That Girl Who Loves the Jews: Adina Fernandez
Adina Shoshana Fernandez, the “Non-Jewish Nanny”–turned–“Now Jewish Nanny,” uses social media to spread positive messages about Jews and Judaism. Photos: Chana Stuart
Ten days after October 7, 2023, as a chilling wave of antisemitism engulfed social media, an influencer named Adriana Fernandez created a post entitled “why I have nothing but love and admiration for the Jewish community.” Snapshots of Jewish children, parashah projects and a table set for Shabbat circulated as Fernandez described good experiences she’d had with Jews. “In a world where you might be saying to yourself: ‘I wish I wasn’t Jewish,’ I hope this video makes you say: ‘I am proud to be Jewish,’” she wrote. “Sincerely, ‘That weird girl who loves the Jews.’”
The post garnered more than 14,000 likes and a flood of teary, grateful comments.
Loving Jews, in fact, had become a full-time job for Fernandez, known, until recently, on TikTok and Instagram as the “Non-Jewish Nanny.” After stumbling into a job babysitting for Orthodox families in Boca Raton, Florida, she was so fascinated by their religion and culture that she decided to share her experiences with the world. Her videos discussing the ins and outs of frum life—from kosher laws to sheitels to Israeli Doritos—drew tens of thousands of devoted Jewish followers. Soon modest fashion companies were sending Fernandez, who was raised Christian, outfits to show off in her posts.
Fernandez’s fans loved seeing their familiar world afresh through “non-Jewish” eyes (“Woah,” she says in one video, brandishing a chalav Yisrael cheese stick with unfeigned awe, “Look at this! Jewish cheese!”). They also loved hearing her pronounce the guttural “ch” sound in “Pesach” correctly, a trick she picked up studying German diction—she is an opera singer by training. But after October 7, Fernandez felt there was something else she could give her followers: “I realized early on that my audience doesn’t need the education, they don’t need the political facts. They know it,” she says. “I found that what they needed more than anything was to love their Judaism and have inspiration.”
Fernandez’s posts from that time often featured the voices of the children she cared for, their faces pixilated for privacy. “I would try to post sweet, uplifting content in the beginning, when everything was so depressing,” she recalls. “People would say, thank you for this video; it’s so different from what the rest of the world is talking about right now.” In the months after the Hamas massacre, as more Jews looked to express their identity online, the Non-Jewish Nanny attracted a religiously diverse Jewish following of nearly 100,000.
Then, on March 20 this year, Fernandez made an announcement: She had completed an Orthodox conversion and was reintroducing herself as Adina Shoshana, the “Now Jewish Nanny.
Deepening Appreciation
Conversion to Judaism was an extraordinary twist in a journey that has led Fernandez far (spiritually if not geographically) from where she began. Raised by Christian parents in Sarasota, Florida, she studied vocal performance at Florida State University and was headed for a career in opera, while babysitting and bartending on the side, before a chance encounter with the Jewish community at a vulnerable moment changed her course.
Speaking on the Meaningful People podcast, Fernandez grew emotional as she described escaping an abusive relationship to babysit in “The Circle,” a network of Jewish neighborhoods in Boca Raton. The wholesome environment she found in the homes there—and the children who earnestly shared their faith with her—provided a striking contrast to what she was experiencing in her personal life, she said.
I realized early on that my audience doesn’t need the education, they don’t need the political facts. . . . what they needed more than anything was to love their Judaism and have inspiration.
Fernandez’s respect for her employers’ way of life is palpable in her early videos, where she introduces viewers to Jewish pop music (Mordechai Shapiro’s “Schar Mitzvah” is her favorite) and describes with wide eyes her first encounter with a sheitel: “Just when I think I’ve learned everything about Judaism, they hit me with something else!” She also introduced fashion makeover videos, showing how she’d transformed outfits from her South Florida party-girl wardrobe for the yeshivah carpool pick-up line. She found she preferred the more conservative style, and her delighted followers asked for more. “You’re doing a better job teaching tzenius than my twelve-plus years of Bais Yaakov teachers,” one commented.
Slowly, Fernandez’s appreciation for Jews and Judaism turned into something deeper. She began the conversion process before October 7 and says that the attack only made her more determined to be Jewish: “I was very early on in the process. I could have backed out, and I’m proud to say that I didn’t.”
When Palestinian flags and hateful comments began to show up on her posts, she doubled down on her positive messages without mentioning her conversion. In one “Get Ready with Me” video, a standard of the female-influencer genre, she urges her followers to buy Israeli wine to boost the Jewish state’s economy. “My support for Israel was never contingent on my conversion,” she says, noting that her family supported Israel when she was a child. “Innocent babies and innocent people were ripped from their homes. That’s wrong.”
Fernandez acknowledges that some of her followers may be disappointed to lose a “non-Jewish ally,” but her decision to convert only reinforces the message she wants to convey: “I chose this life because I think it’s beautiful,” she says. “And no matter how much the outside world or someone within their world makes them feel like they should hate it, they should remember what a gift it is.” Her followers don’t seem to have any mixed feelings about welcoming her into the tribe: her post announcing her conversion has over 40,000 likes and counting.
While the conversion process left Fernandez fully educated about the basics of Judaism, there’s always more to learn. She’s moving on to posting videos on the weekly parashah and thoughts about the conversion process (she plans to publish a book about her experiences). But no matter the content, Fernandez remains passionate about sharing her positive vision of Jewish life. “I think every influencer should be so proud of anything they do to advocate for Israel and the Jewish people,” she says. “Everyone has their role, and I’m just thankful that people appreciate mine.”
Sarah Ogince is an award-winning editor and writer based in Spring Valley, New York.
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Getting to the Root of the Story: Meira K. by Merri Ukraincik
Advocacy on a Higher Level: Tziri Preis by Barbara Bensoussan
One Teen’s Fight against Antisemitism: Sofie Glassman by Yehudis Litvak
That Girl Who Loves the Jews: Adina Fernandez by Sarah Ogince