Five years ago, the web series “Soon By You” took the Modern Orthodox Jewish singles community by storm. The series, conceived by then-Passaic resident and now Englewood resident Leah Gottfried, is a cross between “Friends” and “Srugim.”
In Episode 1 we met David (played by Danny Hoffman), a rabbinic student who was headed to a blind date with a woman named Sarah. He accidentally sat down with a different Sarah and even after they realized the mistake, David wanted to date the first Sarah. Season 1 tracked the progress of their budding relationship and introduced us to their roommates and circle of single friends as they navigated today’s dating scene. Gottfried, an actress and director, played a materialistic single named Sarah Jacobs, and Sara Scur played Sarah Feldman, a sensitive artist and David’s eventual love interest.
Over the years the series filmed new episodes when they had funding. Season 1 featured five episodes, and Season 2 had filmed two before COVID. In fact, Season 2, Episode 2 premiered in February 2020. “We were excited and ready to dive into the next episode,” said Gottfried, “and then everything shut down. We were deep into an outline and were about to write the script and start moving along. We didn’t know when we’d be able to get back into it and we realized that the story we were writing was not COVID friendly.” That outline called for a lot of interior shots and lots of extras. “Pretty much everything you didn’t want to do,” observed Gottfried.
So, they waited. Around April of this year, when things started opening up and filming began on television and movie productions, Gottfried reached out to each of the cast members individually to gauge interest in coming back. Everyone was very excited to start up again. After nearly two years the cast wanted to see one another in person. All but two of the original cast filmed on location for Episode 3. Nathan Shapiro, who plays Ben, was in Seattle, so his scenes are virtual, and Jessica Schechter, who plays Noa, recently had a baby, so she too is only seen virtually.
As a union production, the “Soon By You” cast and crew are required to follow very strict guidelines. “Our top priority was to keep everybody safe,” Gottfried stressed. “We took the story we wanted to tell and restructured it with only the core cast—no extras—and changed nearly all the shooting to outside.”
But don’t look for any masks or references to COVID. “We made the decision not to include it; it felt like audiences wanted a bit of escapism. COVID is too real. In the world of ‘Soon By You’ it’s not happening. Right now, it’s still such a painful time for so many people and we’re more interested in the characters’ journeys and relationships. There’s a chance we’ll address it in future episodes.”
As a way of securing funding as well as introducing important topics to its viewers, “Soon By You” has partnered with a variety of organizations and institutions on messaging and funding. This episode was funded by the Jews of Color Initiative, a national effort focused on building and advancing the professional, organizational and communal field for Jews of color. In the end credits Gottfried and Hoffman tell us more about the initiative. Gottfried worked closely with them to ensure the script was authentic and represented the experience that Jews of color face in the Jewish community. “There are many Jews who are not white and who are not often portrayed, so we wanted to do that. People make assumptions and judgments from their own biases—sometimes unconsciously and sometimes consciously. I hope people watching this episode will look at their own biases and assumptions and shift their behavior.”
Other sponsors have included The Organization for the Resolution of Agunot (ORA), where they explored the halachic prenup; The Halachic Organ Donor Society, where they explored what Jewish law says about organ donation; JQY and Eshel, where they delved into the LGBT community; and now the Jews of Color Initiative.
For those who want to know when the next episode will drop, it all depends on how soon they can find the right partner to provide funding. Until then people will have to wait to see how the cliffhanger ends.
When the series began five years ago, only Hoffman was married. Today Schechter and Gottfried herself have both gotten married, Noam Harary who plays Z, has gotten engaged and Schechter has had a baby.
For more information about the web series and for sponsorship information you can email [email protected] or visit the website at http://soonbyyou.tv/ or jenla.org/soonbyyou. To view the series, as well as the new episode, visit the website, or watch it on YouTube.
By Sara Kosowsky Gross
