The Breakfast Club w/ Rachel Israel
Daniel and Harry are stuck in detention with Rachel Israel, director of The Floaters, so they figured they might as well record a podcast about the 1985 film The Breakfast Club, written and directed by John Hughes.
Together, they revisit the iconic coming-of-age classic and its five high-school stereotypes—the brain, the athlete, the basket case, the princess, and the criminal—and ask whether those labels really tell us anything about who we are. They discuss the film's surprisingly earnest exploration of identity, friendship, family and parental pressure, why its 95-minute running time feels almost radical today, and how The Breakfast Club paved the way for generations of teen movies to come.
They dig into the film's unexpected Jewish connections—from synchronized dancing and Jewish joy to the idea of detention as a kind of Shabbat or synagogue experience. They also discuss Rachel's own film The Floaters, Jewish summer camp, and the influence The Breakfast Club had on her filmmaking.
Plus, it's our favorite question: How Jewish is The Breakfast Club? The answer may involve a little creative stretching—but that's never stopped us before.
Rachel's Links
Connect with Jews on Film online:
Jews on Film Merch - https://jews-on-film.printify.me/products
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jewsonfilm/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/jewsonfilmpod
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@jewsonfilm
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@jewsonfilmpod
