When Netflix announced the cast of season two of “Squid Game: The Challenge” yesterday, they touted the diversity of the 456 contestants competing for $4.56 million dollars. The group hails from all over the world, the press release shares, and the players’ ages range from 21 to 77. The occupations of each player are also variant; there’s an NFL cheerleader, a former bomb technician, Robert Pattinson’s stunt double from “Twilight,” as well as a handful of medical professionals and service workers.
What the press release fails to highlight is that among the 456 contestants playing in the reality competition show based on the hit dystopian thriller “Squid Game,” there’s also a rabbi!
Meet Rabbi Jamie Field — known in “Squid Game: The Challenge” as Player 357. (It’s no 613, but it’ll suffice!)
Here’s everything we know about her: Jamie is 29-years-old and currently serves as the Director of Education at Beth El Temple Center in Massachusetts. She was ordained just last year from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City, and has previously served congregations in Washington, D.C., North Carolina and New York. She graduated from Boston University in 2017 with a Bachelor of Arts in Religion. According to Tudum, she’s an Aries and once won concert tickets via a radio contest. She was born and raised in Los Angeles.
On the show, which comes out on Nov. 4, Rabbi Jamie will be competing alongside fellow players in “eight diabolically stress-inducing games to determine the sole winner.” (Unless, of course, she’s eliminated at some point.) This season, there will be two new games. The rules to both are still a mystery. But Tudum states that the first game is called “The Count” and will “kick off the season and play a monumental role in determining how the rest of the competition goes.” The other is called “Catch.” Sounds easy enough? The games designers and series directors say it’s not.
“I often share that the Torah is a sacred story of people being people — of being hurt, of making mistakes, of building connections, of adventure, and of finding the divine in it all. I felt this so deeply during my experience on Squid Game,” Jamie wrote on Instagram yesterday. “I can’t wait to tell you more!” We can’t wait to learn more, Jamie! Mazel tov on competing in “Squid Game: The Challenge.”
Now that’s a rabbi on Netflix that I can root for!
