Hollywood meets Bnei Brak: Michael Rapaport plays haredi billionaire in 'Matchmaking 3'

Jerusalem Post/PodcastAn Iranian singer and Yuval Raphael duet in Haifa, Fauda tops the charts in Lebanon, Sorkin takes on Zuckerberg, and Michael Rapaport goes ultra-Orthodox in a brand new Israeli film.Follow us on Google Hollywood meets Bnei Brak: Michael Rapaport plays haredi billionaire in 'Matchmaking 3'OCTOBER 9, 2026 10:02Updated: OCTOBER 9, 2026 10:03After a few weeks away, The Jerusalem Playlist returns with an episode that crosses more borders than an IDF commando unit in Fauda, and fittingly, it starts with the iconic Israeli series itself.Jerusalem Post culture correspondent Hannah Brown, just back from the 42nd Haifa International Film Festival, explains to social media manager Ezra Taylor how the new season follows Israeli operatives hunting Hamas terrorists across Europe. Taking place two years after the October 7 massacre, the season landed in Netflix's top ten in 42 countries and hit number one in only two: Israel and Lebanon.Then comes the story everyone at the festival was talking about. At the opening ceremony, Iranian singer Gola, now living in exile in Britain, joined Yuval Raphael, Israel's 2025 Eurovision entrant, for a duet of "New Day Will Rise" in English, French, Hebrew and Farsi, ending in an embrace that left the room on its feet, only months after the two countries were at war. In a conversation with Brown the next day, the singer described starting each school day as a child chanting "Death to America, death to Israel," and the restrictions that drove her to leave Iran for good. You'll hear her, in her own words, explain why she believes peace is possible only if people come together regardless of religion or country.What's new in the film world?From a woman who fought to be heard, the conversation turns to a platform where everyone is heard, and not always for the better. Aaron Sorkin's The Social Reckoning, the follow-up to The Social Network, trades the original's tagline about making a few enemies for a much darker one: "We're way past making friends."Brown breaks down how the film centers on whistleblower Frances Haugen and Mark Zuckerberg's preparation for congressional testimony, with Jeremy Strong of Succession playing a Zuckerberg who is far colder and more calculating than Jesse Eisenberg's awkward version in the first film. The hosts ask whether this is social media's "tobacco" moment, a comparison Sorkin himself has drawn, and Brown shares the story of how a social media post by Sorkin's agent praising Hamas after October 7 led the filmmaker to fire her.The episode closes on a lighter note with Matchmaking 3, the latest in Israel's hit comedy franchise about dating in the ultra-Orthodox world. This time, a broke but determined matchmaker chases a $100,000 reward offered by an American billionaire, played by Michael Rapaport in his first Israeli film role, to find a husband for his daughter.Hannah reveals the twist that turns the matchmaker into a contender himself, and the Times Square scene that has audiences laughing, inspired by a real-life mugging by a costumed character. It's a movie drawing even ultra-Orthodox crowds into Jerusalem theaters.Follow us on Google