JTA: Mandy Patinkin on why Inigo Montoya is Jewish and what Saul Berenson would tell his Israeli sister about Trump

By Ron Kampeas

Mandy Patinkin brought a piece of his silver-screen past to the table in his first direct appeal to American Jews to vote for a candidate, Joe Biden.

Inigo Montoya’s sword plays a role in Patinkin’s appeal in a Jewish Democratic Council of America ad debuting Friday.

In an interview, Patinkin said it wasn’t the first time he used objects that melded his fictional and real universes: Saul Berenson, the CIA bureau chief he played in the Showtime series “Homeland,” kept on his desk a passage that he — Mandy Patinkin, that is — favors from tractate Sanhedrin in the Mishnah.

The Jewish Democratic Council of America will target with a digital ad Jews in swing states — especially Florida — who have yet to vote. It plays on Patinkin’s character in the 1987 movie “The Princess Bride,” Montoya, a skilled fencer who seeks to avenge his father. Patinkin’s catchphrase in the movie is, “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”