Jewish Women Have Strong Thoughts About One Of The Most Beloved Shows On TV Right Now

Last month, ahead of the release of the now much-discussed and widely beloved Netflix rom-com series “Nobody Wants This,” stars Adam Brody and Kristen Bell appeared on the “Armchair Expert” podcast.

They spoke candidly with hosts Dax Shepard (Bell’s husband) and Monica Padman about their chemistry, as well as that earth-shattering first kiss that has since sparked a million memes — and the Brody-ssance that many of us have been waiting for since “ The O.C .”

Brody, it turns out, had a gripe with the kiss scene: He felt it would be unrealistic for his character to tell Bell’s to put her purse down on the Los Angeles sidewalk.

Watching the show, even the most germaphobic, purse-toting, city-dwelling among us were able to suspend our disbelief in the name of that chemistry, that kiss.

But there was something else about the series that didn’t jibe with a lot of otherwise besotted viewers, myself included: its cartoonish portrayal of Jewish women. Almost as soon as the glowing reviews hit, so too did the critiques on sites like Time and Vulture — and, of course, on X, formerly Twitter.

In one post, freelance writer Miriam Handel said, “adam brody is so hot in nobody wants this that it’s making me overlook the lowkey diabolical way in which jewish women exist on the show.”

Low-key diabolical, indeed.“Nobody Wants This” was inspired by creator Erin Foster’s real-life experience being a non-Jewish woman who falls in love with a Jewish man. (Foster later converted to Judaism.) In the television version, there are higher stakes: Brody plays a hot rabbi named Noah and Bell plays Joanne, who ― as we are reminded countless times ― is a “shiksa.” The word, derived from Yiddish, has been used historically (and often disparagingly)