WATCH: Newman From ‘Seinfeld’ Returns to TV — in Israeli Ikea Ad

Image by YouTube

By Josefin Dolsten September 6, 2016

A beloved “Seinfeld” character made an unlikely reprise: in an Israeli commercial for the furniture giant Ikea.

In a short video for Ikea’s 2017 catalogue, Wayne Knight stars once again as Newman, Jerry Seinfeld’s grumpy mailman neighbor and sometimes nemesis.

Shot in Israel, the video features Knight lamenting the lack of respect for postal workers in modern society, as he deals with challenges on his delivery route, including having to resort to various schemes to hand out a piece of mail — and still not succeeding.

“But there is one day that makes me feel special, like Valentine’s Day for the florist, like the day after Passover for the baker,” gushes Knight.

That is the day the yearly Ikea catalogue arrives. As a group of excited Israelis gather around him, Knight, who speaks in English throughout the commercial, says a sentence that contains a single word in Hebrew: My life is tutim (strawberries). To Knight’s dismay, one of people gathered around him offers him grapes, not strawberries.

The line may be referring to Israeli artist Hanan Ben Ari’s hit song, “Our Lives Are Strawberries,” in which the singer complains about the difficulties of living in the Jewish state, while also acknowledging the positives.

Watch the commercial here:

Josefin Dolsten is a New York-based writer who has reported for the Forward, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Times of Israel and other Jewish publications. She currently works as an account director at Fenton Communications, supporting organizations that work to advance racial justice, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive rights and more. Dolsten earned her B.A. in government from Cornell University and her M.A. in comparative religion and Jewish studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO