Jewish Roots Screenwriters Collective
Meet Our Inaugural Collective here.
Launched in January 2026, the Jewish Roots Screenwriters Collective is a new kind of writers lab, designed to help actively working film and TV writers generate stories, characters, and concepts that are rooted in Jewish wisdom, culture, and pride. In the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and the rise in global antisemitism, many writers have expressed a deep desire to bring their cultural identity and Jewish joy to the screen, and this collective will offer participants the tools to do so.
Research has shown that when audiences build parasocial relationships with characters from a minority group, it has a real-world impact on how that group is perceived. In this way, writing Jewish characters and stories that are grounded in Jewish values and portray the authentic, diverse, lived realities of our people is a bold act of Jewish self-determination and a mechanism to combat growing antisemitism.
The Jewish Roots Screenwriters Collective follows a unique idea generation and workshop model, in the vein of The Artists’ Way, but with Jewish values at the center. In each session, participants will engage with Jewish texts to gain a rich, nuanced understanding of our deeply held values, and follow writing prompts to generate story ideas and build 3-dimensional characters that integrate these values into dramatic writing. Additionally, participants will work on an existing project to shape a pitch for a Jewish story that they’ll present to financiers at the end of the program.
The goal of the collective is two-fold: to help participants strengthen their pitches for greenlight by infusing Jewish wisdom into their plots and characters, and to give participants the tools to proudly bring their personal Jewish POV to writers’ rooms and other creative avenues, where they can change the way Jews are represented on screen. We will also be building a supportive, creative community of writers and provide mechanisms to remain connected after the program ends.
This program is open to WGA members in good standing who are passionate about Jewish joy and pride and believe in the power of storytelling to make real-world change. No previous Jewish knowledge is required, and the texts will be nondenominational and made accessible to all.
At the culmination of the program, participants will have the opportunity to pitch a film or TV project to financiers, who may choose to option or purchase a script or fully finance production of a spec pilot or low-budget feature film. During the workshops, participants will have the opportunity to shape their pitches, and the final session will include a pitch workshop to ready the presentation for the funders.
We project the next cohort to run during 2027 and will post more details about the application process when they become available.
The Team
The writing workshops were taught by Emmy-nominated executive producer and writer Adam Gilad, whose work spans more than 20 TV shows and films. The Jewish Roots Screenwriters Collective is hosted by JITC Hollywood Bureau, the first and only narrative change organization dedicated to promoting authentic portrayals of Jews on screen. The Jewish Roots Writers Collective is generously funded by Judea Pictures.
The advisory panel for the program included Oscar-nominated producer J. Todd Harris (The Trial of the Chicago 7, Piranha 3D), Emmy-nominated writer and producer Nicole Yorkin (Hit and Run, The Killing), producer Heather Kadin (Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Scorpion), and former Sony Pictures executive and producer Jonathan Kadin (Moneyball, Bad Boys for Life, Cinderella). Guest speakers for the program included entertainment attorney Craig Emanuel.
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