(JTA) — Jewish actors Jesse Eisenberg and Lizzy Caplan will play lead roles in  the TV adaptation of Fleishman is in Trouble, the 2019 novel by Taffy Brodesser-Akner about a Jewish man’s middle-age crisis. The husband and wife characters met while studying abroad in Israel. The casting comes amid a renewed debate over whether only Jewish actors should play Jewish characters on screen. The announcement of Kathryn Hahn as the choice to play Joan Rivers in a biopic — which is no longer getting made, due to objections by Rivers’ family — set off a recent spike in conversation on the topic.

Comedian Sarah Silverman has had strong thoughts on the topic, dubbed the “Jewface” debate by some, in interviews. “Margo Martindale as Bella Abzug. Tracey Ullman as Betty Friedan,” Silverman fumed in a September episode of her podcast. “And on and on and on. Rachel McAdams in ‘Disobedience.’ It really is endless, and none of these actresses are doing anything wrong. But collectively, it’s f—ed up.”

Eisenberg, 39, was raised in a secular Jewish family in New Jersey and has previously portrayed Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s Jewish founder, in “The Social Network. Caplan, also 39, made her debut as Sara, the girlfriend of Jason Segel‘s character, on the cult TV hit “Freaks and Geeks” more than 20 years ago. Since then, the actress, who grew up in a Reform Jewish home in Los Angeles and went to Jewish summer camp, has starred in a range of roles and will replace Glenn Close in a forthcoming remake of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

Whoever was chosen for the lead roles, there is no question that the series, which is in production now and will air on FX and Hulu, will lean heavily into its character’s Jewish identities. “This is a book about a Jew in New York,” Brodesser-Akner told Kveller in 2019. “I like the idea of not explaining what a Friday night dinner is — just having a Friday night dinner. I like the idea of everyone going only to the school where they’re going to meet other Jews like them. There’s still this huge culture around Jewishness, and I’m very comfortable in it.”

Main Photo:  Lizzy Caplan and Jesse Eisenberg, the Jewish stars of “Fleishman Is in Trouble.” (Getty Images)