Attention, Lovers of Schmidt: now is your chance to win a date (OK, a day) with Max Greenfield! The New Girl actor (and perennial Jewcy fave) is offering potential wives fans an opportunity hang out, work out, and visit the New Girl set in L.A. All you gotta do is make a donation to Chrysalis, a nonprofit dedicated to breaking the poverty cycle “by providing homeless and low-income individuals with a chance to rebuild their lives through employment,” and you’ll enter the draw to win.

The contest is being run through Omaze, which is sort of like Kickstarter for do-gooding celebrities. (Earlier this year, J.J. Abrams offered a fan a walk-on role in Star Wars: Episode VII; right now you can enter the draw to win a backstage hang with Bono, which sounds more like a punishment than a prize to me, but I guess it’s all for a good cause?) Anyway, there’s a variety of prizes for different levels of Schmidt-inspired giving, including SWEAT BANDS (yes), “We Built this Schmidty” apparel, and—for a cool $25,000—lunch with the man himself.

May the Schmidt be with you.

(Photo by Jason LaVeris/Getty)

Related: Network Jews: Schmidt from ‘New Girl’
Watch Schmidt Recite The Shema On Fox’s ‘New Girl’

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I think we can all admit that Fox’s New Girl hasn’t been all that funny this season. Sure, it was cool when Schmidt recited the Shema, but that was weeks ago. If you were considering bailing on the show altogether, reconsider, because Adam Brody is on his way, hopefully bringing with him some much needed comic relief. TV Line reports:

In an episode slated to shoot next week (and air in early 2014), Brody will play Berkley, a long-ago ex-boyfriend of Jess’ (Zooey Deschanel) who’s now a married stay-at-home dad. He’s open with his feelings and prides himself on having mastered the art of being an ex, which is probably why he and Jess (allegedly) remained the best of friends after their breakup.

This New Year’s Eve, when you’re quite obviously not enjoying your night, think of Brody and how he’s going to breathe Seth Cohen life back into a sitcom you once enjoyed.

Until then, watch a very depressed (and less entertaining) Schmidt get hit by Jess’ car:

Previous: Schmidt Goes Overboard With Jewiness on ‘New Girl’

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The Senate has reached a bipartisan fiscal deal, but we at Jewcy are doing what we do best— watching TV so that you don’t have to, leaving you time to catch up on the debt ceiling news.

What’s with the Jews taking over TV? Last week a yarmulka graced the small screen, meant to be ignored, which we over at Jewcy took as ample evidence that Jews were ubiquitous enough to be invisible—the sign of having truly made it in Hollywood. But on this week’s episode of New Girl, further evidence for our thesis—that being in with the Jews or in on the Jewish joke is a new kind of standard—came to light.

Tuesday night’s episode, “The Box,” could have been called “Jews and Money”, though the writers/producers/directors cleverly separated the two plot lines into “Jews” and “Money” and allowed Nick Miller (not a Jew) to handle the money end of things. But it’s the other plotline that interests us: after being discovered to be dating two women at once, Schmidt (Max Greenfield), the explicitly Jewish character, is worried that he isn’t a good person. We find him lying on a couch, earnestly running through a list of his symptoms (“I can’t sleep. My tweets have been extremely literal.”) to…camera pan out… his rabbi—ba-dum ching! While complaining to a rabbi like a therapist has become a staple of post-Coen brothers humor (“Were the girls Jewish?” the rabbi asks), what follows feels like new territory. The rabbi (Jon Lovitz) suggests that Schmidt seems “awfully concerned” with himself, and that he might try thinking of the needs of others. Lo and behold, on the street outside the synagogue, Schmidt saves a bike messenger from choking on a piece of gum.

“You saved my life, dude,” the bike messenger says, or something of that genre.

Schmidt, jubilant, stands up, and begins to recite, as Romy Zipken called it aptly, “the most boastful Shema you’ll ever hear.” And here’s the kicker: Schmidt gets the Shema all wrong. He mispronounces it— “Shema Yisroel Adonay EloCheiynu,” he proudly shouts, Jewing up one of the Jewiest utterances, second only to “Auf Mir Gesugt!” He also says it at the most inappropriate of all times. Shema is famously recited when someone is about to die, not when someone is saved, and surely, not when someone has just saved someone else. His pride, as Zipken points out, is another thing that makes the scene absurd. In other words, this is Shema camp, but astoundingly, the joke is on Schmidt. The writers (or perhaps this was Greenfield’s genius) must have assumed that their viewers would be canny to all the ways that Schmidt gets the Shema wrong. They are in on the joke; otherwise, the joke doesn’t work.

The next scene carries on the same vein. Schmidt encounters Nick in a bar, and greets him with the hilarious, “Nicholas! Gut Yontif! Are you well?” This greeting, like Schmidt’s Shema, is only funny if you are in the know. Even viewers who might not know what exactly Gut Yontif means, know that it is not an appropriate salutation on any old day in a bar. The writers are directing these jokes at a crowd who is in the know, who knows more about Jewish culture than Schmidt, the Jewish character. Schmidt importunes Nick to try giving “charity—or tzedakah as my people call it” and Nick begins to call tzedakah “tzaziki,” which is hilarious, again, because the word tzedakah is familiar enough to the viewers that they will hear the joke, recognize the infelicity. Imagine a similar joke being made with the word Kwanzaa. The resounding “ew” you just heard in your mind is the difference between having made it in American media and not having made it.

(Photo by Jason LaVeris/Getty)

The post Schmidt Goes Overboard With Jewiness on ‘New Girl’ appeared first on Jewcy.

On Tuesday night’s episode of New Girl, Schmidt (Max Greenfield) tries to redeem his recent bad behavior. After his concurrent relationships with Cece (Hannah Simone) and Elizabeth (Merritt Wever) come to a dramatic end, Schmidt works on himself, trying to prove to everyone around him that he’s a good person. He even saves a man’s life who was eating while riding a bike (badass). Schmidt successfully performs the Heimlich maneuver and as the biker rolls around on the ground grunting, Schmidt recites the most boastful, most wonderful Shema you’ll ever hear.

Watch the episode on Fox or Hulu and let us know what you think.

(Photo by Jason LaVeris/Getty)

The post Watch Schmidt Recite The Shema On Fox’s ‘New Girl’ appeared first on Jewcy.

Max Greenfield, the man behind New Girl’s Schmidt, stopped by Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night and, naturally, talked about his mother and his bar mitzvah.

He called his mother right away when he found out he got nominated for an Emmy, and her response was “You’re nominated against SAUL?” He imagines her spitting out her Nespresso coffee (“They just got a machine, they’re very excited about it”) when he listed the rest of the nominees.

Fallon also showed pictures from Greenfield’s Saturday Night Live-themed bar mitzvah, which we’ve heard about several times before. SNL people, just let the guy host already—please?

Previously: Network Jews: Schmidt from ‘New Girl’

(Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

The post Max Greenfield Tells Jimmy Fallon About His Mom and His Bar Mitzvah appeared first on Jewcy.

Rachel Berry moved to New York and we stopped watching, Annie Edison and the rest of Community was pushed to 2013 (though that didn’t stop us from getting our Alison Brie fill in other ways, and we’re still confused about how we feel about Shosh (but not Zosia, never Zosia) making 2012 very much the year of men for our Network Jews series (with sincere apologies to Hanna Rosin).

While there were many worthy candidates, here are the Top 5:

1. Schmidt:

Our first Network Jew is also our favorite. While we remain mixed about the merits of New Girl (even if it did lead to this) we can always rely on the real star of the show: Schmidt. He may have started out as a douchebag, but somewhere along the line he’s become, as Willa Paskin dubbed him, an “aspirational douchebag”—somehow going from disgusting to endearing.

Of course a major part of all this is his Jewishness. But perhaps the best part is that the actor who plays him, Max Greenfield, is up for anything, whether it’s dressing up as a Jewish Assassin or making in-character spin videos. Let’s just hope he stops guest–editing GOOP.

2. Saul Berenson:

Dov Friedman called Mandy Patinkin’s turn as the CIA Middle East division chief “the most accurate depiction of an American Jewish identity ever portrayed on television.” And for good reason. Homeland finished off it’s second season [spoiler alert] with Saul saying kaddish yet again as David Estes and a whole bunch of other characters were blown to smithereens. It isn’t just Claire Danes who thinks of challah (or was it holla?) when she sees our favorite bearded CIA agent. Just watch this video.

OK, we may be getting distracted, we’re talking about Berenson, not Patinkin, though it can be difficult to separate the two. Inspired by the Israeli show—and some would say superior—Hatufim, there’s at least one place where there’s no competition: the character of older, wiser intelligence officer. We only hope that in Season 3 they figure out some way to let him sing.

3. Max Blum:

Probably the most underrated show on this list, Happy Endings’ six-person ensemble is held together by Max Blum. I know, I know. We just talked about how great Schmidt is, and here we’re saying that Happy Endings’ anti-Schmidt is also our favorite. You know what, we can have our cake and eat it too … with Max, while listening to Mandona.

The pop culture-obsessed sarcastic slob of a gay best friend is everything you’d want in a pop-culture obsessed sarcastic slob of a gay best friend. Don’t just take our word for it, Emily Nussbaum thinks the man who brought us Boyz II Menorah is Amahzing too.

4. Eli Gold:

The Good Wife may have started out as an Eliot Sptizer-style, ripped from the headlines, procedural-style show, and it might still be that, but somehow it rises above. While there’s lots to say about the shows women, and even Jewcy favorite Josh Charles, the biggest surprise has to be Alan Cumming’s Jewish turn as Eli Gold.

As Abe Fried-Tanzer wrote, “It’s no coincidence that Gold has been compared to a real-life famous Jew with a similar profession. Rahm Emanuel, former Chief of Staff for President Obama … has quite a reputation for winning at all costs, and Gold has managed to earn that same status in what could easily have been (and originally was) merely a guest-starring role. Gold may reinforce the stereotype of Jews wanting all the power, but he’s definitely someone you’d want on your side.”

5. Ruxin:

There’s no getting around it: Nick Kroll’s Ruxin is a self-assured asshole. (In one episode, Ruxin defends a paint company whose cans explode by arguing that anyone buying such a cheap item should have “a reasonable expectation that that product will explode in your face.” “And, morally, you’re good with this?” asks his friend, Pete. “There was just one word in there that I am not familiar with,” Ruxin responds.) But, for Sala Levin, this is all the more reason to love him—and love him we do!

After all, “A man who coasts through life on his assimilated rudeness but maintains some iota of his people’s historical dread is, after all, every girl’s dream.”

The post The Best of Network Jews 2012 appeared first on Jewcy.

This might be the best thing to happen to New Girl since Zombie Woody Allen. Meet Muriel Rosenberg, the crotchety star of Old Girl, who leaves her dentures in Schmidt’s bathroom cup, makes Nick cover for her rent because she didn’t get her Social Security check, and asks Winston to bring over her hemorrhoid pillow.

We love you, Muriel. We also love Muriel’s friend Zelda Weiner, who ends up with a little Schmidt on her face:

Previously: Network Jews: Schmidt from New Girl

The post ‘New Girl’ Gets an Elderly Jewish Makeover in Parody Video ‘Old Girl’ appeared first on Jewcy.

Max Greenfield, the actor who plays Zooey Deschanel’s lovably high-strung, high-maintainence roommate Schmidt on New Girl, might have to throw some cash in Schmidt’s douche jar for this one. He chronicled his Emmy Awards prep (Schmidt got a well-deserved best supporting actor nod) for Gwyneth Paltrow’s uber-blog, goop, in a post called “A Man of Great Tom Ford-itude.”

Last time he did this to us, we weighed the pros and cons of Schmidt-by-goop. Conclusion: Real-life Schmidt, still endearing. If you want to maintain that image of Greenfield, stick to these key time-stamped moments:

6:30 a.m.: My daughter wakes me up. She has no clue what the Emmys are. She wants a waffle.

Disregard 12:15 p.m. entirely. I repeat: Disregard 12:15 p.m. Fine: Before we get into the limo I watch a YouTube video of Gwyneth Paltrow winning the Oscar for her performance in Shakespeare in Love to remind me what grace looks like. :)

1:30 p.m.: My limo driver Danny tells me that he’s never seen the show before but thinks that I will win. It’s nice to know that Danny has more faith in me than my mother.

5:09 p.m. – 8 p.m.: Blah, Blah, Homeland, Blah, Blah, I MEET BILL HADER! Blah, Blah, Blah the show ends.

12:20 a.m.: We return home. My wife and I reflect on what was an incredible evening and how lucky we were to have been a part of it.

Aw, Schmidt!

Max Greenfield’s Emmy Experience [goop] Previously: New Girl’s Max Greenfield Guest Edits Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Newsletter
Network Jews: Schmidt from New Girl

The post New Girl’s Max Greenfield Guest-Editing Gwyneth Paltrow’s Blog Goop Again appeared first on Jewcy.

• British singer Alex Clare talks sudden pop stardom and keeping kosher on tour.

• There’s a new American bakery in Tel Aviv that makes Mississippi Mud Pies and buttermilk biscuits.

• Looks like it might be another rough season for Israeli NBA player Omri Casspi.

• Are Orthodox rabbis right to be critical of iPhone use?

• Missed Ivanka Trump’s birthday yesterday? There’s still time to wish her a Yom Huledet Sameach.

• New Girl went all Zombie Woody Allen last night. Talk about adorkable:

The post Daily Jewce: Zombie Woody Allen on ‘New Girl,’ NOLA Cooking in Tel Aviv appeared first on Jewcy.

• Orthodox rapper Shyne is not happy about Rick Ross’ “Black Bar Mitzvah” mixtape.

• Comedian Gabe Liedman, even funny over email.

• Art Spiegelman’s Manhattan high school now has a very cool glass-paneled mural made by the Maus artist.

• Emory Dental School, not a big fan of the Jews.

• Broad City, the hilarious Internet brainchild of Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, is getting the pilot treatment on Comedy Central.

• New Girl, meet Jew Girl. What would Schmidt say?

The post Daily Jewce: Jewish ‘New Girl,’ Shyne Bashes Rick Ross’ ‘Black Bar Mitzvah’ appeared first on Jewcy.