I don’t necessarily want to be the rabbi on record saying that Jewish women are hot, but there was a choice here how to depict Jewish women. I really didn’t like that scene with the engagement ring where [Rabbi Noah’s initial girlfriend Rebecca] has gone and found it. It felt so unfair to her out of the gate. I didn’t love the depiction by Tovah Feldshuh [who plays Bina, Rabbi Noah’s mother]. This tension around our parents wanting us to marry Jews—I went through that. My grandparents are Holocaust survivors. It was very much driven into our family story. I don’t even remember my parents telling me to marry a Jew, I just remember knowing it. And I also see the way that that is changing, shifting, and evolving in a lot of ways, because I do think finding a connection with someone you love is inherently a huge value that I hold.
I just wish he had brought the conversion up earlier and more thoughtfully like, “Hey, I’m really into you and I just want you to know this is a thing I have to at least think about.” The fact that it was a little bit of an afterthought felt unrealistic—for [a] rabbi, of all people. You could have still told this story about how he’s wrestling with this identity and this career that is not congruous in a lot of ways with partnering with a non-Jewish person. It didn’t need to come at the expense of this depiction of his family and his congregants and his friends. That part just felt unnecessary.
Let’s wrap up with some quicker questions. Can someone afford a house like his on an associate rabbi salary?
Short answer, no. I’m renting in Silver Lake. I mean, he seems a few years further along in his career, in that he’s up for this promotion, but Silver Lake is one of the most expensive zip codes in America. A rabbi salary might buy you that in the suburbs of Chicago where a lot of my good friends are rabbis, but it’s not getting you that in Silver Lake.
Also, maybe I was reading too much into it, but this is another one of my criticisms of the show: They didn’t need to make his family so rich. To me, that’s how I read the house.
Rabbi Noah only seems to only wear a yarmulke when he’s doing official rabbi stuff. Does that ring true?
That’s actually not uncommon for a Reform rabbi, especially for the men. In fact, you’re seeing the ways that he’s not a traditionally observant Jew. He’s playing his basketball game on Saturdays on Shabbat. He went out to dinner right after services Friday night. Again, there are different levels of practice, but I’m having Shabbat meals at home. I’m not spending money on Shabbat.
Can rabbis smoke weed?
Yes. I mean, there’s still going to be a stigma around it, but yes.
If you were going to feature a nouveau Eastside bagel place, would you have picked the Yeastie Boys truck like the show did, or would you have chosen somewhere else?
I would not have necessarily picked Yeastie Boys. One of our congregants owns Maury’s, so we always do our Nefesh bagels at Maury’s. Look, I don’t want to bad mouth any business, but Maury’s is where I get bagels from.
