Oscar winner Mikey Madison's very Jewish TV role

Mazel tov, Mikey!

Last night’s 97th Academy Awards had plenty of moments to schepp naches about (an adorable Yiddish expression for feeling pride) for us Jews. Especially us Jews who were watching on cable TV and didn’t have Hulu interrupt their viewing party just as the best actress was about to be announced!!!! asjkl;fjdasl;fjlk;dafld!!!!

Anyway, not even Hulu could stop the momentum for my girl Mikey Madison, who won the coveted Best Actress award, making it the first time in almost four decades that two Jews won Best Actor and Best Actress (still reeling over the fact that Adrien Brody, who called out antisemitism in his speech, threw his gum at his girlfriend before taking the stage, but OK).

If you’ve watched “Anora,” you know that Mikey deserves that award (OK, to be fair, I haven’t watched “The Substance” yet so I can’t be emphatic about whether or not Demi was snubbed, and I had spent the evening feeling fairly certain that the gorgeous Fernanda Torres would win for "I’m Still Here" as the New York Times predicted, because their predictions were mostly spot on). As Ani, Madison gave us a tour-de-force performance. That Brighton Beach accent? I’m obsessed! Those dancing skills? I’m impressed! That emotional rollercoaster? I felt like more of a dishrag after leaving “Anora” than after leaving Space Mountain! Also, I may or may not have acquired a crush for Yuri Borisov that I can’t seem to leave behind.

But since this is Jewish TV Club (I know I had you stressed for a moment that this was maybe Jewish movie club?!?!) I’d be remiss if I didn’t use this opportunity to share the fact that Mikey Madison also acquired an East Coast accent for another role of a girl from a very Jewish neighborhood earlier last year. I’m talking about her character in “Lady in the Lake,” Judith Weinstein.

I’ve written a lot about the 1960s Baltimore period drama that centers on Natalie Portman’s Jewish housewife turned hopeful journalist Maddie Schwartz and Moses Ingram’s ambitious mom Cleo Johnson and the stories of the Black and Jewish communities in the Maryland city, but I never got to give Judith her full due.

I’m obsessed with Judith. Sure, we don’t get to see enough of her on screen, but she is one of the best characters in the show. I think she and Ani could totally be friends, because she’s a little bit who I want to be when I grow up, a free-spirited child who’s not afraid to dream and ask for what she wants.

We first meet Judith as her dad’s pawn shop. Maddie has just left her home and is looking for a place to stay, hoping to rent Judith’s dad’s apartment and pawn her wedding ring. Judith takes her to see the apartment in the city’s Black neighborhood and offers to help her pawn the ring if she agrees to let her be her roommate — the only way for her to get out of the house without a man, she tells Maddy, is to move in with a respectable woman. It’s clear Judith wants more freedom in her life and it’s also clear she may be sporting a crush for the older woman’s Jacky Kennedy-type beauty.

When they go out searching for a missing 10-year-old in the woods, red-headed free-spirited Judith jokes about make-out spots and lights a joint. When a cop later makes an antisemitic comment, Judith doesn’t let it fly. Later, she asks Maddie to smoke a joint with her, and when she discovers Maddie’s diaries, she shares her love for Anais Nin, quoting that famous line, “Ordinary life does not interest me. I seek only the high moments,” from the noted (and maybe bisexual) diarist and author.

I love Judith. She’s a Jewish, queer badass who wears a Jewish star necklace out and proud and her hair loose and long, a stoner who says whatever she wants to say and becomes an incredible ally of Maddy’s. She’s just one in a line of great characters Madison has embodied, from Pamela Adlon’s daughter, Max, in “Better Things,” who also reminds me of Judith, to the maybe Jewish Ani. And I’m sure that there will be many more.

I’m definitely kvelling for her today.

What was your favorite moment of the Oscars? Let me know in the comments!