Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Israel News

A Swank Passover

While Jews everywhere are dipping their pinkies in kosher wine and chanting the names of the plagues that befell the Pharaoh and his people, multiplexes nationwide will be offering Hollywood’s latest twist on the story. “The Reaping,” starring Hilary Swank as a skeptic investigating an outbreak of plagues in a small Southern town, opens March 30 — three days before the first night of Passover.

Swank’s character, Katherine Winter, is a former Christian missionary who renounces her faith after the death of her family and devotes her life to scientifically disproving religious phenomena. When she arrives in Haven, La., to find a river of blood and a sky full of locusts, however, her atheism is put to the test.

Synchronicity with Passover notwithstanding, “The Reaping” has a decidedly Christian bent; its trailer (available at thereapingmovie.warnerbros.com) includes such images as a dangling cross pendant, a priest and a straw-hat wearing man, who, in a Southern drawl, says menacingly, “I understand you’re not much of a Bible reader… some folks just don’t want to go to heaven.” The movie’s tagline: “Evil has a savior.”

This is not the first time that Tinseltown has rolled out a new release with ties to what Jews are reading; “Babel,” starring Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt, was released immediately before the Sabbath when the Torah portion containing the story of the Tower of Babel was read. Although at the time, Paramount executives told the Forward that the release date was a coincidence, the film’s recent nomination for a best picture Oscar would seem to indicate that they might have been on to something.

As for “The Reaping,” Warner Bros. publicist Peter Dangerfield told the Forward that the company uses “many criteria to determine all release dates, and this was the best date for this particular film. Proximity to Passover was certainly noted, but it is not the sole reason for the date.”

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.