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4 days ago
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Nobody Wants This is on course to be a breakout Netflix hit, but the series has attracted some shade for its portrayal of Jewish people.
The Adam Brody and Kristen Bell romantic comedy premiered last week, scoring 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and looking likely to chart strongly in Netflix’s top 10.
Created by Erin Foster, and loosely based on her life, Nobody Wants This chronicles the unlikely romance between Noah (Brody), a weed-smoking rabbi, and Joanne (Bell), a sexually liberated atheist podcaster.
The show has raised eyebrows, however. Jessica Radloff, writer of The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series, took issue with its depiction of Jewish women.
“We come off as controlling, marriage-hungry women who want to plan dinner parties and alienate anyone who doesn’t share those same dreams,” she wrote in Glamour, where she serves as senior West Coast editor.
Radloff, who qualified that she “really enjoyed” the series despite her misgivings, took issue with a scene in the first episode during which Joanne is described by Noah’s mother as a “shiksa,” a disparaging term for a non-Jewish woman.
“This scene at the temple is the exact opposite of what we Jews are taught to do — welcome thy neighbor,” Radloff added. “At a time when antisemitism is at the highest levels we’ve seen since the Holocaust, scenes like this hit me hard.”
Radloff was not alone in her observations. Allison Josephs, who uses Jew in the City to advocate for accurate representations of the Jewish community in the media, said Nobody Wants This portrayed Jewish women as having “rampant” xenophobia. David Bashevkin, a rabbi and academic, said the show’s trailer featured a “whole lot of classic Jewish stereotypes.”
Responding to the concerns, Foster told the Los Angeles Times: “I think we need positive Jewish stories right now. I think it’s interesting when people focus on, “Oh, this is a stereotype of Jewish people,” when you have a rabbi as the lead. A hot, cool, young rabbi who smokes weed. That’s the antithesis of how people view a Jewish rabbi, right?
“If I made the Jewish parents, like, two granola hippies on a farm, then someone would write, ‘I’ve never met a Jewish person like that before. You clearly don’t know how to write Jewish people, you don’t know what you’re doing, and that doesn’t represent us well.'”
Foster, who converted to Judaism after falling in love with her husband, added that it was important to cast a Jewish actor as Noah. “I did feel like someone who’s not Jewish playing a rabbi as the lead in a show that is putting a positive light on Jewish culture felt wrong. That didn’t sit right with me,” she said.
Foster added: “What I really wanted to do was shed a positive light on Jewish culture from my perspective — my positive experience being brought into Jewish culture, sprinkling in a little fun, [and] educational moments.”
