The Quiet, but Undeniable Jewishness of “The Pitt”

I don't fancy myself a TV or film critic really, at least not enough to write reviews here or elsewhere, but I will say The Pitt is one of the best medical dramas I've seen in quite some time.

For context, I'm the son of a optician turned nurse. A male nurse at that.

My father worked in several areas of healthcare and was hospital staff for over a decade. He finished out his career as a visiting nurse, spending most of his time in Harlem and The Bronx, where he grew up, actually.

A male nurse dad, that's some woke boomer shit huh? (miss ya, pops.)

Anyway, today I'm writing about The Pitt, one of the hottest TV shows out right now. It's breaking viewership records and it's hailed as the "most medically accurate hospital show ever" by doctors and nurses who watch it.

I'm a sucker for a good hospital staff-based show out of a fascination (and later, deep respect) with the job from when my 12 year-old self was told "Daddy is going back to school." I also find watching medical shows is a way to connect with memories of my dad going through nursing school and then working his way up to nurse manager. That he went back to school in his 40's to better himself and his family's future income is one of the things I admire most about him.

The Pitt stars TV legend Noah Wyle, who many of us first got to know as Dr. John Carter from the long running show ER. As a surgical student Dr. John Carter, Wyle was young, curious, and was an entry-point character for our audience. Yes, Wyle has a Jewish dad, but Dr. Carter wasn't written as anything but a nice (played by a Jewish man) doctor.

This time around, Noah is playing a decidedly Jewish doctor, but it's some back-burner Judaism to start.

One big example is Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch insists people call him Robby rather than "Dr. Robinavitch." I know plenty of Jewish-Americans who don't lead with their Jewishness and often will use a more Anglo name.

Dr. Robinavitch is a good doctor and a good man, a real mensch if you will. Robby is always advocating for the most moral course of action.

Robby is always butting heads with the hospital administrator, Theresa Saunders (Joanna Going), about the hospital's understaffing, overfocus on patient reviews and not patient outcomes. He has a patient-first attitude to how a hospital ought to be run and funded.

When two siblings bring in their aged father, the treatments to keep him alive are getting more and more uncomfortable for him, Robby tells the brother and sister that increasingly invasive care will have little chance to improve their father's condition. Robby knows he can't tell them what to do with their father, but his position is clear that they should allow his natural death to occur.

Even though this man has a "do not resuscitate" order, his daughter insists on continuing invasive uncomfortable treatment. Robby gets another senior doctor involved and lawyers on standby to try and enforce the order.

Making a stand for what is the moral choice, in this case its following the patients wishes, it doesn't get more Jewish than that. Telling a out-of-touch administrator "Hey, staff more people here and spend the money you know you should be spending" is a hard truth a Jew would tell their supervisor to their face.

Robby is under pressure today because The Pitt is not your everyday medical drama. The Pitt is also exploring the healthcare service workers in the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic and the psychology of the job in general.

The first season of The Pitt is filmed during a 15-hour shift at a Pittsburg ER, and it's filmed in the style of the old FOX Network show 24, where every hour episode was filmed in real-time chronicling the one-day roller coaster that counter-terrorism agent Jack Bauer goes through. 24 was a riveting weekly hour of TV and dominated watercooler talk at the office on the regular.

This particular day we are following Dr. Robby for is five years since COVID and five years to the day since he lost Dr. Montgomery Adamson, who was his mentor. They even had tickets to a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game that day and instead, Robby gave them to his "step son" Jake Malloy, a young man he formed a bond with while dating the young man's mother for a time. Jake is going to take his girlfriend, Leah, to the game.

The shift today is a particularly crazy one. The waiting room is packed, and it's established that people often code in there while waiting for care. (In medical talk, 'coding' is when someone starts losing consciousness, having a heart attack, or otherwise is in need of saving.) There's some brand-new medical students to the hospital that day too, adding new blood to the hospital staff dynamics. Robby sends a doc home for slipping himself pain meds. And the charge nurse gets slugged in the face by a disgruntled patient to boot.

By the time we learn that there's been a mass shooting at the Penguins game and the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center is going to get a big chunk of the wounded, we can see that this is going to be a really... really bad day for Robby.

Lo and behold, it gets even worse. Jake is brought to the hospital covered in blood. We learn the blood is not Jake's, but the good news ends there. Jake's girlfriend took a direct bullet hit.

Robby and co. try their hardest to revive Leah. But sadly, he is unable to save her life. Robby brings Jake into a private room to see Leah and explain what happened. Jake is naturally upset and asks Robby why he couldn't save Leah, Robby's a doctor after all right?

The problem is this conversation is happening in the very room where Robby lost Dr. Adamson five years ago. Robby is finally overwhelmed with grief and shuffles Jake out of the room before he closes the door, slides down a wall to sit on the floor, clutches the Star of David necklace he wears under his shirt, and he recites the Shema.

For those of you who don't know, the Shema is one of the most important prayers in Judaism, it translates from ancient Hebrew to "Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is One" and is the first thing many religious Jews say when they wake up. Many Jews resolve to say the Shema before or upon their death.

This is still close to the same kind of representation Jews are used to by now.

It's been dubbed "The Afikomen" effect and it's basically when a character is feeling guilt or sadness, the audience sees something identifying the character as Jewish right around the moment they finally break down over it. And it's almost always to punctuate the character's feelings and make the viewer more sympathetic to them.

But something is different here, Robby is breaking down because he can't save everyone and he's standing in the room that's a tomb of his most devastating failure. This is a moment when this upstanding, moral doctor, who's a leader in his place of work, simply cannot continue.

Luckily, a young med student we met in the first episode, Dr. Dennis Whitaker (Gerran Howell), finds Robby on the floor. The staff has been asking around for Robby, but no one knows about his breakdown yet. Dr. Whitaker is the first person to find Robby.

"You have to go, they need you out there." Robby tells Dr. Whitaker.

"We need, you out there." Dr. Whitaker responds.

We need you.

Not "Man up," not "C'mon you're my boss, get up," and certainly not "This isn't the time for a breakdown!"

Dr. Whitaker says what this conflicted Jewish man needs to hear.

We need you.

Its in this moment that I saw a man who fell back onto his religious upbringing in a moment of severe emotional panic but also failed to remember what makes Jews, well, Jews.

Pray as Though Everything Depends on God, Act as Though Everything Depends on You

I only remember the Hebrew prayers I repeated the most growing up Jewish. In fact as an auditory learner, I can remember almost anything I hear, especially if it's set to music.

But one thing I remember that was said most in synagogue, almost every service, was "Pray as though everything depends on God, act as though everything depends on you."

Because while Jews do believe in God's control over everything, we sure as hell don't expect him to take care of EVERYTHING. In short, Jews don't sit around praying for things to get better, they stand, roll up their sleeves, and MAKE it better.

Robby remembered he was a Jew in his moment of panic, but for a second there, he also forgot what it meant to BE a Jew. Thanks to Dr. Whitaker's intervention, Robby remembered what Jews do. They make things better. Tikkun Olam. Repair the world.

Something else I noticed about Robby? Whenever he's being praised for his decency, for his morality, he doesn't correct people who using his full title.

"You're a good man, Dr. Robinavitch," says the sister sibling of the two struggling with their dying aged father, after Robby convinces them that a natural death for their father is the best course of action. I couldn't help but notice that in that moment, Robby does not reply with his usual "Please call me Dr. Robby."

Robby may be uncomfortable being "Dr. Robinavitch," but he's undeniably one of the most Jewish characters ever caught on camera.

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