Zach Braff’s Purim Message to Y.U.

By Anne Cohen February 13, 2014

Wait, is it Purim already?

Not quite yet, but Zach Braff has decided to start spieling early. The “Scrubs” and “Garden State” actor is launching the season of fun with a parody of an ad promoting Yeshiva University.

Braff seems to be turning to his Jewish roots for inspiration lately. His next film, “Wish I Was Here,” tells the story of a father who has to pull his kids out of day school after his ailing father (Mandy Patinkin) announces he can no longer pay for it. The movie, reportedly inspired by Braff’s own “very strong Conservative/Orthodox upbringing,” also stars fellow tribe-members Kate Hudson and Josh Gad.

Anne Cohen was the Forward’s deputy digital media editor. When she’s not looking for the secret Jewish history of Voodoo in New Orleans, or making lists about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she writes for The Assimilator. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with an M.S. magazine concentration in 2012.

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.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re in the middle of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO