Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Ben and Jerry’s Excellent Holy Land Adventure

The Christmas-release underdog this year — in the ring with “American Hustle” and “Wolf of Wall Street” — is “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” in which Ben Stiller plays a man with a vivid imagination who embarks on the adventure of a lifetime.

In an interview with Parade to promote the movie, Stiller dished about a real-life adventure he took with dad Jerry Stiller as a teenager:

“My dad and I took a father-son bonding trip to Israel when I was about 16. We got a car and drove across the country. We went to Jerusalem and Masada. I’ve always loved history, so it was great exploring that part of the world.”

In between scuba diving in the Red Sea and watching Jerry rocket around on a Jet Ski going 40 mph, Ben admitted to engaging in some naughty business — behind the Kotel.

“I met a girl on that trip and we had a whirlwind romance,” he said. “Is it blasphemous to say we ended up making out near the Western Wall? It might be. But we did.”

Apparently, Jerry was supportive. Of course he was.

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.

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 editorial@forward.com, 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.

Exit mobile version