How a real rabbi coached the Netflix series “Nobody Wants This”

“Nobody Wants This,” a romantic comedy on Netflix in which Adam Brody plays a charming Los Angeles rabbi who falls in love with blonde, agnostic sex and dating podcaster Kristen Bell, is based on a true story — sort of.

Erin Foster, the show’s creator, is a blonde Los Angeles native who found her match in a Jew, if not a rabbi – her husband is record label owner Simon Tikhman – and converted for him. Like her protagonist Joanne (Bell), she was “crazy” when her then-Jewish boyfriend eagerly tried to impress her mother with a bouquet of oversized sunflowers.

In other words, Foster is a “shiksa” to the ever-nice Jewish boy. “Shiksa,” as Joanne quickly discovers in “Nobody Wants This,” is a derogatory word of Yiddish origin used by Jews to describe non-Jewish white women with varying levels of blonde hair. “Shiksa” was also the original title of the 10-episode series, which premieres on Netflix on Thursday.

Executive produced by Erin Foster and Adam Brody as Rabbi Noah Roklov in the Netflix series “Nobody Wants This.” (Source: Stefania Rosini/Netflix)

Reactions to the highly anticipated series were varied. After the trailer was released earlier this month, fans of Brody marveled at his portrayal of a “hot rabbi,” and one early reviewer praised the show as “a smart and sexy story in which Jews are the plot, not the punchline.” Others were outraged by what they saw as stereotypes about arrogant Jewish women.

Steve Leder, the former senior rabbi of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, gave his advice to the cast and crew as a consulting rabbi. He had his own connection to the true love story – Foster converted to Judaism in his synagogue. (“Temple can be very boring,” Foster recently told New York Magazine, but she praised the eight-week “Choosing Judaism” course she took with her husband before their wedding.)

Steve Leder, the senior rabbi of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, was a consultant on the series. (Source: Courtesy)

Jewishness on the screen

Leder was tasked with checking out on-screen Judaism, from the earnest Rabbi Noah’s (Brody) schedule to the pronunciation of Hebrew words to ordering candles, wine and bread for Shabbat. Brody gained fame for portraying Jewish characters on screen, most notably Seth Cohen in The OC and more recently Seth Morris in Fleishman Is in Trouble. But in real life, he says, he “barely had the bar mitzvah and didn’t know anything about it” and had Leder’s help on his own journey through books, podcasts and documentaries about Judaism.

“Everything in the series that, for lack of a better way to put it, is overtly Jewish – I did my best to make sure it was done with authenticity and respect,” Leder told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The show’s central tension — whether Noah can marry a non-Jew while continuing his path as a rabbi — is also realistic, Leder said. While some rabbis marry non-Jews, it is more common for their partners to eventually convert, he said. Traditional Jewish law, known as Halacha, prohibits marriage between Jews and non-Jews.

Still, “Nobody Wants This” comes at a time when American Jewish institutions are increasingly accepting intermarried rabbis. Hebrew Union College, the Reform movement’s rabbinical seminary, announced in June that it was lifting its ban on interfaith relationships for rabbinical students. The Reform Movement is by far the largest denomination in the United States, with four out of ten members married to non-Jews. Reform rabbis were never forbidden to intermarry.

The HUC’s decision followed similar changes at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and the pluralist Hebrew College. The Conservative Movement’s two seminaries continue to prohibit interfaith relationships, a position the movement reaffirmed this year in line with the denomination’s commitment to halacha, but since 2018 their rabbis have been allowed to attend interfaith weddings. (Noah’s denomination in “Nobody Wants This” remains unclear, but his practices suggest that his synagogue is most likely a Reform synagogue.)

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According to a 2020 Pew survey, the institutions follow a norm among American Jews, who have increasingly intermarried in recent decades. Religious intermarriage is increasing across the United States, and Jews are far less religious than American adults as a whole, measured by traditional measures of religious service attendance and belief in God.

A long-standing concern among Jewish leaders about the survival of the community, seen as threatened by intermarriage and population decline, has also been tempered by research into how families living in intermarriage actually raise their children. The Pew survey found that most intermarried parents are raising their children with some form of Jewish identity.

But you wouldn’t expect this trend of acceptance from Noah’s Jewish circle. As much as he fears the rejection of his community, he is also intimidated by the judgment of his own family – especially the women and especially his mother Bina (played by Broadway star Tovah Feldshuh, who is also Jewish in “Crazy”) mother played). Bina comforts Noah’s most recent Jewish ex-girlfriend by saying, “Everyone knows shiksas are just for practice.”

Bina is overbearing, demanding and tries to kiss her son on the mouth. Noah’s sister-in-law Esther (Jackie Tohn) is similarly adamant – dominating her feckless husband Sasha (Timothy Simons) and drawing sharp, demeaning contrasts to Joanne, whom she refers to as “Whore No. 1” (Joanne’s sister Morgan, played by Justine). Lupe is “Whore No. 2”). The only Jewish woman who immediately welcomes Joanne is a rabbi she meets briefly in Noah’s former camp, who also happens to be blonde.

The stereotypes of Jewish women can sometimes be jarring, as necessary as they are to the series’ comedic contrast between the funny, outspoken, sex-positive Shiksa and the strict, reserved Jewish women who see her as a threat. But Leder said that while their exaggerated tendencies were intended for fun, the Jews were in on the joke.

“Basically, these characters were based on real people,” Leder said. “You know, there’s that old joke about the Jews… ‘The Jews are like everyone else, only more so.’ So it’s kind of like television, right – it’s real, but more real.”

How a real rabbi coached the Netflix series “Nobody Wants This” – Israel News

ByJasper

Jewishness on the screen

By Jasper

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