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Jonah Platt is an actor, podcast host and Jewish activist. (Photo courtesy of \u201cBeing Jewish With Jonah Platt\u201d)<\/p>\n Jonah Platt is an actor, podcast host and Jewish activist. (Photo courtesy of \u201cBeing Jewish With Jonah Platt\u201d)<\/p>\n
Jonah Platt is an actor who has appeared on Broadway and alongside some of the biggest names in entertainment, but nowadays, that part of his life isn\u2019t the focus.<\/p>\n
Today, he hosts a podcast called \u201cBeing Jewish with Jonah Platt,\u201d which is one of the most listened to Jewish podcasts in the country. Ahead of an event at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia at which he will record an episode live, he said that he feels like he has found his purpose.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very focused on my career and entertainment, and then Oct. 7 happened, and I found that I was spending all of my time and energy in this space trying to educate, trying to cut through the noise and explain things, trying to listen to people and help them understand and feel better, trying to put out fires in real life and online,\u201d Platt said. \u201cAfter a couple of months of that, I felt like I wanted to stop being so reactive and defensive and get back to my core Jewish advocacy, which has always been about empowerment and celebrating Jewish identity and making Jews feel good about being Jewish in a public way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Platt said that a podcast seemed like the right way to do this, and the public has agreed. \u201cBeing Jewish\u201d is well-received and has featured guests like Jewish comedian Tiffany Haddish, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and American-Israeli chef Michael Solomonov, who owns several acclaimed restaurants in Philadelphia and beyond.<\/p>\n
The event at the Weitzman will be a special one, and a full-circle moment for Platt, and not just because museum namesake Stuart Weitzman has been a guest on \u201cBeing Jewish.\u201d Platt graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and said he has spent more time in the City of Brotherly Love than any other, save for his native Los Angeles or New York, where the theater world is based.<\/p>\n
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Platt\u2019s podcast has garnered lots of attention from the Jewish community in recent years. (Photo courtesy of \u201cBeing Jewish With Jonah Platt\u201d and the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History)<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll have friends from college who will come to the event, and it\u2019ll be great to be walking those familiar streets,\u201d Platt said. \u201cAny excuse to go to Philly is a good one for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The live taping of \u201cBeing Jewish with Jonah Platt\u201d will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 17, with the doors opening at 6 p.m. and the event starting at 7 p.m. General admission costs $40, or $35 for museum members. There are VIP tickets that include a meet and greet for $60, as well. The event will feature guests, although those guests haven\u2019t been announced yet.<\/p>\n
The podcast has seen steady growth, with the metrics indicating that it is on the up-and-up, Platt said. There are now several members of the team behind \u201cBeing Jewish,\u201d as opposed to when it was a one-man operation in the beginning. Many of these folks were listeners who just reached out to Platt and said they wanted to be a part of the podcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I love the most is the way that it\u2019s helping people. I get so much feedback from folks as it continues, and it has really become a sort of home for a lot of people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinding and meeting new people in new communities and hearing their voices is very fulfilling and inspiring to me, and that\u2019s what keeps me doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Listeners run the entire spectrum of Jewish life. Platt has heard from Orthodox rabbis in Israel who love the show, as well as one lone Jew in the Midwest who just found out their father was Jewish a few years ago and wants to embrace the culture. He hears from LGBTQIA Jews, as well as non-Jews who want to better understand Jewish life. For Platt, celebrating Jewish joy, especially right now, is essential.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy show\u2019s about how much we love being Jewish and how great being Jewish is, and how it doesn\u2019t just need to be about current events or what other people think of us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In mid-September when the event is held, Platt is excited to return to Philadelphia and feel the energy of a live crowd. He reflected on his time in the city as a student, remarking that it serves as a model for what many Jews hope to get out of life in the United States, or anywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was normal [to be Jewish]. The Jewish community, as any community would hope to be, was just purely integrated into this tapestry of all the different communities and kinds of people at Penn,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were all just one big student body, and that\u2019s what I think we should hope for.\u201d<\/p>\n