By Nate Bloom
Contributing Columnist
Finding Roots, Black & Jewish, Wiesel, Yarrow
Professor Henry Louis Gates will be getting a lot of Jewish eyeballs soon. (I will explain). He’s famous as the host of “Finding Your Roots,” the celebrity ancestry program on PBS. The 12th season of “Roots” began on Tuesday, January 6.
There are 10 episodes each season. Four episodes in January; four more will premiere in February; and then the show takes a hiatus in March. Then there will be two more episodes in April. All episodes premiere on a Tuesday, 8 p.m. (You can catch up on episodes on the PBS app/website).
There will be two Jewish celebs this season — Actress LIZZY CAPLAN, 43, and billionaire BARRY DILLER, 83.
Caplan will appear in the Jan. 27 episode. Caplan was born in Los Angeles. Her father was a lawyer and her mother was a political aide. Her parents belonged to a Reform synagogue and she had a bat mitzvah.
Like SETH ROGEN and JASON SEGAL, she started her career as a cast member of the short-lived TV comedy “Freaks and Greeks” (2000). She was also a co-star in “Masters of Sex” (2013–2016), a hit Showtime series about the famous Dr. Williams Masters and (sex) researcher Virginia Johnson. Caplan got an Emmy nomination for playing Johnson.
She had a co-starring role in “Fleishman is in Trouble” (2022), an acclaimed limited series about a Jewish doctor (JESSE EISENBERG). Caplan played a (Jewish) close friend of Dr. Fleishman. Caplan got an Emmy nomination for this role.
Barry Diller will be on “Roots” on April 14, 2026. I’ll give a lot of “stuff” on Diller in an April column.
Here’s the ‘biggie’ news. Gates is also the host of another PBS series. It’s a new show entitled “Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History.”
Here’s part of PBS’ publicity release: “[It’s] a four-part docuseries that explores the complex relationship between Black Americans and Jewish Americans — forged in shared struggle, tested by division.”
The first episode premieres on Feb. 3, 2026 (Tuesday at 9 p.m.) The remaining three episodes will premiere on the following Tuesdays (2/10; 2/17; 2/24).
I’ll briefly mention “Black and Jewish” in my next column to alert readers who missed this column and, perhaps, PBS will release more info in the next week.
A documentary entitled “Wiesel: Soul on Fire” premieres on the PBS program, “American Masters,” on Tuesday, Jan. 27, at 9 p.m. (Right after “Finding Roots”). There are also repeat showings on TV, and you can watch it for free on the PBS app.
The PBS description says this: ELIE WIESEL, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize-winning author of “Night.” After his internment at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp and liberation from Buchenwald, Wiesel became a journalist in France before immigrating to America. Over the course of his life, Wiesel fought the ‘sin of indifference’ by writing, teaching, speaking truth to power and championing for human rights.”
There is more about Wiesel posted on the PBS “American Masters” online pages.
This year, like past years, I will cover celebrity Jews who died in the past year. I limit this list to persons who have a strong tie-in to entertainment. I’ll cover these people (about 16) in upcoming columns. Here’s one:
PETER YARROW (1938–2025). He’s best known as a member of Peter, Paul, and Mary, the very popular folk music trio. His parents were immigrants who settled in New York City. They were well-educated and financially stable. Sadly, they split when Peter was five (1943).
Peter went to Cornell (1956), an Ivy League school. He began his studies in physics and then switched to psychology. But by the time he got his degree, he just wanted to pursue folk music — which he did in Greenwich Village — and the rest is history.
Peter was not very religious. However, he told the “Jerusalem Post” in 1982: “Jewishness means to live according to justice and that’s a burden, it means we have to form our own set of morality and values and live by them.”
Songs he wrote include “Puff, the Magic Dragon” (1963) and “Light One Candle”. LEONARD LIPTON, a Cornell friend of Peter, wrote a poem — that became the lyrics of the “Puff” song. (Peter wrote the music).
“Puff” was a huge hit. The royalties allowed Lipton, a physics grad and an engineer, to work at what he wanted and he invented a 3D system used in theaters today.
“Light One Candle” (1982), a song written by Yarrow (words and music), has become a very popular Hanukkah song.
