The Agony and the Ecstasy of "Jewish Matchmaking"

Netflix’s new reality show Jewish Matchmaking, a follow-up to its hit series Indian Matchmaking, follows Orthodox matchmaker Aleeza Ben Shalom as she helps Jewish singles find their beshert, or soulmate. While Indian Matchmaking documents contemporary approaches to an ancient custom, Jewish Matchmaking finds Aleeza applying the principles of an age-old tradition to modern courtship with a cohort of mostly non-Orthodox Jews. The show includes a wide variety of Jewish traditions and practices: Sephardic, Ashkenazi, and Mizrahi; secular, “flexidox,” and observant. But there are also notable limits to the diversity—particularly on the question of Zionism—and the show’s picture of Jewish life is strikingly insubstantial. On this week’s episode of On the Nose, editor-in-chief Arielle Angel, managing editor Nathan Goldman, associate editor Mari Cohen, and news editor Aparna Gopalan discuss the questions Jewish Matchmaking raises about contemporary Jewishness, dating, and the relationship between endogamy and ethnonationalism.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).” 

Articles and Podcast Episodes Mentioned:

“Two Paths for the Jewish Bachelor Contestant,” On the Nose

“Is He Jewish?,” Mari Cohen, Jewish Currents

“What We Talk About When We Talk About ‘Intermarriage,’” Jewish Currents

“Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a Match,” Hannah Jackson, The Cut

“It was the million-selling novel that shaped a generation of Jews — does anyone still read it?,” Jenny Singer, The Forward

“Couples Therapy,” On the Nose