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Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
L ast March, Cherry Hill, New
Jersey, resident Ryan Green
packed a bag and his roller-
blades and traveled to Kansas City,
Missouri, to go on a date with a woman
he knew nothing about.

Avid Netflix watchers or reality televi-
sion buffs may know what happens
next: Green’s date was featured on
episode seven of Netflix’s “Jewish
Matchmaking.” The eight-episode reality TV show, a
spinoff series of “Indian Matchmaking,”
follows matchmaker (and 2013 Tribe 12
fellowship alum) Aleeza Ben Shalom as
she works with Jewish singles across
the country and across denominations
and Jewish upbringings.

In the show’s seventh episode, “So
the Song Goes,” Ben Shalom meets
Nakysha, one of the few Jews of
color in Kansas City’s Jewish commu-
nity. Nakysha is a Reform Jew in her
mid-20s looking for a nice Jewish boy
no older than 33 with a full head
of hair and tolerance for motorbikes
and guns.

Enter Green, 38 and bald, but a
teacher who is “personable, talkative,
friendly, outgoing, communicative”,
Ben Shalom insists.

The pair share a date at the roller
skating rink Nakysha grew up going
to, and Green shares his experience
with ice skating as a kid and having a
brother with disabilities, who inspired
him to become a special education
teacher. “I went into it as if it was someone
that they felt was a compatible match
for my personality and her personal-
ity,” Green said. “And I took it as, this is
an opportunity to meet someone new
to hopefully see if it was a true match,
and then go from there.”
Green prepared for the date as he
would any other, and treated it as
though there weren’t any cameras
8 MAY 18, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
Aleeza Ben Shalom and Ryan Green
around. After the date, he flew back
home. Though the match didn’t spark a
romantic relationship, Green said the
experience was growthful and made
him more open-minded to meeting
Jews across denominations and
backgrounds. “It definitely made me think about, to
become more open or more vulnerable
to having potential dates — Everyone
has a different religious standpoint in
Judaism, where she has her religious
standpoint; I have mine,” Green said.

“Everyone is Jewish in their own
separate ways.”
Green first learned about the oppor-
tunity to be on “Jewish Matchmaking”
from Philadelphia-based matchmaker
Michal Naisteter, who had worked
with Green previously. Naisteter would
occasionally connect Green with a
client before Green became Naisteter’s
client a few years later.

Naisteter, who referred dozens of
singles to pursue a casting call for the
show, thought Green was a good fit.

“When I was working with him
closely as a matchmaking client, he
was open to matches; he was open to
new ideas,” Naisteter said.

“For me, he was just like a dream,”
she added.

Green’s hometown of Buffalo, New
York, had a dearth of Jewish dating
options, making the Philadelphia area
an appealing dating scene when he
arrived in Cherry Hill in 2009.

Green is tethered to his Conservative
Jewish upbringing, making dating
Jewishly a priority: His mother, who
died in 2017, instilled in him the
value of marrying a Jew, and his
family belongs to Congregation Beth
Tikvah in Marlton, New Jersey. Green
also serves as a board member for
the Philadelphia Jewish National
Fund-USA’s JNFuture Philadelphia
Board, helping to fundraise for
JNF-USA and recruit young philanthro-
pists to the organization.

Like many other singles, Green was
fed up with using dating apps and
was drawn to matchmaking as a more
meaningful way to find love. But like so
many on the show, Green was not able
to find a romantic match.

This is a typical part of the dating
process and an important depiction of
dating, Naisteter said.

“I loved watching every single date.

Every single date was important
because every single date gives you
an opportunity to work on presenting
yourself,” she said. “Saying ‘no’ is just
as important as saying ‘yes’.”
Dating is vulnerable, even more
so on television in front of a global
audience. Naisteter was glad that no
one on “Jewish Matchmaking” was
married after the first season, as it
was a more realistic portrayal of what
dating is like.

“That’s just what dating is, you
know?” Naisteter said. “It’s a world of
possibilities and a world of rejection.”
Matchmaking is more than just
setting people up on dates, Ben
Shalom said. It’s about mentally and
emotionally preparing someone for the
highs and lows of dating and opening
hearts to connection.

“I help people to build their confi-
dence,” Ben Shalom said. “When a
match doesn’t work, we know it’s not
the right person and we don’t blame
ourselves.” ■
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com Courtesy of Jennifer Milton
Cherry Hill Teacher Shares Experience
on Netflix’s ‘Jewish Matchmaking’