Jeff Goldblum Performs a Bris, On a Cigarette
First it was lox, now it’s … cigarettes?
Tobacco sticks are the latest unassuming product to face kashrut questions, after a Dutch study found that pig hemoglobin was being used in some cigarette filters. The issue hasn’t captured the attention of the rabbinic authorities just yet, and it might not now that actor and rabbi-in-disguise Jeff Goldblum has stepped in to quell the situation. Goldblum, famous for roles in “Jurassic Park,” “Independence Day” and “The Fly,” performed a mock bris on a Marlboro on “The Colbert Report” last week. The filter is kind of the like the foreskin, right?
Introduced as Rabbi Jeffrey Goldblum, the actor, appears onstage in hybrid Conservative/Orthodox garb, with an oversize tallis draped over a bekishe. Goldblum hovers over the Marlboro with a pair of scissors and recites — in his best nasally rabbi voice — the candle-lighting blessing, commanding us to kindle Virginia Slims and Chesterfield Kings.
Host Stephen Cobert added that swine-laden cigarette filters can cause “a potentially dangerous situation. If Jews and Muslims have to quit smoking, they might get edgier around each other.”
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.
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 the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
