Your Daily Spiel For May 9

Netta Barzilai’s hit song Toy placed Israel in the finals of the Eurovision 2018 song contest. The finals will be in Lisbon on Saturday night. Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland and Ireland also advanced onto the finals. This is Israel’s fourth consecutive time qualifying.

 

The Amazon television series Transparent has been officially cancelled after actor Jeffrey Tambor was fired for sexual harassment allegations made by two women associated with the production. The series about a Jewish transgender matriarch living in Los Angeles will end after its fifth season, scheduled to premiere on May 29.

Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine Human Rights Watch director, was found supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel on Wednesday. He has been ordered to leave the country within the next 14 days.

In Jessica Jones, the new Marvel Netflix series, societal exclusion is a reoccurring theme. To no surprise, the series’ creator, Melissa Rosenberg, is Jewish. The show never discusses Judaism, but it contains an immensity of Jewish themes, such as moral ambiguity and prejudice.