She could also be an official Jewish Nanny now — however she’s no Fran Drescher.
A wildly common social media persona went from the “Non-Jewish Nanny” to an official convert, claiming the Oct. 7 bloodbath solely fueled her want to be Jewish.
Adriana Fernandez, a Floridian who attended personal Christian college rising up with virtually no publicity to Judaism, grew to become a de-facto social media star of David for her greater than 100,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram when she began nannying for Orthodox households about 4 years in the past.
She’s cultivated a loyal following along with her cheery and earnest movies navigating her means studying the ropes in observant houses.
Uncovered to the “beauty” of Judaism, the younger bartender and budding opera singer grew to become an official Jewess final month, after a years-long conversion course of impressed by her younger prices, who taught her in regards to the religion.
Whereas Fernandez mentioned she’s “always had a relationship with G-d,” lots of her Orthodox purchasers’ customs baffled her — like discovering {that a} non secular mother wears a sheitel, or wig, for modesty and a mezuzah on the doorpost denotes a Jewish residence, she mentioned.
Quickly, these customs stopped being mysterious and as a substitute, grew to become “powerful.”
One Friday afternoon Fernandez was leaving her prices as they ready for his or her weekly Sabbath meal, whereas her plans concerned “running to happy hour with friends to get drunk all weekend.”
“I want a life like that one day,” she recalled pondering.
“I wanted to be Jewish so bad,” she mentioned from her residence in Boca Raton.
The official frum fatale – whose sunny persona shines via in each submit reveling in her new “chosen” path – is now prepared for her first Passover as a Jew.
“Officially chose my outfit for my first Seder as a Jew,” Fernandez, whose Hebrew identify is Adina Shoshana, wrote on Instagram this week to plaudits from supportive members of the tribe.
The classically educated singer and nanny mentioned she “definitely would love to make Hebrew music covers” and naturally write a kids’s guide.
As she ready for Passover, she mirrored on the vacation commemorating the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt and the theme of liberation.
For Fernandez, the vacation recognized for its 4 cups of wine on the seder and per week of munching matzah, is what being Jewish is all about. “That’s when the Jewish nation was really born.”
However the path to Judaism wasn’t all the time straightforward for Fernandez.
Some derided her as “mashugana” — the Yiddish phrase for loopy — for changing into a Jew after Hamas slaughtered 1,200 Israelis in a shock assault on Oct. 7, 2023.
“Oct. 7 made me want to be Jewish more,” she mentioned, noting her willpower to transform to Judaism is a option to struggle antisemitism.
With individuals pleading, “The whole world hates us,” Fernandez mentioned she didn’t hesitate.
“These are my people too,” she thought. “I was already in the process of converting – but I could have stopped.”
“My first thought on Oct. 7 wasn’t, ‘How do I get out of this?’” she recalled. “I felt an even stronger connection to G-d.”
