Gossip Girl may have been an all-white satire about the lives of the rich, young, and devious, but it did bring representation to one minority, Jews. While stereotypical, being portrayed as strictly white and wealthy in New York, and not having Jews attend Constance or St. Jude’s when in reality, New York prep schools are filled with Jews, Gossip Girl did bring a nuanced, appreciative and fairly realistic take on Jewish life in New York through using Yiddish language and celebrating Holidays.
Cyrus Rose, Blair’s stepfather, is the most notably Jewish on the show. When he is introduced in season 2, the show gets very Jewish, from “Mazel Tovs” here and there to THE Blair Waldorf indulging in bagels instead of her usual yogurt and croissants in the episode “O Brother, Where Bart Thou?”. Later in the episode, Blair also eyes kugel at Bart’ Bass’ wake. With his introduction, we also have episodes that surround the Jewish holidays of Passover and Yom Kippur.
Season 2’s episode “Seder Anything” takes place over the Jewish Holiday of Passover. Much like Gossip Girl’s iconic “Whatcha Say” scene in season 3’s Thanksgiving episode, chaos ensues during Cyrus’ seder, except it was accompanied to Flo Rida’s “Right Round”. Serena has just come home from a spontaneous trip to Spain, where she spent her time with her friend’s ex-boyfriend and got drunk off too much Roja. During one of her drunken pursuits, she seems to think she got married to her friend’s Ex. In the middle of seeking legal counsel from Cyrus, she ends up getting invited to the seder, which her mom, Lily, and Rufus, Dan’s dad, are in attendance. Lily, pissed that Serena left for weeks abroad without a word, grounded Serena just before seeking out Cyrus. Serena also runs into Dan, who got a job catering from the Waldorf’s seder to help his dad pay for college, which he did behind his dad’s back in order not to shame him. However, when said ex-boyfriend Gabriel, infamously played by Armie Hammer, shows up at the seder, Serena and Dan pretend to get back together and steal Elijah’s seat, all while Eleanor Waldorf tries to tame her hunger throughout the long ceremony. Gossip Girl even closed the episode by saying “Shalom, Gossip Girl.”
Yom Kippur surrounds the season 5 episode “The Fasting and the Furious”. Of course, Blair and Louis decide to tell their families about their unexpected, but joyous nonetheless pregnancy on Yom Kippur, a day when everyone is fasting and, therefore, hangry. While shocked, the news is taken somewhat well. However, throughout the day as Blair and Louis divulge their plans for the child, including having the child born at the same hospital Blair was born instead of Princess Grace’s in Monaco and attending Blair’s alma mater Constance Billard instead of Louis’ alma mater. This quickly makes Louis’ mother Princess Sophie very upset, and with a push from Louis’ mischievous sister Beatrice, decides to give Blair the child’s “paperwork” (because of royalty, I guess?) now. That night at the feast, as Blair and her two lawyers for dads, Harold Waldorf and Cyrus Rose, look over the paperwork, they see some very disturbing guidelines for her and the child. When Blair confronts Louis, he confronts his family and ends up siding with Blair.
Blair and Chuck also have a memorable and wistful rendezvous at a Bar Mitzvah in the season 4 finale, to the soundtrack of Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep”. However, Blair and Chuck have a thing for Bar Mitzvahs with Blair asking Chuck how he went “from Bar to Mitzvah” in season 5.
While Gossip Girl is filled with Jewish references, what lacks? One is that all the Jewish characters, while wealthy due to the show’s setting on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, are all white. Nowadays, Jews come from all different races and backgrounds, not just European and caucasian. There are also no Jewish classmates at Constance Billard and St. Jude’s when in reality, New York prep schools are filled with Jews, as said in an interview with Jewish Gossip Girl creator Josh Schwartz at The Atlantic. His answer to why that is? Schwartz said “on The O.C. I went out of my way to make those characters Jewish, not what you would expect to find in Orange County. But in New York, weirdly, I failed. I was working off of the source material.” The source material is the book series by Cecily Von Ziegesar, who went to Upper East Side prep school Nightingale herself. While Gossip Girl may have lacked in some aspects of its Jewishness, it no doubt is one of the biggest and most accurate Jewish portrayals on TV. It is still referenced and celebrated today through fans and posts on Gen Z Jewish Instagram account @hey.alma alike.