room for the main event.
Also joining them will be Becky, their beloved Great Pyrenees-Labrador Retriever mix. “Becky loves debates!” Patinkin said proudly.
Patinkin traveled to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month where he interviewed as many people as he could and posted videos to his millions of followers across social media.
Asked if they have any debate night rituals, Patinkin suggested a game.
“Husbands and wives should have an agreement,” he said. “Anybody who interrupts the debate will have to clean up the whole house, all the food, all the dishes. We reserve our thoughts and comments for after the debate.”
Grody objected. “I hate games.”
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