On episode 8, season 27 of The Bachelor, contestant Ariel Frenkel, who hails from a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant family in New York, is seen leading all-American Bachelor Zach Shallcross around New York City, feeding him cow tongue sandwiches and gefilte fish from Sarge’s Deli and telling him her family’s story of fleeing the Soviet Union. Such overt references to Jewishness are unprecedented on the franchise; though the show has featured a few Jewish leads, it tends to downplay contestants’ references to their minority identities and center stories of people using their Christian values to guide them toward love. On this episode of On the Nose, associate editor Mari Cohen and fellow Dahlia Krutkovich join Hannah Srajer, an organizer and PhD candidate in history at Yale University, and Xandra Ellin, a producer at Pineapple Street Studios, to talk about Frenkel’s improbable run on the show. They discuss how the portrayal of Frenkel’s as an exotic other illuminates the show’s identification with white Christian patriarchy, why the Jewishness of another contestant involved in a racist scandal flew under the radar, and what to make of a pro-Israel article Frenkel published in 2014. 

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

Related Articles: 

“‘The Bachelor’ Has A Race — And Racism — Problem,” Emma Gray and Claire Fallon, The Huffington Post  

“Why Haven’t We Had an Openly Jewish Bachelorette?” Catherine Horowitz, Jewish Women’s Archive 

Former ‘Bachelor’ contestant Greer Blitzer apologizes for defending racist blackface, Jonah Valdez, Los Angeles Times 

“This ‘Bachelor’ Finalist’s Op-Ed Was Mysteriously Deleted Before Premiere,” Noor Ibrahim, The Daily Beast