A Rabbi and a Shiksa (a non-Jewish woman), two ends of the spectrum, a classic cliche. Jewish shows are infrequent in modern-day Hollywood, so when the Netflix original Nobody Wants This dropped, Jews everywhere ran to watch this show.
From the outside, it looks like a lighthearted rom-com. A Jewish Rabbi and an agnostic podcaster whose job revolves around discussing her past relationships with her sister. They meet at a friend’s party and instantly click. Rabbi Noah is newly single with a “bitter” sister-in-law, Esther. They spend lots of time together and eventually fall in love. In their relationship, Joanne, the podcaster, battles feeling like an outsider with added hate from Esther while Noah ruffles with hate from his immediate community on his choice of partner.
Many people called this show out for its “stereotypical” and “harmful” portrayal of Jewish people, specifically Jewish women. Two characters, Esther Roklov and Bina Roklov, were painted particularly badly. Both of these women were portrayed as controlling, mean and closed off to people of other religions. They used words like “Shiksa” or “Goy,” two derogative Yiddish words when discussing non-Jewish people. Critics called out the show for being not only anti-Semitic but also sexist as it only had these stereotypes of women. Esther Zuckerman, a writer for Time Magazine proclaimed, “The series seems to loathe Jewish women, who are portrayed as nags, harpies, and the ultimate villains of this story. I wanted to be swept away by a rom-com. Instead, I was faced with the reality that maybe this show actually hates me.”
The writer of the show, Erin Foster, converted to Judaism. In the religion of Judaism, a convert is considered very holy and equal to or even above someone who is born into the religion. Yet this fact leads people to believe that Foster believes in these stereotypes based on how she directed them to be portrayed. Many people said that this is her deep-rooted sexism when it comes to how she portrayed the women in the show.
When asked, Abby Menashe, a practicing Jewish woman and Ida B. Wells VP Secretary said, “It wasn’t particularly bad.” However, Menashe made it clear that while she is sensitive to shows with Jewish stereotypes, this one, in particular, didn’t go too far. She did state, “I do think they went a bit too far with Bina Roklov, the mother of Rabbi Noah, in how she was portrayed as a rather bitter woman.” Yet, Menashe doesn’t think that this show went further than some other, more stereotypical shows, such as “My Unorthodox Life” and “Shtisel.”
Variety Magazine highlighted Jessica Radloff, a Jewish woman as well as an editor for Glamour Magazine, and her statements, “This scene at the temple is the exact opposite of what we Jews are taught to do — welcome thy neighbor,” and, “At a time when antisemitism is at the highest levels we’ve seen since the Holocaust, scenes like this hit me hard.” Radloff, amongst others, believes that the morals portrayed in this show do not align with those of the Jewish religion.
With the general public split 50/50, it’s hard to know if there will be a second season of Nobody Wants This. As of now, the majority of the cast has stayed silent on the controversy. This show is ultimately dividing the Jewish community by who thinks this is harmful and who doesn’t. It will be interesting to see where they go from here.
