Did you know there is a Jewish ghost on TV?
I mean that quite literally, thanks to a Jewish character in the 2021 CBS show “Ghosts,” which just launched its fourth season this month.
“Ghosts,” a remake of a British show by the same name, is about a couple, Samantha (Rose McIver, from one of my favorite creepy shows, “iZombie”) and Jay Arondekar (Utkarsh Ambudkar of “Pitch Perfect” fame), who inherits the haunted Woodstone manor full of a diverse crew of eight ghosts, which include a moody Viking (Devan Chandler Long), a Lenape man (Román Zaragoza), a Prohibition-era lounge singer (Danielle Pinnock) and a gay Continental Army officer (Brandon Scott Jones). The youngest of this loud and boisterous crew is Trevor Lefkowitz, a Jewish finance bro who died in 2000.
Lefkowitz, whose Jewishness is first established with his frequent use of Yiddishisms, feels like a bit of a bad Jewish stereotype: a money-hungry, lecherous asshole. He’s a womanizing, rich stockbroker, a Trump-esque Wharton graduate who is all about his fraternity brothers, bro-code and sexual innuendos. A nice Jewish boy, he is not, and a little too close to antisemitic money-hungry stereotypes, he does seem to be. Oh, and also, he wears no pants or underwear. But that doesn’t have anything to do with him being Jewish.
But then, in episode 14 of the first season of the show, we find out how Trevor actually lost his pants. Discovering he lost them in an altruistic act that broke all the codes he stood for, and seeing his random acts of kindness throughout the show’s season, he reveals himself to be a secret mensch. Lefkowitz is actually a total sweetheart. And he’s also played by a Jewish actor, Asher Grodman, so “Ghosts” gets bonus points for authentic casting. Grodman said the role is quite meaningful to him as a Jew, but he also loves that the character isn’t defined by his Judaism.
“You would describe Trevor in countless ways before you got to the point that he was Jewish. I think that’s also a thrill for my parents,” Grodman shared in an interview. The role is Grodman’s first major TV role; he’s previously acted in shows like “Law and Order: SVU” and in short films, and even directed his own very Jewish short, “The Train,” which starred legendary Jewish actor Eli Wallach as a Holocaust survivor.
In season two of “Ghosts,” we get to meet Trevor’s parents, Esther and Lenny, played by Groundlings and SNL veteran (and mother of “Hacks” star Hannah Einbinder) Larraine Newman and Chip Zien, who most recently played Rabbi Josef Roman Cycowski in Barry Manilow’s “Harmony.” Like Grodman, the Lefkowitzes come from New Jersey and they visit the hotel the Arondekars now run in the haunted mansion to throw a memorial for Trevor, whose remains have finally been discovered in a lake by the house. The episode, which is full of Mel Gibson and schmekel jokes and frequent uses of the word “punim,” is about Trevor trying to “Parent Trap” his divorced parents into falling back in love with each other. I won’t spoil how it goes, but I will say it involves ‘90s icon Tara Reid.
In season three, we meet Trevor’s less successful brother, Jeremy, played by Jon Glaser (who most recently starred in the very Jewish “Dinner With the Parents”). While trying to cheer him on, Trevor tells Jeremy that he’s “a smart kid. You learned your haftorah in like a week.” It’s a really endearing Jewish moment, and an example of what makes “Ghosts” so charming. It manages to balance the funny with the schmaltzy and earnestly heartwarming. Its showrunners, Joe Port and Joe Wiseman, have worked on a lot of shows with similar sensibilities, like “New Girl” and Robin Williams’ “The Crazy Ones.”
Lovers of pointing out Jews on TV will also recognize other familiar Jewish faces in “Ghosts,” including “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s” Caroline Aaron as a cat-ear-wearing ghost named Carol and Odessa A’zion as Stephanie, a teen ghost murdered by a chainsaw killer on her prom night.
Basically, “Ghosts” is a hoot and a half, a really fun paranormal show to watch during spooky season when the world feels a little too scary to watch something truly terrifying. And aside from an awkward use of Yiddish, it also offers some really unique and lovable ghostly Jewish representation.
