News for fans of Netflix’s “Jewish Matchmaking” show: Cindy Seni has found her match
On the show, the 29-year-old Jerusalemite made a mark with her intelligence, independence, and zingy one-liners like, “No abs, no Cindy” and “Putting on tefillin is hot.”
But her journey on the show didn’t include finding her partner. After two dates with Daniel, a 34-year-old tech engineer from Tel Aviv, she and matchmaker Aleeza Ben Shalom had a frank conversation about emotional baggage. Together, they concluded that Cindy hadn’t completely processed an earlier breakup, and that is the last viewers see of her.
Behind the scenes, however, a different story was playing out. In May 2022, while still filming for “Jewish Matchmaking,” Cindy met Eldad through her job. (Cindy works for Brothers for Life, an Israeli organization that supports injured veterans, and Eldad is a “Brother.”) At first, the pair chatted on WhatsApp, but when Eldad was slow to ask her out, Cindy “blew him off.”
Then one day, Eldad happened to come into the Brothers for Life office.
“And I’m like, ‘Oh damn. Oh, no. What have I done? He’s so good looking,’” Cindy recalled. Later, she and Eldad connected more fully during a Brothers for Life retreat in Eilat, where they talked the entire night. That wasn’t their first date, though.
“Our first official date was at the Kotel at Selichot,” Cindy explained, adding, “It’s just the most Jewish thing I can think of. It was really special.”
Flash forward to Cindy’s birthday earlier this month.
After a birthday spa day for Cindy that Eldad arranged, he suggested they head to the Kotel. Wanting to get out of the heat, Cindy declined, and the couple went back to her apartment, where he popped the question.
“I just looked at him, blank faced,” she said. “And I said, ‘Why didn’t we go to the Kotel?’ And he’s like, ‘That’s your yes?’ And I was like, ‘I have nothing to say right now.’ So we ended up going to the Kotel, and he did the official thing. So it was nice, and I got two proposals.”
Though Aleeza didn’t set the pair up, Cindy said that the Jewish matchmaker still had an impact. At the beginning of their relationship, Cindy worried that her boisterous personality was too different from Eldad’s, who is more easygoing. So she called Aleeza.
“I told her that I didn’t know if I could speak to him about philosophy or French art and literature,” Cindy said. “He’s an Israeli, and I’m a woman of the world, you know? And I love going to museums, and he hates museums.”
She went on, “Aleeza said, ‘Do you absolutely need that in a partner? Or can you find that in someone else?’ Meaning, can you be fulfilled with going to a museum or talking about Baudelaire with like someone else? I thought about it for a second and was like, you know, I guess I don’t need it in a partner. It’s OK if I can speak about it with my sister or my friends. And she said, ‘There’s some beauty about sitting in silence with him and being OK and feeling calm.’”
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
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