October 23, 2026
I was not among the early watchers of “Nobody Wants This” on Netflix, though I did love the first season of the show. In my opinion, the second season left something to be desired. For those unfamiliar, the hit Netflix show features Rabbi Noah Roklov, a single rabbi living in Los Angeles, who meets and falls in love with Joanne Williams, a podcaster who focuses on edgy topics dealing with relationships. Joanne is not Jewish, and we see how Rabbi Roklov navigates this relationship on both a personal and professional situation. The show also stars Jackie Tohn, a wonderful Jewish comedian whom I first met in preschool and went to high school with. Season 3 was released on Netflix earlier this week, and I don’t know that I can bring myself to watch.
Adam Brody, the actor who plays Rabbi Roklov, was recently asked by GQ about the conflict between Israel and Hamas. He said, “Put me down as thinking it’s a genocide.” I am wrestling with watching because when I turn to entertainment, I want to be able to escape and enjoy it. Watching every episode, knowing he has shared these words publicly, would bring the tensions I live with every day right in front of my face.
In all the time since October 7, I am not sure I have written about these fabricated charges against Israel. Genocide is a legal term that only came into existence following the Holocaust. It was created by Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin to describe the Nazi policies that sought to exterminate the Jewish people from the face of the earth. The term itself is now a legal term that requires the intent to destroy an entire people. Charges of genocide against Israel fit classical forms of antisemitism such as the blood libel or charging Jews with the worst evils a society can commit. In the 13 century, a Christian baby was found dead around Passover. Jews were blamed for his death and charged with using his blood to make matzah. Such charges continued throughout the centuries and led to pogroms and other violence against Jews. There was never any evidence to prove these false charges in what has come to be known as blood libel. The charges of genocide have led to violence against Jews today. We have seen this in attacks on synagogues as well as against individuals.
So many of us hear these claims and we might not have information at our disposal to respond. As I have shared numerous times, the loss of innocent life is deeply tragic, and we continue to be saddened by any innocent lives lost throughout the history of this ongoing conflict. To call this a genocide, however, is to put Israel in the same light as the Nazis, the Turks who perpetrated the Armenian genocide, and the Hutu extremists who perpetrated the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsis in which 800,000 Tutsis were killed in three months. It also takes away our status as victims of a genocide and denies us our own story, calling us perpetrators of such evil as well. The facts just don’t add up. As we look at the facts, no genocidal group would give polio vaccines to a group it was trying to annihilate; over a million were administered by Israel during the war. No genocidal group would drop fliers or make phone calls trying to protect innocent civilians from military operations; Israel did that repeatedly. No genocidal group would bring in over two million tons of aid.
Prior to October 2023, there were no Israeli military forces in the Gaza Strip. Israel did, and still does, maintain a military presence in the West Bank, but there have been no attempts to commit mass murder there. Earlier this week, Micha Danzig offered a close analysis in The Jerusalem Post of the number of deaths in Gaza. When you read this data, a genocide just doesn’t add up.
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Palestinian, former Gaza resident, and author of the book Hamas and Its Two Million Hostages, recently told Haaretz, “Genocide doesn’t happen because everyone says it was a genocide. Who even cares what Amnesty or Human Rights Watch say? They’re not genocide researchers. True, there are genocide historians like Omer Bartov who argue that there was a genocide, but they’re also not legal experts, and it’s the job of legal experts to decide whether it’s genocide or not. There are those who openly want to expand the definition of genocide so that what happened in Gaza fits this definition. The international courts in The Hague have not yet found conclusive proof or ruled that there was genocide.” The claims of genocide began before the IDF entered Gaza and there were even claims of genocide before Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
So many people have come to believe this fabricated claim to be true because of what psychologists refer to as the Illusory Truth Effect. Dara Horn writes about this in her newest book. This effect was first established in 1977 after a series of psychological studies. It reflects the notion that an idea becomes a truth, whether it is plausible or not, whether it is true or not, after it is repeated frequently. According to Psychology Today, cognitive linguist George Lakoff suggests that the way to counter the Illusory Truth Effect is through what is known as a truth sandwich. You begin by mentioning the truth, briefly mentioning the falsehood, and then describe the correct information.
We have an incredible uphill battle to undo this falsehood. It has been repeated countless times, including in what many deem to be trustworthy sources.
Whether I can move past my own concerns about actors who feel they have to weigh in on issues they do not fully understand or have expertise in remains to be seen. I should add, I am not a legal scholar in this area either, but the historical claims of blood libel mirror what we are seeing today too closely. It is my hope that those who have wondered how they might counter these false claims now have a few pieces of information to do so.
As we think about Israel this week, we know Israelis will go to the polls this Tuesday. As they envision the future of the Jewish homeland, may they work towards a vision that helps build Israel as a Jewish and democratic state while upholding its founding vision as a beacon of peace and a light unto the nations.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Rick Kellner