In a bit of especially dark humor, the Wednesday night episode of the comedy show, Eretz Nehederet, on Keshet’s Channel 12 featured a parody of the popular children’s cartoon, Bluey, renamed Jewey, to reference the murders of 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach in Sydney earlier in the week.
The cartoon opened as usual, with the familiar image of Mom, followed by Dad, only he was dressed in a version of a Nazi uniform. Next up was little sister, Bingo, and in this version, she had a red dot on her palm, wore a keffiyeh, and carried a Palestinian flag.
Finally, there was Jewey, the usual image of the beloved blue dog, but with a blue-and-white kippah on her head and holding a dreidel. As she danced to the familiar music, bullets started to whiz by, and she ran for her life.
The Bluey segment was introduced by Eran Zarahovitsh playing Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who told Jews in Aussie-accented Hebrew that they had nothing to fear Down Under, then advised them to cover all Jewish religious symbols with Christian ones.
'Beautiful Six' celebrated Hanukkah in Hamas captivity
In the show’s more somber opening, host Eyal Kitzis spoke about the murders in Sydney and the video aired on the program, Uvda, last week showing six hostages, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, and Alexander Lobanov, celebrating Hanukkah in December 2023 under the gaze of their terrorist captors, who murdered them about 10 months later.
The cast of Eretz Nehederet was joined by Rabbi Elhanan Danino, Ori’s father, as he recited the Hanukkah blessing and lit a menorah made out of cups to resemble the one the six hostages lit in captivity.
Before he lit the candles, he spoke about how this group of hostages, whom Goldberg-Polin’s mother, Rachel, dubbed “the beautiful six,” were from disparate religious and cultural backgrounds, but came together to celebrate the holiday.
“They united under one identity, with one hope, to light the candles and to look at the light and to pray and wish for hope… with togetherness and connection,” he said.
The rabbi and the cast sang a traditional Hanukkah song together, and it felt like the right way to acknowledge the very dark reality before, somehow, finding a way to get people to laugh.