Jewish Joy, Kids Entertainment & Pickle Latkes with Monty Pickle & Halle Stanford

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Halle Stanford, executive producer and co-creator of "The Monty Pickle Show" and Monty Pickle himself.

A kosher dill with a lot of personality, Monty Pickle is the first-ever series aimed at introducing kids to the Jewish experience and Jewish joy. Monty's YouTube channel has videos of him performing the new Hanukkah song "8 is Great" with Kosha Dillz, as well as cooking episodes: solo and with celebrity chef Duff Goldman.

"I think that kids not only love food, they love seeing how food is made," Monty says. "[They] like a little peek behind the curtain."

"Monty's amazing," says Stanford, a primetime and children's Emmy award-winner, who produced content for the Jim Henson Company for more than 30 years. "What better way to introduce [children] to [the Jewish experience] than through an amazing pickle puppet."

Stanford teamed up with former "Sesame Street" EP and creative director Benjamin Lehmann and world-renowned puppeteer Victor Yerrid to create Monty. They then went out and recruited colleagues from the kid's content world, including Emmy-nominated children's TV showrunner and writer Elise Allen, Emmy Award-winning producer Jill Hotchkiss and Emmy Award-winning producer, Jewish educator and founder of Hebrew Helpers Todd Shotz, to bring him to life.

"There's a lot of children's media that does celebrate Jewish characters," says Stanford, who created the show, "Sid, the Science Kid;" the first Jewish preschooler. "And you can even think of your favorite episode [in a specific show.]"

However, Monty is the first actual series that dives "deep into the pickle barrel of all kinds of Jewish cultural experiences," she explains. " You instill empathy and joy for the Jewish experience in all children globally, that's gonna carry on."

Monty Pickle and Halle Stanford talk about the show's origin story and its purpose: to get kids and their parents laughing out loud together and celebrating being Jewish. They also share their recipe for pickle latkes, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Learn more at TheMontyPickleShow.com, subscribe to @MontyPickleShow on YouTube and follow @MontyPickleShow on Instagram and @Monty_Pickle_Show on TikTok.

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