For 25 years, the competition show “Survivor” has spanned ages, cultures and countries, becoming reality TV’s foundational series. This social experiment, with a few dozen people alone in nature, forced to work together to survive the elements and vote each other out until there’s a “Sole Survivor,” is now in its 50th season.
Most people don’t expect their rabbi to be a “Survivor” superfan. Yet so much of what I love about “Survivor” is what animates my Judaism: thick and nuanced relationships. And I’m not the only member of the tribe to feel this way.
When I moved to a new community to serve as a pulpit rabbi, “Survivor” became a point of connection with b’nai mitzvah students, young adults and empty nesters in my congregation
Naturally, I became curious if this double bond — “Survivor” fan and Jew — extended to the island. So, I reached out to some of the show’s greatest Jewish players to find out if and how their Jewish identity translated to the game. I spoke with season three winner and self-described “wilderness icon” of old school “Survivor” Ethan Zohn; Adam Klein, winner of Season 33 and unofficial representative of the new school of “Survivor;” and Tiffany Seely, a player from the New Era and season 41, which had more Jewish castaways than any other season.
On how being raised Jewish shaped their game philosophy:
“After my dad died when I was 14 years old,” Ethan Zohn shared, “I realized the value of community because we went to minyan pretty much every night [to say Kaddish]… the Jewish community reached out, embraced us, reinforced our values at a time when we felt completely alone as a family.”
“So for me,” Ethan continued, “I was able to survive as a young boy because of the Jewish community… I did think about that on ‘Survivor’… I made myself crucial to everyone else’s ‘Survivor’… I wasn’t able to get through life without my Jewish community… so if I could be that person for everyone out there, they couldn’t vote me off.”
Tiffany Seely, too, spoke to how her “community-oriented” Jewish values “helped frame how [she] approached trust, loyalty and conflict,” noting that the “social values and identity awareness that come from [her] Jewish background influenced how [she] connected with other players and… navigated challenges mentally and emotionally.”
For Adam Klein, upbringing was perhaps most present in his game through familial ties. He shared, “Family is incredibly important in Judaism, and getting to have my family be such an important part of my time on the show meant so much to me. I felt my mom’s presence out there with me every single day, both times I played, and my brother and dad both got to come out on the show for the loved ones visits. All of the tools that allowed me to win the game came from the way I was raised, and my win was as much theirs as it was mine.”
On how they connected with fellow Jewish players:
While shared identities have long been a bonding tool on “Survivor” – from the all-women’s alliance on “Survivor Micronesia” to Christianity being used to cohere a group on “Survivor South Pacific” — Jewish connections have never been explicitly highlighted on the show.
This was true even in season 41, which had four Jewish players – Tiffany Seely, Evvie Jagoda, Liana Wallace and Sydney Segal. Though the four were diverse when it came to age, race, beliefs and backgrounds, they bonded over their religious heritage.
Tiffany shared, “There were moments where we naturally connected, understood elements of each other’s humor, values and cultural touchstones, and it helped shape some of the social bonds we formed early on. Evvie and I immediately connected and shared a great chuckle at the “I knew you were Jewish” conversation we had at the water well; it was almost unspoken. Then Liana jumped in and [the three of us] discussed [how we were]… ‘the tribe within the tribe.’”
Tiffany was not initially on the same tribe as Segal, but they “connected at merge… discussed being Jewish, and took it from there.”
For Klein, too, a shared Jewish background came up with a tribe member. He reflects that these conversations helped him and Hannah Shapiro bond, saying “I don’t believe there have ever been two Jews in the final three together in any other season!”
On being outwardly Jewish on the show:
Ethan was the first self-identified Jewish contestant on “Survivor,” competing in its third season which aired in 2001. For Ethan, this was something to navigate:
“They put me on a tribe with a guy named Big Tom Buchanan, from a town [with] 24 people… [he had] never met a Jewish person before. I had never met anyone who hadn’t met a Jewish person before,” he added. “I made a conscious decision to hide my Judaism in the first six days… he wasn’t treating me any differently, but was asking questions… feeling for the horns, talking about foods you eat, what he knew about Jewish people… We had deep conversations. It wasn’t anything malicious, he just hadn’t met a Jewish person before.”
Ethan went on to discuss how though he initially wanted to lie, backstab and do whatever it took to win, when he got out there and found himself hungry, tired and thirsty, he reverted to who he was outside of the game and shifted his strategy accordingly. “I didn’t want to hide who I am. If I’m going to win this thing, I need to be me, and play, and that’s how I felt I could win the game. So I flipped the script, I put my [Maccabi] shirt back on… I went on and played the show.”
Though Ethan navigated lack of awareness about the Jewish experience, as the first Jewish player on “Survivor,” his edit managed to sidestep many of the stereotypes about Jews that contestants had to navigate in later seasons. Adam shares that he “and other Jewish players seem much more likely to be called ‘weasels’ or something to that effect by people watching the show. I think there is a preconceived bias that Jewish people are more sneaky or conniving and so I worked especially hard in the game to make sure that people saw me as honest and trustworthy.”
On two very explicitly Jewish moments on “Survivor”:
Tiffany took me behind the scenes of the moment when she exclaimed “Baruch Hashem!” on Season 41, to the delight of Jewish viewers everywhere:
She shared, “I had been on a tribe where we barely ate…When we finally were about to eat, I couldn’t help but rejoice. I blurted out, “Baruch Hashem,” because in my everyday life I would say something like that… I was really surprised and honored that the show chose to leave that in the edit. It felt like a tiny glimpse of my personality and my Jewish identity — how even in a tough, chaotic environment, I take a moment to acknowledge gratitude.”
On Ethan’s season, one of his claims to fame came during the food auction, when he pooled his money with Big Tom, only for host Jeff Probst to reveal that they had won a breakfast plate including ham.
Ethan recalled, “Tom is celebrating, ‘He’s a Jew, he won’t eat the ham!’ He’s laughing, I’m laughing… starving to death on national TV… I choose not to eat the ham. It skyrocketed me to Jewish wilderness icon and every Jewish mom on the planet wanted me to marry their kid… it’s not like I was super kosher, I just never had pork before in my life [and thought], do I really want to do it now?”
Ethan continued, “I could have got pissed off but I didn’t… I really took the time to get to know Tom better… and once you get to know someone, you can connect with them in a more positive way. My whole goal was to get to the end of the game with this guy.”
On their lives after “Survivor”:
In addition to the legacy of these three iconic players’ time on the island, they continue to make Jewish fans kvell with their ongoing leadership. Ethan travels the country speaking and raising money for philanthropic causes, including many Jewish ones. Tiffany continues to educate around the BRCA gene mutation, a marker for increased cancer risk more prevalent in Ashkenazi Jews.
Adam coaches up-and-coming reality TV contestants, which also reflects an aspect of his Jewishness. “In my job as a reality TV casting consultant, helping people find their voices and stories for their auditions, I am constantly digging to try to figure out how and why someone is the way that they are. Digging deeper, asking questions and finding the ‘whys’ is something I have always been interested in, and I think a lot of that comes from Jewish culture and tradition.”
After 50 seasons, “Survivor” has developed its own kind of oral tradition — stories passed down, lessons carried off the island. How lucky we are to have these members of the tribe keeping that tradition — and ours — alive.
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