Israel’s Bad Girl Hits Off-Broadway

Meital Dohan, one of Israel’s top actors, is now starring in “Stitching.” She says, “People expect me to be provocative and maybe a little bit wild and dangerous.”

Meital Dohan, one of Israel’s top actors, is now starring in “Stitching.” She says, “People expect me to be provocative and maybe a little bit wild and dangerous.”

by Curt Schleier
Special To The Jewish Week

Meital Dohan is one of Israel’s top actors, a critical darling for her work in film, television and theater. Fresh out of acting school, she won the Israeli Theater Award (equivalent of a Tony) as Most Promising New Actress in 2000. Since then she’s twice been nominated for Israeli Oscars and is regularly inundated with praise from Israeli media.

Her fame is such that her every move is chronicled in the Hebrew versions of Page 6. A saucy role in the 2004 Israeli film “God’s Sandbox” (the original title was “Tahara,” Hebrew for spiritual purity) got her noticed by journalism’s gossipmongers. And her dating exploits — including a relationship with Dudi Balsar, a hot model — cemented her place in the scandal sheets.

So what’s the 31-year-old Dohan, best known in the U.S. as a sexy rabbinical school director on Showtime’s “Weeds,” doing in “Stitching,” a limited-run, Off-Broadway production? She says it is in part an opportunity to swim in a bigger pond.

“I really enjoy my life in Israel. But growing up you’re constantly exposed to American culture, exposed to what happens in Hollywood. So you grow up with these dreams. Not that I was constantly thinking about it.”

After “God’s Sandbox” won a slew of festival awards, American movers and shakers began contacting her. She met a writer/director who signed her for a small Off-Off Broadway role. When she was offered the role, “At first I made a face. What is Off-Off Broadway?” But she took it, earned kudos and ultimately landed the role of the dominatrix-like Rabbi Yael Hoffman on “Weeds.” Now she’s back in “Stitching,” a dark drama about love in the 21st century. (The Wild Project (195 E. 3rd St., [212] 352-3101.)
The play takes place in two timeframes. First, Abby (Dohan) finds out she’s pregnant, forcing her and longtime boyfriend Stu to re-evaluate their relationship. Part Two takes place after Abby loses the baby and “her mental situation is pretty bad.

“It’s a love story young people will understand,” Dohan explains. “Today, love has become impossible to pursue. Young couples have so many things to deal with in this modern capitalistic world.”

In some ways, pursuing love sounds a lot like pursuing an American showbiz career. Asked about the differences between the entertainment industries here and in Israel, Dohan responds with mixed metaphors.

“Here it’s a jungle. But once you find a treasure in the jungle, it’s a huge treasure. In Israel, it’s more like a small swamp. So once you get into the swamp, you can swim and make laps and dive in and out and see the borders very clearly.”

Dohan’s treasure hunt began in Harutzim, a small village about a half-hour north of Tel Aviv. Her mother was an artist and art teacher, her father a successful businessman. The family was secular. “We were not at all religious. Even more than that, we didn’t even have Friday dinners. But we did celebrate holidays like Pesach.”

There were few outlets for Dohan’s energies. Harutzim “was a very quiet place, very green, and as a child I always felt kind of bored. I would watch TV in my room, and on the news there’d be the story of this fancy club for cool people. As a kid, I wanted to be a mature girl and go to those exciting clubs — even if they weren’t that great.”

Perhaps to battle her inclination towards shyness, perhaps as a potential vehicle to gain entry into exclusive clubs, Dohan started acting in school productions; at age 13, she also took acting lessons.

After finishing secondary school, she did her military service (in an army acting troupe) and subsequently enrolled in Nissan Nativ, Israel’s most prestigious acting school. After graduating, Dohan took on a variety of roles, ranging from comedy (she was featured in “Ugly Esti,” the Israeli equivalent of “Ugly Betty”) to the classics (“Romeo and Juliet”). But it is still “God’s Sandbox,” about a torrid romance between a Western tourist and the son a Bedouin sheik, which defines her — at least in the Israeli public’s eye.

“I think people expect me to be provocative and maybe a little bit wild and dangerous. People always confuse the characters with the real person. But maybe I am a little bit provocative.”

Westchester Jewish Conference

Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization