MSN/The Forward
Published on January 30, 2026
Netflix’s “Queen of Chess” tells the story of the extraordinary career of Judit Polgár while largely omitting her Jewish identity. The film foregrounds gender as the primary lens through which her story is told—her upbringing, discipline, and success in a male-dominated field—yet excludes the Jewish context that shaped her family history and cultural background.This omission reflects a broader pattern in cultural storytelling: gender and other identities are treated as essential and explanatory, while Jewish identity is minimized or erased, even when it is historically and personally relevant.