What can Survivor, Squid Game, The Amazing Race, and Big Brother teach us about Jewish values and the human condition? In this class, we’ll explore competition-based reality TV as a modern mirror for timeless Jewish questions: How do we balance self-preservation with communal responsibility? What happens to our ethics when survival is on the line? Through Torah, rabbinic wisdom, and pop culture analysis, we’ll uncover how these shows dramatize themes of trust, deception, alliance, and redemption. Let's explore what it means to stay human when the cameras are always rolling and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Rabbi Jamie Field is a washed-up reality TV star, having competed on season 2 of Squid Game: The Challenge as player 357. She believes that you don't need to have strong hand-eye coordination to be a mensch. Rabbi Jamie was born in LA and bopped around the East Coast before finding a home in Boston. She was ordained in May 2024 and wrote her thesis advocating for sex-ed in Jewish spaces.