Ignorant activists, fueled by hatred, are raging about Israeli actress Noa Cohen who was chosen to play the role of Mary in a new production for Netflix. In a thread of furious posts on X collated by user @koshercockney, one person described the casting as “so disrespectful” and “literally Palestinian erasure”. The internet was flooded with protests of an equally ridiculous nature.
Jesus wasn’t a Christian, Mary wasn’t a Catholic, and John wasn’t a Baptist, as the joke goes. They were all Jewish! But a shocking number of people don’t seem to get it.
Another joke using the same anachronistic irony is that Mary and Joseph couldn’t find a room at the inn because it was Christmas Eve! Christmas Eve, Christmas, and Christianity in general didn’t exist until long after Jesus Christ (the word Christ means Messiah in Greek).
Yes, it’s true, Mary, the mother of Jesus, was Jewish. More than that, she was Israeli. Even worse, she was a Zionist. Hear her heart when she got the news that she was going to give birth to the Jewish Messiah in her prayer honoring God:
“He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
(Luke 1:54-55)
The movie is currently being filmed out in the Judean desert, close to Jericho, and many of the actors are Israeli. There are also big names like Anthony Hopkins, who plays King Herod.
A friend who went to the set reported back that the women playing Mary mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene were profoundly affected by the roles they had been given to play. The main character, Noa Cohen, said it was bringing her light and hope in a season of darkness and heaviness that has been over the whole country since October 7. The man playing Jesus has also been moved by the significance of his role in the production that is making its way to Netflix. What a great opportunity for all these Israeli actors to learn more about Jesus!
Noa Cohen told Associated Press, “I am a Jewish woman, who’s playing a Jewish woman. I grew up in Israel, which is modern day Judea, which is where Mary grew up. So I feel very, very comfortable portraying her and I did that from a place of true sincerity in my heart.”
“People don’t have to like it, but I like this role very much and I’m very, very proud of it,” she added. Speaking about the controversy, she said, “I expected it but you know what, I feel like DJ [the director], our producer, and the rest of the team did the best they could to stay as authentic as possible and they just wanted to find the right person and the right cast for the job.”
She told Israeli news channel, Keshet 12, about the abuse and threats she had been receiving: “It was amazing to see how the responses started with ‘Zionist,’ then went to ‘Israeli,’ and finally ended up with straight-up ‘Jew … you Jewish whore’ — excuse the language. It was amazing to see how much of it was pure antisemitism and not anything else.”
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“The internet is having a melt down that a Jewish woman of the land 2,000 years ago is being played by a Jewish woman of the land today. Why? Because it reminds us of Jewish indigeneity before conquests & defeats their white colonizer narrative – a lie they’ll die to protect.” – Elicia Le Bon
Jesus was not a Palestinian, no matter how many people claim it in error. He born as a Jew in Judea, and so was his mother. Jesus is the Son of David from the tribe of Judah, and He will return to Jerusalem as the Lion of Judah. Mary was a Jewish Israelite who cared about God’s servant Israel, and who believed God had mercy on her nation, as he still does today.
Please pray for the Israeli actors and the whole team involved as they delve into the wonderful story of Jesus, and that they would realize it’s a very Jewish story that happened right here in Israel, and that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah promised in the Hebrew Scriptures. Let’s pray too for those who are spitting with rage, that they would come to know and love the God of Israel, and Jesus, King of the Jews. May God continue to help His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy, just as Mary prayed, to Abraham and to his offspring forever. Amen.
