Season 2 of Netflix’s “Nobody Wants This” has sparked plenty of debate — much of it centering on how the show depicts Jewish women. Critics have rightly called out the stereotypes: the no-nonsense, overbearing mother, the controlling wife, the self-absorbed sister-in-law. These portrayals can feel dated and, at times, unfair. When Jewish characters appear so rarely in mainstream pop culture, every depiction carries extra weight — and we should demand better.

But I also think the pile-on has missed something important. The best comedy often plays on stereotypes; not to validate them, but to expose them and exaggerate them in a way that subverts them. Humor and cultural caricature have always been intertwined. And in this case, I believe the show’s existence — with Jewish characters at its center, created by a Jewish convert (Erin Foster), and crafted in consultation with a rabbi (Sharon Brous) — is something worth celebrating, not condemning.

Let’s also acknowledge that “Nobody Wants This” gets several things right.

It is absolutely realistic for a rabbi to be single and dating. It is equally realistic that such a rabbi might meet and fall in love with someone who isn’t Jewish.

The show’s “meddling family” scenes may feel exaggerated, but anyone who has worked with interfaith couples — as I do, exclusively — will recognize the truth behind them. There are always family expectations, anxieties and loyalties at play. Jewish parents and siblings often struggle to reconcile pride in their traditions with concern about their loved one’s choices. Those tensions are real, and the show portrays them with a measure of honesty beneath the humor. I have seen much worse in reality.

Where the series misses its deepest opportunity, however, is in its treatment of conversion. Nearly 70% of Jews outside the Orthodox community today marry non-Jews. That’s  an extraordinary opportunity for growth. Interfaith relationships, approached thoughtfully, can be pathways into Judaism rather than exits from it.

And so I cannot understand, and found it hard to watch, how Noah, the rabbi, knows he wants to marry a Jew and wishes his girlfriend, Joanne, would convert. Yet, he doesn’t connect her to another rabbi or to a community that could guide her. Instead, he takes on the task of educating her himself — randomly and haphazardly (creating some seriously awkward scenes).

In real life, conversion is never a solo act. It unfolds within a community, guided by experienced mentors, study, and experiences. For Rabbi Noah, outsourcing that role to another colleague would not only have been more authentic — it would have modeled something beautiful: that Jewish learning and growth is relational, communal, and deeply supported.

Had they found our Center for Exploring Judaism, I would have taken Joanne under my wing. I would have invited her to community gatherings, and encouraged Noah and Joanne, as a couple, to join one of our classes — where she could see that she is not alone. I would cherish the chance to build a relationship with her grounded in honesty, warmth, and patience. I would remind her, as I do with all my students, that we have no agenda. We are here simply to walk this path of discovery alongside you. And we’re thrilled by your interest!

Conversion, I’d explain, is an organic process — of learning, practicing, and thoughtfully trying things on for size. Come in. Learn. Experience. See what feels right. There is no exam, no checklist, even for those who ultimately choose to convert to Judaism. The only true test is the one that unfolds throughout the rest of your life. Joanne, do you feel like an imposter? Or, well informed by what you’ve learned, are you living your truth?

All this said, I think the criticism that the show might be “bad for the Jews” is unwarranted. At a time when antisemitism is at a modern high, the very fact that Judaism, rabbis and Jewish families are the subjects of a major Netflix series is itself meaningful. “Nobody Wants This” is neither ignorant nor malicious; it’s messy, human, and, yes, a little cringey — much like Jewish life itself. And above all else, it’s a rom-com. Let’s all take a breath.

The irony of the title isn’t lost on me. Because in fact, Jews should want this. We should want Jewish stories on screen — even imperfect ones. We should want portrayals that spark discussion about how we love, live, and grow as Jews in the modern world. And we should want our communities to see interfaith love not as a threat, but as a chance to expand the circle.

The truth is, everybody should want this.

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The post Conversion isn’t a solo act. So why is the rabbi in ‘Nobody Wants This’ acting alone? appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Plenty of Jews were concerned about the specter of Zohran Mamdani becoming mayor of New York. But few did as much to mobilize other Jews around the issue as Jonathan Schulman.

Via his newly formed organization, The Jewish Majority, Schulman circulated a letter to rabbis and cantors around the country opposing “rising anti-Zionism and its political normalization throughout our nation.” The letter, which called out Mamdani by name, was signed by more than 1,100 Jewish congregational leaders — one of the most widely endorsed missives of its kind — and galvanized many clergy who had been reluctant to use their pulpits to wade into a political arena.

They didn’t get what they wanted. Yet the day after a decisive victory by Mamdani, Schulman wasn’t as despondent as one might imagine. Instead, he sees his group’s work as a success.

“This wasn’t about Mamdani,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Wednesday, rejecting the suggestion that his campaign amounted to an effort to get Jews to vote against the mayor-elect. 

Instead, Schulman said, The Jewish Majority proved that it could combat a “subversion of the accurate representation of the Jewish narrative.”

He sees his work as simple: providing an organized Jewish voice, on Israel and other issues, to counteract what he sees as the growing influence of left-wing Jewish groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. As members of those groups have aligned closely with Mamdani and stand to grow their influence under his administration, the Jewish Majority aims to serve as a counter-narrative.

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran K. Mamdani and NYC comptroller Brad Lander speak during the Jews For Racial And Economic Justice’s Mazals Gala on Sept. 10, 2025 in New York City. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)

“They exist to present fringe views to the public as normative,” he said. “If we decide to let them be the only ones to hold the microphone, that would be a mistake we can’t afford to make.” That includes on the issue of “political anti-Zionism,” which Schulman insists was the goal of the rabbinic letter — rather than an explicit anti-endorsement of Mamdani as a candidate. 

There are an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 rabbis in the United States, meaning that potentially a third of them signed on to a single statement. Others indicated that they agreed with the sentiments but chose not to sign for other reasons.

“We’ve seen countless examples over the past couple of years of Jews coming out in support of anti-Zionist candidates,” Schulman said. “And now that narrative has shifted. Now you look at that narrative and it’s hard to say, ‘Well, look, these rabbis are supporting this candidate.’ Well, in fact, what you’re seeing is overwhelmingly one of the largest displays of rabbinic unity that we’ve seen in our country, saying we don’t accept the normalization of political anti-Zionism.”

He is skeptical of early exit polling purporting to show as many as one-third of Jewish voters in New York breaking for Mamdani, and suspects the actual number is closer to the “80-20” split that research suggests also reflects the Jewish consensus around Zionism.

Promoting an institutional Jewish consensus will continue post-Mamdani. Schulman insisted The Jewish Majority would not be making policy, only amplifying the views of major Jewish groups such as the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Congress, Jewish federations and the New York Board of Rabbis. He also said he would not seek to join the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Groups or other coalitions.

“We’re here to reflect,” he said. “It’s not my job to weigh in.” One item on his agenda, he said, is instituting “training programs” to teach Jewish leaders how to “present normative communal perspectives.”

Schulman has felt his own priorities within the Jewish community shift. Before striking off on his own, he spent 18 years at the pro-Israel lobbying giant AIPAC. One of his duties was to “work with congregations throughout the United States to increase the level of pro-Israel political activism in American synagogues.”

He left AIPAC in August 2024, as the group’s brand was becoming increasingly toxic amid the war in Gaza. Today even some moderate Democrats, like Massachusetts Senate candidate Seth Moulton, have sworn off accepting AIPAC donations. When radio host Charlamagne tha God wanted to insult Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as someone with no real principles, he called the Brooklyn congressman “AIPAC Shakur.” 

Schulman declined to comment on whether he had split from AIPAC ideologically. “I have a lot of respect for my former colleagues, and it’s a great organization,” he said. Nor does he see his work with The Jewish Majority as a throughline from his work there. Despite the overlapping focus on Jewish clergy, he insisted, this is “not ‘AIPAC by a different name.’” 

Instead, he said, he left AIPAC because he had identified this new problem — the growing influence of left-wing Jewish groups after Oct. 7 — and wanted to counteract it, in a way he deemed non-political in nature. Even with all the Jewish organizations that were opposing anti-Zionism on the national stage, he said, “there is nobody whose job is to make sure that the Jewish community is accurately represented, that Jewish communal values are accurately represented.”

Those same Jewish groups, whose priorities he hopes to give a megaphone to, are scrambling in the wake of Mamdani’s big win. The ADL has launched a “Mamdani monitor” to keep tabs on the new mayor’s administration. JFREJ, meanwhile, sees no reason to come to the Jewish center: A victory Zoom call scheduled for Thursday to “celebrate our massive win” is set to feature pro-Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour and Jamaal Bowman, the former “Squad” congressman who is rumored to be on Mamdani’s schools chancellor shortlist.

Schulman is optimistic about building an organized Jewish counter-narrative to that perspective — so long as the ceasefire in Gaza holds. 

“The American Jewish community has been undergoing a profound change, and because we’ve been in the middle of this war, which has been a propaganda war here in America that we’ve seen proliferating, we haven’t had the capacity to really think about, ‘What is the future going to look like?’” he said.

“People are starting to finally say, OK, the fighting has stopped, and we need to think about how the Jewish community is going to be able to represent itself for the long haul.”

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The post They rallied rabbis against Mamdani’s anti-Zionism. What does The Jewish Majority do next? appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

(JTA) — The incident that prompted Zohran Mamdani’s first condemnation of local antisemitism since he was elected mayor took place just minutes after the race was called in his favor.

Two red swastikas were spray-painted on Magen David Yeshivah in Brooklyn on Tuesday night, according to footage shared on social media and the New York Police Department, which said the vandalism occurred at 9:53 p.m.

Other Jewish sites in the city were also vandalized, Gov. Kathy Hochul said without offering details.

At the time, Mamdani was on the verge of giving a victory speech that reiterated a pledge to protest Jewish New Yorkers. On Wednesday, he condemned the Magen David Yeshivah vandalism specifically.

“This is a disgusting and heartbreaking act of antisemitism, and it has no place in our beautiful city,” wrote Mamdani in a post on X. “As Mayor, I will always stand steadfast with our Jewish neighbors to root the scourge of antisemitism out of our city.”

A spokesperson for the NYPD said Wednesday afternoon that there had been no arrests and an investigation into the incident was ongoing. The incident was being investigated as a hate crime, the spokesperson said.

Magen David Yeshiva declined to comment on the vandalism. Its principal reportedly told families that security had been increased in response to the graffiti.

The school is located in Gravesend, a hub of New York City’s Sephardic Jewish community. It had required parents to prove they had registered to vote before the school year, as part of a push within the community to oppose Mamdani largely because of his rhetoric on Israel.

Two-thirds of the neighborhood’s voters cast their ballots for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo during the general election, compared to 22% for Mamdani.

Outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams did not immediately issue a public comment on the vandalism. Hochul condemned the vandalism in a post on X, where she said the yeshiva was “one of several Jewish sites defiled last night with spray-painted swastikas.”

An NYPD spokesperson said that a construction site located on McDonald Avenue and Bay Parkway, about a block from the school, was also vandalized with a swastika. The spokesperson could not say whether the second location was a Jewish institution.

UJA-Federation of New York condemned the vandalism in a post on X, writing, “This act is a painful reminder of the rising tide of antisemitism that continues to threaten Jewish communities across New York.”

Some of Mamdani’s critics challenged him to respond to the vandalism. The Republican Jewish Coalition, which hosted a convention where Mamdani was a liberal punching bag in Las Vegas last weekend, took to Facebook to demand he denounce it.

“This reprehensible and odious vandalism must be unequivocally condemned by City leaders, especially Mayor-Elect Mamdani,” the RJC said in a post that went up nine minutes after Mamdani’s. “It is his solemn responsibility to protect ALL New Yorkers, and this is his first true test of leadership.”

At a press conference Wednesday morning in Queens, Mamdani told reporters that he was looking forward to “being the mayor for every person that calls this city home,” including the “Jewish New Yorkers that voted for our campaign and those that didn’t.”

“I take the issue of antisemitism incredibly seriously,” he continued, in response to a question about the Anti-Defamation League’s new monitor to track his administration’s actions. “And last night in my speech, I spoke about how my City Hall will stand steadfast with Jewish New Yorkers in fighting the scourge of antisemitism across the city and making that clear in the actions that we deliver on from January 1st.”

The post Mamdani condemns swastika graffiti at Brooklyn yeshiva as ‘disgusting and heartbreaking’ appeared first on The Forward.