Expanding the Palette of Jewish Representation – One Pirate at a Time

Arnon Z. Shorr, filmmaker, screenwriter and author

Wednesday, April 15, 2026, 5:30 PM EST 

Join the event via YouTube Live: https://youtube.com/live/s1_B_jJlGvw?feature=share 

About the Topic 

When you imagine a typical Jewish character from film or television, what comes to mind? An opaque Hassidic side-character? A secular New Yorker with eastern European roots and anxiety issues? A doctor? A lawyer? An entertainment industry type? Where are all the other types of Jews? In this dynamic multimedia conversation, filmmaker and author Arnon Z. Shorr will discuss how he found himself telling Jewish stories, and his efforts, on the screen and on the page, to push past the stereotypes that have defined Jewish representation in popular entertainment.  

This event features a special online screening of the short film The Pirate Captain Toledano.  

About the Speaker 

Arnon Z. Shorr is a filmmaker and author of fantastical stories that embrace the peculiar, where encounters with the strange reveal who we are. His screenplays include a Page finalist and a Launch Pad top-50. And his swashbuckling graphic novel, José and the Pirate Captain Toledano, is an expansion of his award-winning short film about Jewish pirates in the 16th century Caribbean. He is a 2024 Fellow of the JWI Screenwriters Lab, a 2024-25 Fellow of the PJ Library Sephardic Stories Initiative, and an MFA candidate in the inaugural cohort of the groundbreaking creative writing program at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He lives in Massachusetts. 

Event co-sponsor 

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