The non-Jewish Nanny who educates the world about Judaism

 I'm quite certain that I'm not the only one who's recently learnt about Adriana Rosie's social media channels where she writes about being a non-Jewish nanny for Jewish families in Florida in the US. It was an article from the Times of Israel (‘Non-Jewish Nanny’ to Orthodox kids gains TikTok fame with cute culture-shock videos) that got me reading about what she does. And honestly, I've really enjoyed going through this young woman's Every Single Instagram Post. Check it out for yourself: Adriana Rosie @nonjewishnanny. 

While I usually prefer using Instagram to check out photos as opposed to videos (one of the reasons I'm not on TikTok...), I have to admit that I've just been eating up the content, and have really enjoyed learning about all her experiences. This is someone who's respectful of a community with many customs, rules and regulations that may not make sense to, or seem strange to outsiders, and opens up that community to the wider world in an approachable and easy-to-grasp way. 

I was born in the early eighties and growing up in Europe, much of what I learnt about Jews and Judaism had to do with the Second World War. What I learnt were stories about the past. Stories that as far as I am concerned are as important and relevant today as in the nineties when I attended primary school and started learning about these things. Yet again - stories about the past. As important as that education was, and as much as learning about the Holocaust from a very early age shaped my life and my outlook on the world and on how (not to...) treat other human beings, I'm a curious person and also wanted to learn about modern-day Jewish people and modern-day Judaism.

While books did teach me a lot of facts (Jewish people do 'this'. Jewish people believe 'that'), the books I managed to get my hands on when I was a child and a young teen also made Judaism seem like quite an alien concept that I couldn't quite connect with. The idea that not all Jews were orthodox or Hasidic, that took some time to develop. Honestly, that didn't really happen until I decided to travel after finishing high school and ended up meeting people from all around the world, Israelis and other Jewish people included. (It's also around that time that the internet became a thing I managed to have regular access to) While I do believe that I spent more time learning about Israel and about Judaism than many other people (honestly, how many twenty-something year-olds who aren't Jewish or studying towards a religion-oriented vocation actually try to learn written Hebrew...?), I still wanted to learn more. So, I read more books, I devoured websites, I watched videos. And when Netflix came along and made binge-watching on my laptop possible, I ended up watching shows like Shtisel and Unorthodox that taught me about Judaism, along with Israeli shows like Fauda and When Heroes Fly that taught me about the sorta regular lives of modern-day Israelis. But, as much as all of those shows taught me, I still appreciate a back-to-basics approach where I get to learn about a culture, a people, a religion, from an outsider-turned-insider's perspective. And the non Jewish nanny, whether on Instagram or on her nonjewishnanny TikTok page, she does that really well. Check out her content to learn about her experiences as a non-Jewish nanny learning about Judaism from the children she babysits and the parents she helps out. Believe me - It's an eye-opener!