Max Greenfield is known for a few iconic Jewish roles: Schmidt in “New Girl,” Yoshi Schwooper in “Long Story Short,” as himself miming the blowing of the shofar on the James Corden show in 2022, and now as Ted Birenbaum, the Jewish dad of the Birenbaum family in the just-released film “Don’t Say Good Luck” (which, as of press time, is the number two movie on Netflix).
In “Don’t Say Good Luck,” Greenfield worked with producer Adam Sandler and co-star Jon Lovitz, two former cast members of Saturday Night Live — which just so happens to have been the theme of Greenfield’s bar mitzvah.
In August of 2025, on the red carpet for his last Netflix project “Long Story Short,” Variety asked Greenfield what his bar mitzvah was like. “It was SNL themed,” Greenfield answered. “Best moments of my life. You would have to go sit at the David Spade table, or the Victoria Jackson table, the Ellen Cleghorne table. It was a great experience. I was thinking about it recently. I just did this Adam Sandler movie. And to be with Adam and Lovitz—”
“Did you tell them that they were tables at your bar mitzvah?” the Variety interviewer interjects.
“I think I told Lovitz, and he was like,” — here Greenfield breaks into a pretty decent Jon Lovitz impression — “You’re Jewish?”
This interaction might have happened while filming “Don’t Say Good Luck,” but it could have been in 2013, when Lovitz appeared on a few episodes of “New Girl” as a side character named Rabbi Feiglin. One scene literally takes place at a bar mitzvah, where Greenfield and Lovitz’s characters get into it as Schmidt shamelessly tries to hook up with the rabbi’s daughter.
It was during “New Girl”’s run that Greenfield shared his bar mitzvah theme. In the first season of the show, Schmidt reveals that his [fictional] bar mitzvah theme was “sports jams,” prompting Greenfield to share his own theme on Twitter. After that, his bar mitzvah was frequent late night talk show and interview fodder. In 2012, he talked to Jimmy Kimmel about it, right after Kimmel told Greenfield he was “this generation’s Fonzie.”
“It was right toward the end of Dennis Miller’s run [on SNL],” Greenfield tells Kimmel, explaining when his bar mitzvah took place. “It was Dana Carvey, but [the bar mitzvah] was big on Farley and Sandler and Spade. The cake was a Blues Brothers cake. You find out what table you’re at and you’d be like, ‘Oh, I’m at the David Spade table.’”
“Does David Spade have any idea he was featured so prominently at your bar mitzvah?” Kimmel asks.
“I’d be happy to tell him,” says Max.
He also tells Kimmel what he wore: a tan suit. “I had seen Will Smith on ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ — at the time, he had worn a tan suit on the show, and I thought, ‘I mean, we’re just about the same dude,’ so I asked my parents — ‘I gotta wear a tan suit for this.’”
In 2013, Greenfield shared the story again on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,” and that time, he brought photos.
Screenshot via Tumblr
And in 2019, he shared my personal favorite detail on Justin Long’s podcast: The shirt he gave away as swag at his bar mitzvah had a version of the SNL logo, and on the back, in an homage to the SNL opening credits, it said “Featuring:” and then listed everyone invited.
On that same podcast, Greenfield said “[Saturday Night Live] was just shifting into Norm MacDonald doing [Weekend] Update. Young Sandler and Spade. I remember watching that show and just being like, ‘This is everything. I watched that show as if these guys were the Avengers.’”
In press for “Don’t Say Good Luck,” Greenfield has spoken about how much being part of the film has meant to him. The fact that he once looked up to Adam Sandler so much that he was featured in his bar mitzvah adds a “besheret” touch to the whole story.
New Year, More Kveller. A few dollars keeps Kveller joyfully, honestly free.
