All the Jewish TV Coming in May 2026

May may be Jewish American Heritage Month, but when it comes to new TV this month, there’s hardly any Jewish heritage to be spotted. That works out well for those of us playing TV catch up. You can, for example, start watching this season of “Friends and Neighbors,”  which is still airing this month on Apple TV and whose latest episode featured a surprising Passover seder with Amanda Peet. Or you can laugh your butts off at Robbie Hoffman in the excellent “Rooster” on HBO Max. And if you haven’t yet, you can enjoy the Jewish joke-laden season two of Netflix’s “Running Point,” where Max Greenfield’s Nice Jewish Doctor Lev Levison gets very protective over his bubbe.

But if you’re looking for something new and Jewish on TV, here are some shows with lovely Jewish stars and just a bit of Jewish representation to enjoy this month.

May 2: “Remarkably Bright Creatures” (Netflix)

What’s so Jewish about this adaptation of the bestselling Shelby Van Pelt book about a woman who works at an aquarium and befriends an octopus? Well, the protagonist’s name is Tova, an excellent Jewish name that means “good.” In the movie, Tova is played by Sally Field, and Cameron, the young coworker she befriends in the film is played by a Jewish actor — Lewis Pullman, son of actor Bill Pullman and Jewish dancer Tamara Hurwitz (Pullman and his father are set to star in the upcoming “Spaceballs” sequel). The film also stars another amazing Jewish actress, Sofia Black-D’Elia, who starred in the very Jewish series “Single Drunk Female.”

Judaism rating: 0.2/4 couch potato latkes

May 9: “All’s Fair In Love & Mahjong” (Hallmark)

Hallmark’s first mahjong romcom is coming, and people have feelings. The film about a divorced mom finding love and a calling in the beloved tile game has very little Asian representation (the game is a Chinese one) and no discernible Jewish representation (American mah jongg, which is the version played in the film, was largely standardized by Jewish women in Jewish spaces). We do know now that the movie will acknowledge mah jongg’s Chinese roots.

“Mah jongg is a critical part of Chinese culture, mah jongg means ‘sparrow,’ for the clicking noise,” actor Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe, who plays Shelley in the movie, says in the teaser Hallmark recently released.

Will we still be watching? We’ll have to let you know.

Judaism rating: Maybe -1/4 couch potato latkes? Though we really don’t know yet.

May 12, 14, 16: “Eurovision” 2026 (Peacock)

Israel is participating in this year’s Eurovision as planned, in spite of the fact that four countries have decided to pull out of the contest in protest. Noam Bettan, who will be competing in the first semi-final on May 12, is currently projected to take 6th place by Eurovision betting polls with his song “Michelle,” a trilingual bop about a man letting go of a toxic relationship. Here’s hoping all the drama stays in the songs and outside the contest itself.

Judaism rating: 0.25/4 couch potato latkes

May 15: “Couples Therapy” season 5 (Paramount+)

Israeli-American couples therapist Orna Guralnik is back with another season of her always illuminating show, in which she helps couples better understand each other in hopes of healing their relationships. In previous seasons, she’s had observant Jewish couples and Jewish author Boris Fishman on the show, who became one of last season’s “villains.” He wrote that the response to his appearance “almost wrecked my marriage.”

“I have a really intense group of couples, anxious, crazed, pushed to the edge,” Guralnik says of the new couples she’s treating this season.

Judaism rating: 2/4 couch potato latkes. It’s therapy, baby.

May 22: “Mating Season” (Netflix)

It’s not likely that this new show, from the makers of “Big Mouth,” will be as Jewish as its predecessor but it definitely looks as horny and unhinged, if not more. Created by Mark Levin, Jennifer Flackett, Andrew Goldberg and Nick Kroll, “Mating Season” stars two of the best Jewish comedians around — Kroll voices a raccoon named Ray and Zach Woods voices a bear named Josh.

Judaism rating: 1/4 couch potato latkes

May 22: “Ladies First” (Netflix)

We thought you should know that Sacha Baron Cohen is in a new film. Is there anything Jewish about this film? Not really, no, not as far as we can tell, but we’ll never not watch something with Sacha, and his character’s name is Damien Sachs, which could be a Jewish name? Maybe. Anyway, the film is an adaptation of a French movie and is about a ladies’ man who “gets a real wake-up call when he finds himself in a parallel world dominated by women where he goes head-to-head with a fiery female counterpart who makes things far more of a challenge for him.”

Judaism rating: 2/4 couch potato latkes, Sacha really makes even the least Jewish thing just that much more Jewish

May 25: “World War II With Tom Hanks” (History)

Tom Hanks narrates this show about the well-known and little-known history of World War II, including one episode, “Darkness Falls,” which follows how as Hitler’s reach expanded into Europe, his hateful rhetoric led to anti-Jewish persecution and ultimately, genocide.

Judaism rating: 1/4 couch potato latkes