‘Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ actress Caroline Aaron on Jewish representation and her Southern roots

Actress Caroline Aaron plays the mahjong-loving, zany Jewish mother on Amazon Prime’s hit series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” In a Zoom conversation on Jan. 16 with the Los Angeles-based Jewish theater company The Braid, Aaron, 69, talked about how she is a proud Jew from Richmond, Va., who never truly saw herself represented on the big or small screen.

“I don’t remember seeing anyone on television that was like me or having my experience growing up,” Aaron said. “There will be some little girl now who sees Midge (the titular Mrs. Maisel played by Rachel Brosnahan) and goes, ‘I want to be that.’ I didn’t have that.”

Aaron’s appearance was part of The Braid’s current salon show “Sweet Tea & the Southern Jew,” which celebrates Southern Jewish storytelling. Aaron’s story focuses on her mother.

Aaron, who changed her last name from Abady to her father’s first name when she started to act professionally, said she has always been conscious of her Jewish and Southern identities. Growing up, she said she didn’t have a large Jewish community to model certain ritual and cultural experiences.

“I have been the victim of being Jewish and therefore being disqualified,” she said, recalling how her agent warned her she might have trouble landing roles because her last name is clearly Jewish. She also shared that when she got married, she couldn’t pick up her wedding cake because the country club where the cake was located didn’t allow Jews.

Aaron also shared stories of her mother, a Mizrahi Jew who was raised in Selma, Ala. “She was born with a sense of justice,” Aaron said. Her father was Sephardic, originally from Beirut. Aaron’s mother was 38 when her father died, leaving three children, but her mother nonetheless continued her social justice work while balancing life as a widowed mom.

Aaron revealed that her mother was “quite special,” because she went to law school and received two master’s degrees. At Virginia Union University, she was an assistant professor of sociology. Witnessing her mother, the only white professor at a historically Black university, Aaron saw the Jewish and Black communities working together to create change during the civil rights movement.

“[My mother] raised money from the Jewish community in Richmond to create a school of business at this all-Black university … this became her life’s work.

Aaron said she embraced the lessons her mother taught her and used them to connect with people through storytelling.  “It’s important to tell our authentic Jewish stories because they’re not there,” she said. “Let’s open up the lens and include everyone in those stories.”

Aaron’s grateful that “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” does just that and believes it’s why the show resonates with so many women around the world. “After the second season, we went to Milan to do international press and there were journalists [from] all over the world,” she said. “And I was like, ‘What could possibly be of interest?’ I had to find out. First and foremost: Family is universal. That deeply resonates with everyone. In Sweden, [a journalist said], ‘We’ve never seen a show where a woman is confident.’ Here is a [lead] woman [character] who is in possession of her ambition and her dreams and has a direction…. It seems to be unlocking a key for people all over the world.”

Season 4 of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video starting on Feb. 18.