How Jewish Voice Actress Tara Strong (Timmy Turner, Bubbles) is Fighting Online Antisemitism

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You posted a blue square.

What was the reaction?

Die Zionist bitch.

Wow.

So you get to wipe your ass with Hitler.

Why is this disappointing?

I'm talking about a terrorist organization.

Thanks for having me on.

Being Jewish folks today you are in for a real treat.

Usually I have one guest on the show, sometimes two or maybe three.

Today I've got about 600.

I've got a telekinetic teenager, a 10-year-old boy with fairy godparents, a lab created super sister, a villainous talking clock, and a baldheaded baby named Dill to name a few.

I've also got the woman who voices them all and who uses that same powerful voice to advocate fiercely for Israel and the Jewish people, no matter the consequences.

She's the Canadian Queen of cartoons.

Please welcome the aptly Surnamed Tara Strong.

I love that intro.

I spend a lot of time on those intros.

I gotta tell you.

Well, you make people feel special.

That's sweet.

They are special, and that's why you're here.

Mm-hmm.

Thank you, Tara.

I'm a huge animation fan, so you know, I'm already a fan of yours as a, a consumer.

I, I worked at Family Guy for a couple years.

You did?

What did you do?

I did.

I was the writer's assistant for Seasons eight, nine, and 10.

Wow.

I did quite a few of those.

I know you did.

Yeah.

And, um, I wonder if we crossed paths, uh, well, I know you did, like early on you were there mm-hmm.

A bunch.

And you, you were the singing voice of Meg in a couple episodes.

Yeah.

If you didn't know that.

Yeah.

And whenever like Stewie had a little girlfriend.

Right.

That was a lot of those characters.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So fun classic.

And uh, also, I believe you grew up with Gail Simmons, is that right?

Yes.

Yes.

Who we had on the pod.

And she said that you guys did, like, was it the synagogue musicals together?

Maybe?

Yeah.

I mean, we went to high school together.

And yeah, we definitely were at the same synagogue.

Yeah.

And I've always like loved her and she always had this ethereal beauty about her.

Yeah.

And then when I saw her posting about our people, I was like, oh, she's still so beautiful inside and out.

She really is.

It's amazing that you both have become so successful and are both amazing Jewish advocates.

There's a lot of successful Toronto Jews.

Toronto Jews are the best.

I, I did an event in Toronto.

Yeah.

Pretty recently.

I'm, I'm already going back to do another one.

Yeah.

'cause we love each other.

It's like a Toronto Jonah love fest.

A place.

So shout out to all the Toronto homie.

Yes.

Okay.

So if you couldn't tell for my intro, I was talking about a bunch of terrors, very famous characters, Raven from Teen Titans, Timmy Turner from fairly odd parents, bubbles from Powerpuff girls, miss Minutes from Loki Dill pickles from the Rugrats.

I mean, you're living the dream.

Are you Just, every day you're like, man, my life rocks.

Yeah, it pretty much does.

You've done did it.

And you just get to enjoy and it's like so cool to see.

It's so cool.

It's so fun.

You know, I knew, I'm sure you're the same.

I knew when I was like four or five, I gonna be singer, dancer, actress, and no one in my family was in the business except for my grandfather who was a candor, right?

No one else like knew anything about how to get into showbiz and I just kept.

Pushing my parents and pushing my parents to get me an agent, which they finally did when I was 13.

Finally, finally.

But before that, my only performance was at my shul.

I was singing in the children's choir.

I was a little soloist.

Aw.

And then my first like job, it wasn't a paying job, but I was singing in the Yiddish Theater.

I have a picture.

Do you wanna see it?

I do wanna see it.

I was singing in the Yiddish Theater, and I spoke Hebrew.

I went to Hebrew school.

Amazing.

But I didn't speak Yiddish, and so I learned, I'm not surprised.

All the songs Frenetically.

After the show, people were like, oh, you're the Wonder Maid Luck.

And they put it in the paper that I was the Wonder Maid, luck.

What is Wonder Made LA It means Wonder Girl.

Aw, that's me singing my little booty out.

Aw, Atish Theater.

Yeah, you just belting away.

Yeah, I could see that.

Mic's a little high for you.

And actually this picture is from, um, a song called Puppy Rosen, which is playing a little boy who is trying to sell cigarettes like during the Holocaust time to, oh my gosh, take care of his sister, and Wow.

Yeah, it was pretty amazing.

But then I finally got an agent when I was 13 and I booked my first cartoon, which was the voice of Hello Kitty.

She was a cat.

Heard of her.

My first on camera show with Mr.

T.

It was called T and T.

Mr.

T, yeah.

Were you the other T.

No, I was just like a little Punky Brewster type character.

Okay.

Cute.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Amazing.

All right, so what we're gonna get in more to the early days of Tara Chernoff.

Mm-hmm.

Tara Strong, like kind of worked out for you.

That name.

It's better.

It's like a pretty sweet stage game.

It's better and it's like people can remember it.

They can spell it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's a good one.

I married it.

I know, but it's he, I kept the name.

The name was exactly.

You got the name and the kids was the best part of that.

You got some good stuff outta there.

That's all that matters.

Of those characters that you've done so many is, are there any, or is there one that you like get the most love for?

Well, when I go to Comic-Con, yeah.

Most.

People that are cosplaying.

Have you been to a Comic-Con by the way?

I haven't.

You gotta come.

I wouldn't have a great time.

I love that stuff.

You should come with me.

There's one in Ontario, like in a few weeks.

Oh, Ontario, Canada?

Yeah.

No, here.

Oh, Ontario.

Oh, okay, great.

Yeah.

So I love comic cons 'cause it's the most beautiful environment.

Nobody's weird 'cause everybody's weird.

Right?

And it's just so much fun.

So I see the most cosplay for Raven or Harley.

Mm-hmm.

Um, a lot of people love fairly odd parents.

A lot of people.

My Little Pony.

And that exchange at the cons is so beautiful.

Like, I had no friends till my little Pony, or I wanted to end my life till I met Raven.

Or oh my God, I didn't know I was gay till I saw you as Harley.

Wow.

Things like that.

And there's like these.

Really beautiful moments.

Like there was this girl dressed as Raven and she was talking and talking and talking and talking.

And I look over her mom's bawling and a lot of people cry when they meet me, but this was like no big deal.

Unusual.

So I went to check on her and she said her daughter was nonverbal on the autism spectrum.

She hadn't spoken for five years.

And when she heard I was coming, she didn't shut up.

And I was like, this is why we go, you know, this is why we go.

But my favorite job I ever did was the sequel to the Little Mermaid.

Little Mermaid two.

Yeah.

What's the, what's the Colon?

Little Mermaid two.

It's like intimacy.

Return to the sea.

Return to return to the sea.

To the sea.

Yeah.

Because her story, the, I played her daughter and it was the reverse.

She was a girl that wanted to be a mermaid, but to sing in the studio with Jody Benson was like, I could have died the next day.

Dream come.

So cool.

Yeah.

I love that you play bubbles.

Who is, you know, the love and the joy and the prettiest girl at the party.

You wanna try it and then you play.

Do you wanna try it?

Bubbles?

I'm gonna bet girl at the party.

Yeah, that one.

Try it.

Ah, let's see.

I'm gonna be the prettiest girl at the party.

It's about as high as it goes.

That's not bad.

That's not bad.

It was hardcore.

No, don't have that one.

Okay.

I, I have my strength.

That's little girls, isn't one of them.

That's okay.

So you play her, but you also play Raven, who's like the opposite, right?

Moody, brooding, quiet.

Which one is more?

Tara, you know what's funny?

Bubbles came first.

Mm-hmm.

And when I was auditioning for Raven, I was already doing Bat Girl for the exact same crew at Warner Brothers.

Mm.

I was also doing Extreme Ghostbusters, Kylie, which is kind of like a dark teenage brooding and like three other characters like that.

How am I gonna make this different?

Okay.

And then I went in and they wanted me to read for her, and I just relied on my acting, which.

It sounded a lot like Bat Girl.

'cause Bat Girl is really my own voice.

Mm.

And they're like, thanks.

And as I'm walking out, I turn to Andrea Romano, the director, and I'm like, can I just try this one thing that like God shot came to me, that she had this weird little role under every word she said.

And it wasn't like a pre-planned thing.

Whoa.

But that's, you know, from improv, like sometimes you just kind of gotta go with it.

Yeah.

And that's what meant.

Was meant to be and she's so important to so many people, including myself.

She's an amazing character.

That's so cool.

I love that story.

Rugrats famous for their Jewish holiday episodes, like very famous.

They're some of the best Jewish TV we have.

Yeah, but it's few and far between.

I.

So, I mean, how is TV animation doing in your point of view, on, on telling Jewish stories and is that something that gets discussed at all?

I will say that I'm really proud of animation 'cause I think they were way ahead of the inclusion game.

Mm-hmm.

Rugrats was like the first Jewish.

Black family, all these other families that were getting along.

And you know, every animation has characters of all different colors.

They worship and love all different people and they all seem to have a great time and get together for the next episode.

And I think it's really beautiful.

I don't know that there's been a family, a Jewish family since the Rugrats.

So maybe we early that, and they're early in that, I think, right?

Yeah.

I mean, I'm sure we could do better.

Mm-hmm.

I hope that if there's a Jewish character, they hire a Jewish actor.

I, I think the beauty of animation and inclusion is something that should really be looked at by all kinds of Hollywood.

Like, wow, here's all these characters from all different places, and they all get along.

I certainly agree with you.

Yeah.

So now I want to go to my first little game that I wanna play with you.

Okay.

Timmy Turner gets invited to a bat mitzvah and he has a crush on the Bat mitzvah girl.

What's his pickup line?

Ah, Cosmo, Wanda.

I wish I was the most handsome boy at the Bar Mitzvah.

Cosmo.

Wanda made me taller.

Cosmo, Wanda teach me two songs and then I like go impressed her and sing two songs.

Perfect.

Hava, I think you're in.

Yeah, and I think that's the day she's gonna go for him.

Raven, you're at your first Passover Seder and you get asked, why is this night different from all other nights?

I would be like, man.

You know, I would do that.

Passover is my favorite holiday, by the way.

Ravens or yours?

Mine and Ravens.

Why is it your favorite holiday?

I have so many memories as a kid of having the whole ish bacha together.

Mm-hmm.

Um, my booby and my mom were caterers and we would have, and she was a one of five and there were 18 grandchildren.

We'd all get together.

Your mom was one of five.

One of five.

Wow.

And they were Me too.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Russia, Lavia, Lithuania, and some Russia.

All right.

So.

My grandmother, who I'm talking about was like the reason we're alive.

She forced her family on a boat at 16 during the pogroms and said, we're getting outta here.

Wow.

And her mom said, if we die on this journey, it's your fault.

And she saved a generation.

She was 16 and everybody listened to her.

Everybody listened to her.

Yeah.

I mean, we lost a lot of other family, but she made it.

Yeah.

But I love carrying on that tradition and I think things that bring people together.

I also love tradition a lot.

Yeah.

And so I had a Seder in my backyard once that was 70 people.

And a lot of times people that have never been to one.

That's cool.

I saw this Passover you put on your, on your Instagram.

Yeah.

You were filming your Seder.

That looked like a great time.

It was great.

You should come next time.

It was so like intimate and friendly and beautiful looking.

Yeah.

It was 30 people who does the cooking.

I do a lot of the cooking.

Yeah.

My son helped me a lot this year.

Have you inherited the, the skills from the buggy?

Not, not really, but I do make my mom's soup really well.

Which, what kind of soup?

It's a matza ball.

Soup.

That's a good one.

Yeah.

Bubbles.

What should we make sure to have at our Hanukkah party?

Well, probably lots of presents for me.

Maybe another toy for octe, maybe a pretty hairbrush and things for my sisters.

So thoughtful, so sweet.

Harley Quinn, what are you dressing up for?

Uh, for Purum this year.

I know you love costumes.

That one really got you.

Just because like picturing Harley Quinn as like Queen Esther is really funny.

That's a good one.

I mean, she is the queen.

She might as well be Queen Esther, but she's still got a bat in case anyone messes with her.

Hamas is attacking.

What should we do?

Rocky?

The Flying Squirrel.

Hokey Smokes.

I smoke.

Peace for Christ's sake.

Crying out loud.

Good advice, Rocky.

Oh, that was pretty good.

Not bad, right?

Like me in spring of 2021 when there was violence between Israel and Gaza.

That was sort of your first foray into speaking online about this conflict, which is funny enough, it was the same sort of timing for me.

Uh, you posted a blue square.

There was barely any caption to it.

It was very simple.

What was the reaction?

Die Zionist bitch.

I mean, I looked through some of the comments just like I didn't know if, if the, if like what the ratio was.

'cause I was scrolling, you know, for 10 seconds.

But it was a lot of hate.

I saw some good ones, but I can't believe how much hate there is online and how bold people are.

Like, we can see who you are and your avatar and like.

I, I don't, I don't understand bullying or hate.

I grew up with a sister who is, um, on the Asperger spectrum, right?

So I used to see her come home and cry every day.

My mom was overweight, my dad wasn't.

Well, I don't really have tolerance for bullies at all.

Yeah.

And the pro Hamas crowd are real bullies, like, oh yeah, I don't know about you, but as a Jewish person, you can't post anything without being called.

A genocide lover or it's just so mean, and I don't want anybody to die.

I don't want any innocent people to die.

Of course you don't like, I, I don't understand why they feel so emboldened to be so mean, but they are every single day, every.

Like you were just talking about it on one of your posts, like it's every day people are like, you should die.

Like why?

We don't want anybody to die.

You never see a Jewish person on online saying, we want people to die.

No, we don't want that.

But they do celebrate it when some, when a Jewish person dies, the pro Hamas crowd are like celebratory.

And I just think, well, to be fair, we like celebrated the pager thing.

Well, we celebrate a terrorist, right?

Being killed.

Right, but not an innocent person.

Of course that's important and that's like.

I just don't understand.

I would I, when I see some of the footage of how cartoons are in, in Gaza for those children, oh God.

Yeah.

Like I just want to hug these kids and show them how loving cartoons make you love each other.

Like, I just want to help deconstruct this brainwashing of hatred.

Otherwise, I don't know how.

We get them to understand that Jews really just want peace.

We don't want anyone to die.

Right.

We want you to come over for my mom's matza bowl soup.

Right.

That's interesting.

Just, you know, having somebody from the animation world voice that, 'cause like we've seen or most people have seen that footage, but to hear that from you.

Yeah.

What a like, gross distortion of something so, and so sad, beautiful.

And, and that, you know, is made to.

Educated and, and entertain children and being used in, in this way and it's child abuse.

Children shouldn't be seeing violence that young.

They should be seeing rainbows and hugging each other and learn about friendship like I just.

It breaks my heart, like I know this sounds naive, even stupid, but I wish I could hug them all and show them loving cartoons and say, I get it.

You're supposed to be playing right now.

I wish you could too.

Yeah, I wish.

We gotta have like a, you know, middle East Comic-Con.

Well, I went to one in Dubai, which was in incredible, by the way.

Not that this is like.

You know, compared, but I will say the fans there like loved Ben 10.

And um, like there's a lot of people with like titles that came over and Queens that came over and they're like, my kids love all your shows.

I'm like, oh, it's so sweet.

And they were very kind and loving.

And I was speaking Hebrew in public 'cause my cousin called me from Israel.

Do you speak fluent Hebrew?

I used to be a lot more fluent.

I, I felt you can carry a conversation.

Yes.

I fell in love with it in Hebrew Scholars and Hebrew Day school as a kid and I fell in love with it.

I love That's amazing.

Speaking to people's.

Amazing.

Yeah.

That's cool.

I mean, I went to Jewish Day School.

You did?

All the way through eighth grade.

But I did not leave with a conversational, uh, you know.

Uh, um, and then I wanna like bring it into Spanish, which I speak better.

I'm like, um, were you surprised by that initial onslaught?

Yes.

I was so surprised.

I can't believe anybody had anything to say, but, oh my God, I can't believe these young kids at this festival were so.

Terribly.

Oh, I'm not even at October 7th yet.

I'm still in 2021.

And you're getting, you know, it's the, the, the same level of hate that you're getting now.

There was a bunch of hate before that too, and I would put up stuff and like I, I've been in this arena for a very long time.

Hmm.

You know, as a little girl, I, I didn't deal with much antisemitism, but I did, we did have a, um, someone spray paint.

Jews, pigs with a swastika in our temple.

You wanna see on the temple?

Mm-hmm.

Is, and did you go to the temple where your grandfather was a cantor?

Yeah, this was the temple where my grandfather was the cantor and my Beth Roddo.

Beth Roddam Roddam.

Are you looking that up?

You know, we research things on being Jewish.

Okay.

So I'm like four years old in this picture.

I look at you guys smiling in front of like posing.

Well, we didn't know what it meant, but my dad, why did they, your dad wanted you guys.

Yeah.

And there's a SWA right beside it.

Just to show like how Jewish hatred.

Was still around 'cause I didn't really How cute you two are though.

So cute.

Your little dresses.

But that's when we moved to synagogues after that.

Really?

But, um, yeah, I, because of that, uh, I don't know because of that, but we also moved down the street from a big synagogue called a Israel out Israel.

Mm-hmm.

Actually, I'd known quite a bit about antisemitism as a child because my dad had a World War II Museum.

What does that mean?

Had a museum.

I mean, uh, it was about four or five times the size of this room.

He was a child during World War ii, and he was fascinated by it.

Wow.

And he collected and he brought tour groups in and there was a whole section on the Holocaust.

Wow.

Yeah.

And I learned about propaganda back then, which was a lot harder.

Before social media, but it was on like, uh, product boxes and newspaper articles, which always hated the juice.

They were always like, right.

Well, yeah.

Propaganda's been around long before.

Yeah.

It has social media.

Actually, I brought you something to see from the museum.

Yeah, from the museum.

Oh yeah.

And my dad's long gone.

I'm, I'm going to donate all the Holocaust stuff, but I'd like to find a home for the other World War II stuff.

So it's not in the greatest shape, but it's toilet paper if you wanna unravel it.

It has Hitler's face on it, and it says, wipe out Hitler.

Come on.

This is from World War ii.

The end is near no monkey business.

There's Hitler.

Is that there?

He is.

Just a mirage.

Exterminate.

Wow.

So you get to wipe your ass with Hitler.

That's the idea, right?

There it is.

Wipe out Hitler.

There's the next one.

Oh, there it is.

Wipe out.

Wipe out Hitler.

Yeah.

So all these people, oh no.

All these people now like Kanye, not the Mexican food loving Hitler like.

Did y'all know what he wanted?

He wanted an Aryan race.

He wanted everyone else gone.

Your ancestors fought to get rid of him.

And now.

Kanye's making songs about him.

Ugh.

Let's he who will not be named anyway.

That is so cool.

Yeah, so I grew up in what a relic.

Yeah.

So I would go and like to antique markets with them and I'd be like, dad, this is a DJ map.

And like I ha I was quite educated on World War II growing up.

Was your dad a child in Canada During the work?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, and then, I dunno if you wanna get into March of the living yet, but that Sure.

Let's jump in.

That really like.

Took it to the next level when I was there.

You went when you were 16?

I went when I was 16 and I was, I just went, I went like this past month.

Wasn't it incredible?

It was.

But I know that you had a very different experience.

I went with a choir and, um, Ellie Rubenstein who heads the Toronto trip.

Mm-hmm.

And I went with a lot of kids, um, from my school.

And then you meet kids from all over the world.

Ours was like 7,000 kids.

Wow.

It was.

So eyeopening to walk into the camps and to like see it in real life.

Mm-hmm.

And see the nail marks on the walls in the, in the, uh, in the gas chambers, in the gas chambers and the kids areas where they slept.

And they had painted like things on the walls.

And actually at one point I had sat by myself in the kids' area and I just started digging in the dirt.

And I found this old.

Um, German, top to a poison thing, which my dad said was part of like, the experiments that they would do to kids.

Whoa.

Did you see?

Would do their skin, did you give that to a Yeah.

Yeah.

Somebody.

Whoa.

And, uh, you know, Poland was.

Interesting.

There was still quite a lot of antisemitism.

We had stones thrown at our bus, a swastika whoa painted on our bus.

Kids were like throwing ci cigarette butts in the onic pit.

I dunno if you saw that pit.

I didn't go to onic.

There's a big pit that says in Poland across the top, we lie here in warning to you.

And there was a lot of that, that it of the antisemitism that made me like, ah.

There was beautiful moments though.

There was like a, a few synagogues still standing in Poland and one, we were there for Shabbat and we were singing outside on the lawn.

And this older guy, very old guy came by and he was crying.

Mm-hmm.

And our, um, tour guide said that he had said, it's been so long since the Jewish people have been here, and it's so nice to see them come home.

So there were That's nice, very beautiful moments too.

When, when was this?

What decade?

Well, I was 16 and that's at least 10 years ago.

Okay.

So sometime.

Was it Russia or the Soviet Union?

Uh, Russia.

Yeah.

It was already Russia.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

After the march, which was, I'm sure you felt this way, like so moving where you're like, we were 6,000 strong from Auschwitz to Birkenau every country with their flag and the Israeli contingency with their blue jackets and white pants and their Israeli flag and e Elle spoke.

That's very special.

We had.

Been staged on the crematorium that the Jews had blown up in.

Um, what does that mean, broken out like so was it where it used to be or There's still a structure there.

There is still a structure broken down from this crematorium that the Jews had blown up and it started to rain and Ellie Wezel spoke and he started to cry.

This is a man who have spoken many, many times.

Mm-hmm.

And he said that when he saw all of these young people in the crowd, he had, he saw a young girl that he knew, like the ghost of her who had been killed.

And he said, if you had all been here when I was here, you would've all been dead.

I.

And it was like super duper emotional.

And then the rain just really started Wow.

Pouring down.

And then our, um, choir began to sing a Lee Lee.

Mm-hmm.

Which is from Freedom Fighter Sene, who was saving people during World War ii.

I love that song.

Yeah.

And as soon as we started a Lee stopped.

Wow.

Sun came out.

It was pretty incredible.

And then I knew like I had to be part of this message for peace and actually sang for Arnold Schwarzenegger at an event for peace between Arab Israeli wars and just trying to.

Like get this message out that we can all live together, which we can.

There's beautiful orgs.

I've been raising money over 10 years for a program in Israel called Children of Peace that put Arab Israeli children together for sports events and music events, and then fantastic hand in hand schools.

Like there's all these beautiful things that can be done that are being done in Israel, and so I've always felt like I'm part of this.

Sort of plan for peace.

That's all I want.

Why do you think those sorts of organizations of of which there are many doing like amazing stuff like.

Why don't we hear about them?

Why don't people care about those?

I don't know.

I tweet about them all the time.

Yeah.

I raise money for them.

You fundraise for stuff all over the place?

I do.

For all different causes.

I do.

I, that's what, like, that's honestly what's keeping me on social media.

Mm-hmm.

'cause sometimes it's really hard on your heart to see the mean stuff.

Yeah.

But it's like, okay, I've raised over a million dollars on Twitter for kids with cancer.

I've, whoa, you know, I've done all these beautiful things that I wanna still continue to help and do.

So that's why I'm still there.

But it's part What an amazing way to use your platform.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

What a contribution.

Thanks.

Family.

In Israel, we mentioned you have a cousin you're speaking to on the phone.

How, how much family do you have in Israel and how are they?

So I have a cousin who was also a singer growing up, and she, um, made Aliyah when she was very young and she has five kids who I visited actually on the march.

And they have a million kids.

And between friends and family, there's like 50 people that I'm, you know.

Related to our very close friends within Israel.

Wow.

And it's the most beautiful, magical place in the world.

I wish people would visit it and understand how magical it is and how much history it holds for all religions and all people.

Totally.

It's so beautiful.

When was the last time you were there?

March of the Living.

I gotta go back.

You haven't been since you were 16.

You know what's funny?

I had actually planned a trip with my kids to go to Egypt to see the pyramids and then go to Israel.

And the day after we bought our ticket, my travel agent called and said, you should cancel this.

And I'm like, why Covid?

I.

Mm.

So that put a little kibosh on that trip.

But I'll go back.

I wanna go back.

You got a go?

Have you been back lately?

I went on the anniversary of October 7th.

Oh, you did?

I went 20, 24 October.

Wow.

I really wanna go.

Yeah, I'm definitely, I'm definitely Jones in to get back.

Yeah, me too.

Okay.

Can we talk about box town?

Okay.

Just a little.

So days af, this is days after October 7th.

Yeah.

You tweet.

This is only the beginning.

They were smart to start with.

A country people love to hate now, obviously, to somebody who's educated.

I understand exactly what you mean.

You're talking about Hamas starting with Israel.

Correct.

Very obvious.

Very obvious to any.

And if it wasn't, uh, a question, Hey Tara, what did you mean by this?

Would make it obvious in a moment, of course.

But then right after that.

You're fired from a show.

Yeah.

That you sort of helped put together?

Yeah.

Based, it seemed like mostly on this comment.

It wasn't a show.

It was a Kickstarter.

It was a Kickstarter, and the kid that was working on it approached me on Twitter, so he had all my information.

He could have asked me what I meant by this comment, of course.

And they quote tweeted and said, this is disappointing.

I'm like, why is this disappointing?

I'm talking about a terrorist organization.

This tweet was put out before Israel went in.

To Gaza.

Right.

So there is actual, it was misconstrue that you evidence, it sounded like you were, they thought you were talking about Israel attacking Gaza was a good thing.

But they didn't think that because it was before Israel went in the, the tweet is dated.

Mm.

It was two days after October 7th.

Israel hadn't gone in yet.

So it was just a way to hate on Jews, I guess.

And had he asked me, I would've said, this is against terrorists and terrorists only, and Right.

The thing that really.

Hurt for me.

Was that like press picked it up?

Mm-hmm.

But you can see the tweet is dated, right?

You can see I'm talking about the fact that they hate Jews.

That they were smart to start with Israel, 'cause they're coming from the rest of us.

And look how right I was right.

The whole world turned on.

Jewish people around the world, like the fact that every Jew is responsible for anything.

The Israeli government does is insane.

The fact that Jewish kids don't feel safe at schools in synagogues walking anywhere with a star of David.

I have kids at Comic Cons.

Yeah.

Clutching their star of David's and coming to me saying, thank you for speaking up for our people.

It's because they're wearing them.

Yeah, yeah.

But like.

You know, they say, oh, the Jews control everything.

Well, we certainly don't control the news.

Right.

Because then none of those misconstrued things would get out.

But you see Tara, that that requires thinking about it.

Yeah.

To make that connection.

Yeah.

It's a lot easier to just press tweet, you know, than it is to think.

It's amazing.

It's amazing.

It's amazing.

Yeah.

It's pretty heartbreaking that like how quickly people turned.

I'm like, oh my gosh.

Alright, game number two.

Okay.

Melody from Little Mermaid two.

Could you sing me a line from your favorite two thousands pop song?

Because I am beautiful no matter what they say.

My fins can't bring me down.

Oh, no, I see what you did there.

I like that.

Um, twilight sparkle.

Can you, can you spit a line from your favorite rap?

Dear Princess Celestia, I'm a rap God.

There we go.

That's a good one.

I love M&m too.

Back girl.

Aligned from your favorite Beyonce.

Well, back girl's.

Really?

My own voice.

All right.

I like her new country song a lot, but I don't know it.

Okay.

Sorry.

I failed.

I failed.

You didn't fail.

It's fine.

You, I'm, this is not easy.

Um, but you know, you're, you're Tara Strong, so I don't feel bad about it.

All the single ladies.

All the single ladies.

There we go.

Whatever.

Perfect.

I wanna get back to some of your, your family history stuff.

Okay.

Your grandfather was a cantor.

What did that feel like being in shool and like watching your grandfather?

Be the one singing and leading, like what kind of impact did that have on you?

I definitely loved that and I was proud of him, but I have to say even more impressed was when we switched to the Addeth Israel and the Cantor there, Cantor Kisch Bloom, who could have been a huge Broadway star.

Mm-hmm.

His voice was just magic, but it's kind of the reverse of the jazz singer.

He wanted to be in the shul, that's where he wanted to be, and he was a big inspiration for me and he gave me like my start sort of singing in front of people.

I would do like.

Mm-hmm.

Duets with him, and I would do, I would do the entire high holidays with him.

He and I would just sing everything together.

That's so cool.

Yeah, it was really beautiful.

That's so nice.

Yeah.

And your grandmother, you mentioned also did catering.

Mm-hmm.

For the show.

And your mom worked with her too?

Yeah.

Were your parents in general as involved as your grandparents were?

Yeah, we were really Jewish.

I mean, the thing that I loved about add of Israel in Toronto, I don't know what it's like in New York, but for me, east coast, I'm from la.

Oh, well the conservative temples are more like Orthodox except that the men and women sit together, so it feels a lot more formal than some of the conservative temples here.

And I actually really loved it.

I was in Hebrew school and I loved just being in the synagogue.

It was like very big and beautiful and um, my parents were a big part of that.

We did all the traditions.

My mom.

Taught me how to make all kinds of Jew cooking things and, um, Jew cooking things.

We always had a bunch of people over.

It was a small house, but we always, we were the house people wanted to go to 'cause it was so filled with love.

Nice.

Aw.

Do you have any favorite family traditions?

I mean, for sure Passover is my favorite, but we also lit the candles every Friday night.

I still do with my kids every Friday.

Oh, that's so nice.

Me too.

Yeah.

You've lost both your parents.

Mm-hmm.

Younger than you should have.

And also I believe your mom's twin sister, right?

Yes.

What traditions do you hold onto that remind you of them?

Like every Jewish tradition reminds me of them.

Mm-hmm.

I basically had two moms.

My mom was the sweet one and Sylvia was the feisty one.

And just so many things remind me of them every day.

Like I, it's so hard to lose a parent, especially if you were close and they were great.

Like, and I heard once that like grief is hard because you have to unlearn that they're here to talk to.

Yeah.

But I talk to her all the time.

And when my sister and I were little, she get, she got bullied a lot in school.

Your sister for being neurodivergent.

Right.

And I would have her back a lot and she would get beat up and I'd push kids outta the way for her.

And when she left the school, they started coming after me and going, Marla sister.

And they were like teasing me and pulling my hair.

I said to my mom, what should I do?

And she said, ignore them.

Bullies won't keep going if it's not fun for them.

And like just the other day I was like very sad about some bullies online.

And I just heard my mom say like, just ignore them.

Like why am I fighting with people who think rape is justified?

Right.

That's who's yelling at me.

I don't wanna fight with someone like that.

Mm-hmm.

That's not worth my time.

I feel the same way when people will ask sort of like, how does that not make you feel upset?

I'm like, why would I be upset that this absolutely uninformed idiot is like yelling something racist at me?

Right.

Like that guy's the one with the issues.

I'm good.

It is hard though because like.

Meet Tara Strong as a person.

I like really love, love.

Mm-hmm.

And make people feel seen.

And like I said, I've used my platform for sharing love.

I will reach out to people, I've talked to people with a gun in their mouth and talk them off the ledge.

Like, whoa.

I love helping people and being there for people and like it's very hard to see all the hate online when.

I just wanna keep spreading love.

Like it's been very hard.

It's also very hard to see the footage of every tragedy.

Of course.

And not just Israel, Gaza, like all over the world.

There's so much pain and so many wars going on and so many innocent people.

Like it's very hard to like look at and still be positive and say, Hey, you know, let's do voices.

Let's hug each other.

Right?

Like there's so much sadness, which.

Part of me is like, I don't even wanna be online anymore.

But also the voiceless need a voice.

We can't abandon ship.

No.

Let's talk about Marla for a second.

Okay.

Anyone I've met that has had like a special needs sibling has is a very empathetic and caring person.

Uh, just sort of the nature of that relationship.

What does your relationship to your sister mean to you?

Oh my gosh.

She taught me so much.

Like I learned from her all the time.

And when we were little, we would do voices together.

We, um, had this little radio station that we created where we would just do silly voices all day.

And every stuffed animal had a voice.

Every pet had a voice.

I love that.

I love the origin story.

Yeah, she's definitely like part of the reason.

Of who I am and you know, gave me a bigger understanding for when I meet kids that are on the spectrum and like I get so mad when people bully them.

Like, I dunno if you watch Love on the Spectrum, but I've become friendly with a lot of these kids on the show and it's like, I was gonna ask you about that.

You've been posting a lot recently with Danny, with Danny Bowman, specifically from that show.

I just love them so much.

They're like so pure hearted.

Not that there aren't mean people on the spectrum.

Its like there's mean people in every neuro whatever you are, but the sweet ones that just want to be.

To have friends and be liked by people when people are mean to 'em.

I just, I just wanna like hug them all and protect them all.

Yeah, it makes me really upset, but she taught me a lot of that.

You know, I remember one time I was walking home from school and this kid was crying and I'm like, what's wrong?

And he said, these.

Kids said, I can't go home and the police are coming for me.

And I could tell he was on the spectrum and I helped him get home.

Like I think just having that at a young age, seeing what it looks like to come home when the kids were bullied, like it makes you, okay, I'm gonna protect everybody I can in this way.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, the fact that.

We don't really talk enough about Noya Don.

In fact, when you Google like Girl on the Spectrum, who was murdered October 7th, there's images of other people.

Like Noya was a very special sweet girl on the spectrum.

She called her mom when they were invading her and her grandmother were brutally killed.

Like I can't imagine how afraid she was in those moments.

Like, it's so sad.

It's so sad.

Yeah.

Ugh.

So she gave me like a real, um.

You know, base for understanding.

And also we used to sing together at weddings and bar mitzvahs.

Really?

So I kind of got my start with her.

I hope she's getting a commission.

She should, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You've done a lot of speaking up for the hostages specifically.

Let's talk about the positive response.

Like what, what have you heard back from the, the appreciation that you've gotten and where's that coming from?

Well, the first day I started posting about Israel, and again, this is before Israel went in, right?

This is Postoc October 7th.

I lost 5,000 followers on Instagram, and on that exact same day, I went up 30,000 followers from Israel.

Wow.

People were like, you were my childhood and now you're my hero.

Like, thank you so much, and like I don't really understand why it's considered brave to speak up for the hostages.

If there was a kid missing in someone's hometown and someone put up a poster, nobody would rip it down.

Right.

And in these war rooms, which I'm sure you're into.

The one thing that the parents have asked for is, don't stop speaking about our children.

And God forbid it was anyone else's child.

Like we would do everything to keep their names and their faces present.

And um, I had Rachel on, um, uh, Hersch's Mom Gold.

Yeah, yeah.

On my, uh, Instagram Live.

And I just like feel so much.

I, I can't imagine, I can't imagine like.

Just let them all go.

Bring them home.

It's so sad.

It's so sad.

I see you're rocking the necklace right now.

Yeah, I tried to as much as possible.

That's awesome.

How connected are you to what's going on for Jews in Canada right now?

Oh my God, it's really upsetting.

It's, it's really seems terrible and I know it's terrible having just been in Toronto, like they're really in pain over what's going on.

I don't understand.

I used to say like, the one thing I loved about growing up in Toronto is it really was a melting pot.

It didn't matter where you're from, the color of your skin, who you worship, who you love.

Everybody was like just loving each other.

And to me, growing up, it felt more inclusive than the United States.

It just felt like that to me.

But now when I see these images of kids' day schools getting, uh, firebox, firebombed and like people feeling unafraid to walk in neighborhoods that like are very close to where I grew up, it's shocking.

Like I don't, I don't understand how people can.

I'm not talking about people who are advocating for the innocent people of Gaza, which there are a lot.

There are a lot.

And when they speak out, they are tortured and often killed.

So like this is a big problem.

This is people that I worry about every day too.

But when you have these people saying, we are Hamas, we are the terrorists, we want Jewish people dead or actually killing Jewish people.

That guy in Calabasas was killed by a megaphone.

Oh yeah?

Yeah.

What the hell?

Like I, I.

I just don't understand, and I think there's a really big problem in Canada, and I don't know how it gets fixed, and I don't know why people aren't marching for Syria, for the women in Afghanistan, for all these other war torn countries, why aren't people marching for them?

Why aren't people still marching for Ukraine?

I don't understand.

Like no Jews, no news.

It's horrible.

Yeah.

Do you have people still in Canada that you're talking to about this?

Yeah, my entire family's there.

Everybody's there.

They're shocked.

How did the, how did they feel about the election?

I haven't spoken to them so much about the current election, but most of their concerns are about.

The public takeovers and feeling unsafe in the city, which Toronto's, I used to describe it as a clean, safe New York.

Mm.

Like it's always felt very safe to me.

And now they don't feel safe.

And that's really sad.

That's awful.

So aside from Jews and Israel animation, you have some other passions.

And And helping people.

Yes.

One of them is veganism and animals.

Yes.

Your boyfriend Willie's Instagram at this point is just like you guys holding insects and reptiles.

I didn't know he liked reptiles when we first got together.

For the record, he had a farm that has 300 goats near Yosemite.

That's amazing.

Which, a happy goat farm.

Yeah.

Which helped with fire brush and they also, it's a non-profit and they grow food and give it to the community.

It's really, really beautiful.

How'd you guys meet?

He slid into my dms.

Wow.

He'll kill me for that Nice work, Willie.

He'll kill me for that.

Shout out to Willie.

So actually to be fair, he was working with a company called Fan meo, which did Virtual Comic Cons.

Okay.

So he didn't know who I was, he wasn't a fan.

Like he doesn't have a My Little Pony tattoo on his butt.

And so yeah.

And so he followed me and we just started very like platonically chatting.

And then after my divorce.

I had seen him on Instagram and on Twitter there's just like this tiny picture.

I didn't know who he was, and then I see him and all the animals.

I'm like, oh my God.

So I did do the slide back.

Mm.

I'd get in a lot of trouble if I didn't talk about the slide back.

Okay.

Fair.

Have you always been like a tarantulas, snakes person?

No.

No, no.

I am not a tarantulas person ever.

I'm warming up to the snakes.

I like furry things that, you know, love you back.

Yeah.

And I'm not convinced reptiles give a shit.

You're on the planet.

No, except for our chameleon.

When you walk.

By, he's a rescue.

He will jump at the glass to get to you to walk on your head.

Aw, he's really cute.

That's sweet.

Does he have a name?

Bernard?

Of course.

Yeah.

Write, that's what name writes classical music.

Yeah, of course he does.

Yeah.

Every animal has their own theme song.

Um, but I've always loved animals and I think, um, going back to my booby.

Being a caterer when I was very little, I have memories of being in the kitchen and seeing full-sized chickens going into the pot and looking at it and, and thinking it looked like an animal.

And from a very young age, you know when you see those videos where kids are like, I don't wanna eat it, it's my friend.

That was me.

Yeah.

And because my family was Russian Jewish, like.

Save everything.

Eat everything.

I sort of had to fight them on understanding why I didn't want to eat animals.

Mm-hmm.

And I'm also not like an obnoxious, do you know what you're eating person?

I, I think everybody should have that freedom to choose whatever they wanna do, but I do think people should think about more about.

How animals are treated in factory farming and the amount, like if everybody cut down a little, it would be so much better for the environment.

And also there should be like cameras and people making sure that the animals aren't unnecessarily abused because they are.

Yeah.

And some of that footage is so disturbing and some of those guys are walking around society after kicking an animal in the head like, that's not right.

So we should be thinking about these sentient creatures that really wanna live.

Like a cow is pretty much a big dog.

A pig is a chubby dog.

Like they have friends and family, and we should be considered.

We should be more considerate about how they're treated.

When I think of that space of like the factory farming, whatever, I actually think of the Simpsons.

Yeah.

There's this like, um, it's like a Troy McClure kind of documentary about how like disgusting these like slaughterhouses are.

And a very funny, it's disgusting.

Take on it.

Disgusting.

It's horrible disgust.

That's like my main frame of reference.

Yeah, you've started something recently called Voice Lings.

Yeah.

Do you wanna join?

Tell me, tell us about it.

Okay, so every single con I go to and every day online I have people tell, ask me, how do you get into voiceover?

And I really didn't want to start a class because I get very angry once again with people taking advantage of people, and I can't guarantee myself work.

Let alone someone else work.

So I didn't want to take people's money without promising something.

And Willie, my boyfriend at the Cons was like, why don't you make a community so people can help each other?

And so much of this business is who you know.

Yeah.

So we started brainstorming about it and I thought, you know what?

If I'm gonna do this, at first I thought I would wing it.

'cause when I go to colleges and talk about animation, I often don't prepare.

I just go out and talk about my life and take questions and help kids.

And I thought, if I'm gonna really do this, I want it to be structured so it makes sense for people.

And I started to write and I couldn't stop.

And it was like 20 classes that I was like, everything that's been in my brain since I'm 13 on how I create characters.

Cool.

So at the very base of it, I'm sharing how I became successful, what my process is, what I do, my adventures.

Again, like you said, you've done improv.

I always tell people start with improv.

Yeah.

Because that's how you do characters quickly.

Often you'll being a do a lead in a show and they'll say, Hey, can you do this little boy?

Right.

Or can you do this teacher or whatever.

So you have to be ready to think on your feet.

So you have all these prerecorded classes that you could do at your own leisure.

Then there is a community on Facebook where we all talk to each other and help each other, and there's like auditions on the site for people to do, and then they share artwork on it, and it's like no bullies allowed area.

And it's very, very sweet.

And then the third element, which I'm really excited about, which is why I partnered with Danny.

So Danny has a school, by the way, that she started when she was 14, to teach kids on the spectrum how to animate.

And this is Dan Animation Entertainment.

Yes.

Yes.

And so I thought.

I can't guarantee people work, but what do people want?

They wanna see themselves animated.

Hmm.

And so sort of to combat AI because.

We can't stop ai, it's going to take a lot of our jobs.

Yeah.

I would love to give the opportunity to kids on the autism spec spectrum, a place to show their work.

So her students are going to be doing the animations.

My students are gonna be doing the voices, and no matter what, everybody in my class is gonna see themselves animated and it's gonna be on the voice slings YouTube channel, which that's fun.

I just love, so it's a whole community and thing rather than just, you know, here pay for this class.

Wow.

That's amazing.

So you should join us.

That's, I would love to, that's such a terror way to approach it.

Right?

Totally.

That's a beautiful, so as we love to do here on being Jewish, we're gonna end with a lightning round.

Okay.

Yours is gonna be a little different than everybody else.

Is Tara?

Okay, Timmy Turner, what's your favorite Jewish holiday?

For sure.

Hanukkah.

I wish every day could be Hanukkah.

Raven, what's your least favorite Jewish holiday?

Yo Kippur.

I knew you were gonna say that.

Yeah.

Because I can, you know, starve myself and meditate any day.

But when someone's telling me to do it, I don't like it.

Perfect answer.

Um, dill, what's your favorite Jewish food?

Delicious Harley challah.

Rip it or slice it.

You gotta rip that shit.

Yeah.

Rip it up.

Can we swear on this show?

Oh yeah.

Rip that shit.

Gimme a piece outta challah.

Miss minutes.

If you could have Shabbat dinner with any Jew from the past, who would it be?

That's such a good question.

Well, miss Menace is still Tara, so Hey y'all.

If I could have dinner with any Jew, it would be my mom.

Aww.

Bubbles.

Who are some of your favorite Jewish voices out there that you like to, to listen to and learn from?

Jewish voices that I.

Who else do I like?

I don't know.

I'll just me.

That's a great answer.

You.

Thanks.

Hi, you.

Thanks Bob.

Boys and Tara.

Yeah.

What is something positive that has come out of the past 18 months for you and, and what you've learned from it?

I would say the positive part is, um, being there for kids who are really feeling alone.

And um, actually I've had a lot of people reach out to me privately and say, I came at you online, I'm really sorry, but people really pressuring me to be on this side of things and I wasn't educated.

So like, I think opening people's minds and hearts to there being a bigger story here has been quite rewarding.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

What do you, have you gotten that response?

Like they've come to you on their own or?

Yeah, just like, some time has passed and they go, I learned something and I came back.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Which is really sweet.

That's unbelievable.

Yeah.

Really sweet.

And so like, I.

I love that element.

I love the kids in Israel saying, you're our queen.

Please come to see us.

It's so beautiful.

It's so sweet.

And also, I love how the Jewish community in general has come together because it shouldn't be a brave thing.

You shouldn't be afraid to stand up for your own people.

I don't know that any other minority has that problem.

So the fact that people are standing up even in the fear of.

Being ridiculed, having bullies online and seeing how brave people are and seeing people come together has been really wonderful.

I just love Mish BHA and community and also the friends of the Jewish people.

And there are so many, many, like your post last week talking about the Muslim activists.

Yeah.

There's so many beautiful activists that have come forward at great risk to their life.

Loe Al Sharif and um, Sarah Idon.

Mm-hmm.

Like these people risk their lives every day.

Yeah.

And like, we love you guys.

Like, we love everybody standing up.

For love.

That's what matters.

I really believe, I know this is gonna sound cliche, but I really believe that love is the most powerful force in the universe, and I'm a really big person that believes in magic.

And I just think the more love we can put out there and get people to see that, that's really where we are coming from as a people.

It's where we've always come from.

Mm-hmm.

And I hope we can just keep bringing people together.

Let's bring more love and bring people together.

Tara, thank you so much for being with us.

Thanks for having me and all of your wonderful friends.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

Thanks for having me on.

Being Jewish.

I'm gonna, that's gonna be like, we're just gonna use that every time now.

I wish you had me every day on being Jewish.

Whatever.

I'm Jewish.

Oh, boy.

That was really fun, Tara.

I loved having you and all the literal voices inside your head.

Join me today.

If you're watching this on jbs, please subscribe to the Pod on Apple or Spotify.

Subscribe to my YouTube at youtube.com/at being Jewish Podcast.

And make sure to sign up for my newsletter@jonahplatt.com.

I.

We only got a handful of episodes left this season, but there's still time to sponsor one if you'd like to support our work.

If you're interested, shoot an email over to jonah@jonahplatt.com.

Alright, that's all folks.

I will see you back here for the next animated episode of being Jewish with me, Jonah Platt.