It’s clear from chatting with Erin Foster that she not only adores her Jewish husband, but she’s also embraced her identity as a Jewish woman.
We chatted ahead of the premiere of “Nobody Wants This,” the new show she created and wrote inspired by her conversion journey, about creating meaningful depictions of Judaism on the screen and the need for hot rabbis on TV.
However, when I brought up a question about the show’s depiction of its Jewish women, her answer didn’t display the same kind of passion, admitting to me, “It wasn’t really something I was thinking about too much.”
When crafting the characters surrounding Adam Brody’s Rabbi Noah, including his sister-in-law Esther (Jackie Tohn), his ex-girlfriend Rebecca (Emily Arlook) and his mother Bina (Tovah Feldshuh), Foster said she was specifically looking for characters that would contrast with Kristen Bell’s agnostic sex and relationships podcaster Joanne. After watching “Nobody Wants This,” that became evident to me, because the characters offer very little else.
This trio of judgmental, needy and mean-spirited Jewish women exists solely as obstacles standing between Noah and Joanne. We know nothing about them beyond their disdain — or jealousy — of the non-Jewish woman they view as wrongly infiltrating Noah’s life .
One particularly cringe-worthy moment arrives when Bina comforts a despondent Rebecca with, “Everyone knows shiksas are just for practice,” one of the many gag-worthy lines in this five-hour series.
Esther repeatedly honks her car horn like a mom at middle school drop-off to tell her husband Sasha to leave, referring to Joanne and her sister as “whore number one and whore number two” in the process — nicknames she enthusiastically repeats throughout the show.
These Jewish female characters, beyond their spite and hatred for Joanne, are devoid of depth and drenched in every possible stereotype.
This is no more obvious than the gaggle of Noah’s synagogue congregants who swarm him like a pop star’s teen groupies to try to pitch him their single daughters. One desperate mother lauds the fact that her daughter just recovered from shingles… yikes.
For decades, Jewish women shown on screen have largely been vapid, mean and materialistic. Ben Gross’ girlfriend Shira in “Never Have I Ever” is grating and uninterested. Chandler can’t seem to shake the clingy, annoying Janice in “Friends.” And let’s not forget “Mean Girls’” Gretchen Wieners, constantly mocked for being the least sexually desirable of the Plastics, with her Jewishness (or stereotypical features) often the punchline.
These women are never redeemed and never stick around past the point where they can simply be made fun of. Typically, the Jewish American Princess girlfriend is replaced by the “shiksa goddess” — the effortlessly cool, complaint-free, usually blonde antithesis. She’s not just different — she’s better by virtue of not being Jewish.
In “Keeping the Faith,” a film that had some influence in Noah being written as a rabbi in “Nobody Wants This,” Ben Stiller’s Rabbi Jake is enamored with Jenna Elfman’s Anna Reilly, who is in direct contrast to Lisa Edelstein’s much-despised and overbearing Ali — the Jewish woman who aggressively tries to proposition Jake for sex after a date.
In Jason Robert Brown’s “The Last Five Years,” Jaime Wellerstein (soon to be played by non-Jewish Nick Jonas on Broadway, no less) sings a love song titled “Shiksa Goddess,” listing the many Jewish women he’s rejected to get to his non-Jewish dream girl. He sings about how nothing matters about his new love interest except the fact that she’s not Jewish. “Hey! Hey! Shiksa goddess! I’ve been waiting for someone like you.”
The number of times the word “shiksa” was mentioned in “Nobody Wants This” was gratuitous, if not astounding. It’s said 17 times during the 10-episode run, making it explicit that Joanne was supposed to be seen as the manic shiksa dream girl. The original name of the show was even supposed to be “Shiksa” before it became apparent that most Americans weren’t familiar with the slur.
“Nobody Wants This” sets up a clear, disturbing dichotomy: the Jewish witch vs. the shiksa goddess. Even when the show attempts to generate empathy for its Jewish women, they’re still cast as ultimately villainous.
Joanne’s sister Morgan (Justine Lupe) is portrayed as meddling out of sisterly love, while the Jewish women’s schemes are framed as malicious. Rebecca intentionally leads Morgan astray in hopes of sabotaging her new budding relationship. Esther simply invites Joanne to her daughter’s bat mitzvah purely to humiliate her, and forces all her similarly shallow friends to take Noah’s teammates and leave a bar when Joanne approaches them.
The WAGs (wives and girlfriends) of the Matzah Ballers, Noah’s basketball team, are Esther’s sycophants, meant to be nothing but throw-away characters used to illustrate how terrible all the Jewish women Noah knows are. One’s only interest is her tacky necklace brand, another can’t stop talking about her wedding, another is obsessed with breastfeeding.
Bina’s first response to Joanne showing up to Shabbat services is to spit the word “shiksa.” She later tells Joanne “You’re never going to end up with my son” in a tone more suited for a crime drama than a rom-com. She makes it clear that Joanne’s presence is her nightmare, affirming her role as the main hindrance to a happily ever after.
That’s not to say that the Jewish women in “Nobody Wants This” don’t have positive attributes. They’re all intelligent, determined and beautiful. However, in a show that supposedly is about someone seeing the beauty in Judaism, audience members are only greeted with ugliness by the Jewish women representatives.
Noah and Sasha are clearly the good guys; the audience can’t help but root for both of them. Noah is passionate and funny and is even dubbed “hot rabbi” by the camp girls — and, really, who’s going to argue with that? Timothy Simons’ Sasha is lovable and you can’t help but want to support him as he aims to rise above the “loser sibling” archetype. They are the NJBs your (Jewish) mom wants you to take home.
It’s a shame the Jewish women in “Nobody Wants This” are impossible to root for — one-dimensional and painfully trope-ridden. Joanne’s interest in converting to Judaism to be with Noah is understandable; he’s the perfect boyfriend. But who’d want to become a Jewish woman when this is what being one looks like?
In making the entirety of the show through Joanne’s eyes as an outsider to Judaism, “Nobody Wants This” exclusively presents these women as villains. Rebecca is justified in her anger at being replaced so quickly after she and Noah’s breakup, which is caused by her wearing her engagement ring before he proposes. However, the show gives no empathy toward her experience of losing her dream life and boyfriend to another woman within mere weeks. It’s not just Noah who falls for Joanne’s charms; the allure of a free-spirited non-Jewish woman tempts Sasha as well as he begins a secret friendship with Morgan behind his wife’s back. While written as platonic, their romantic compatibility seemed more compelling than Noah and Joanne’s at certain points.
The only thing standing between Noah and Joanne’s love in “Nobody Wants This” are the Jewish women close to him — the only thing that he’s potentially willing to reject his dream head rabbi job for is a future with Joanne.
Where “Nobody Wants This” should triumph in its exploration of Judaism and Jewish femininity, it takes the low road with cheap laughs and even cheaper characterizations. There’s no love for Noah and Joanne if he chooses to keep seeking Judaism. Either he loses out on his dream Jewish job, his mother’s love and his social circle, or he loses Joanne. Love and Judaism are at odds with each other in “Nobody Wants This” at every turn, and in every scenario, the misrepresentation of Jewish women is to blame. Nobody wants that.
