{"id":8730,"date":"2013-08-13T04:11:36","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T10:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=8730"},"modified":"2013-08-13T04:11:36","modified_gmt":"2013-08-13T10:11:36","slug":"jennifer-snukal-brings-energy-and-english-to-israeli-version-of-real-housewives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/jennifer-snukal-brings-energy-and-english-to-israeli-version-of-real-housewives\/","title":{"rendered":"Jennifer Snukal brings energy and English to Israeli version of &#8216;Real Housewives&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By BEN SALES<\/p>\n<p>TEL AVIV (JTA) &#8212; The show was supposed to be a celebration of glamor and glitz, but in the second episode it dropped a bombshell: One of the protagonists\u2019 husbands died of cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n<p>The five stars of \u201cMeusharot,\u201d Israel\u2019s version of the \u201cReal Housewives\u201d reality series, handled the news in their own ways. One grappled with her feelings about death. Another baked a cake to bring to the shiva.<\/p>\n<p>Jennifer Snukal tried a different approach, arranging a sexy photo shoot that aimed to produce an image of herself that was both sexy and modest. She began in a bright pink bathrobe, but soon moved to a couch where she posed wearing nothing but half-rim glasses, a sheet and her bare arms covering her.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8732\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Jennifer_Snukal.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8732\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-8732 lazyload\" title=\"Jennifer_Snukal\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Jennifer_Snukal-300x256.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"256\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Jennifer_Snukal-300x256.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Jennifer_Snukal.jpg 800w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/256;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8732\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-8732 \" title=\"Jennifer_Snukal\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Jennifer_Snukal-300x256.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"256\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Jennifer_Snukal-300x256.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Jennifer_Snukal.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-8732\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jennifer Snukal is an odd fit for Israel&#39;s version of &quot;Real Housewives &#8212; she&#39;s neither a wife nor homebound. (Jennifer Snukal)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe need to take every day like it\u2019s our last day,\u201d she told the camera, explaining that her self-indulgent response to sudden death was an effort to deal with her past, when she was \u201ca fat girl and the ugliest in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Snukal, 38, is the only North American on \u201cMeusharot\u201d (Hebrew for \u201crich women\u201d), now in its second season on Israel\u2019s Channel 10. Bold and loud with long blond hair and radiant eyes, she\u2019s easily the most energetic of the five, gesticulating, smiling wide and always ready to use Israeli slang.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe my kids are proud of me and old enough to understand what the show is about,\u201d Snukal told JTA in an interview near the boutique she runs in Rishon Lezion, south of Tel Aviv. \u201cThey heard from all the kids in school, \u2018Oh, your mom filmed naked.\u2019 I let them watch the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her co-stars, who live extravagantly in and around Tel Aviv, are beset by first-world problems &#8212; with an Israeli twist. One was unable to find a suitable house in Israel\u2019s richest suburb, quipping that even Gazans wouldn\u2019t want to live in some of the properties she considered. Another came close to crashing her new luxury SUV as she maneuvered through Tel Aviv\u2019s narrow streets. A third confronted her feelings about divorce while lounging at a Jewish ritual bath that looked more like a spa.<\/p>\n<p>For Snukal, though, every scene is an adventure. She visits a psychic in Jaffa, sips wine on an awkward date and lounges by the pool with her five children from two marriages that have both ended in divorce.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m a different kind of person than all the other women,\u201d Snukal said. \u201cI really don\u2019t give a s***. I don\u2019t take everything seriously. I try to find the good in everyone. I can be best friends with a tree. I\u2019m a peacemaker.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8733\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Meusharot-cast.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8733\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-8733 lazyload\" title=\"Meusharot cast\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Meusharot-cast-300x223.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"223\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Meusharot-cast-300x223.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Meusharot-cast.jpg 960w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/223;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8733\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-8733 \" title=\"Meusharot cast\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Meusharot-cast-300x223.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"223\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Meusharot-cast-300x223.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Meusharot-cast.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-8733\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The five protagonists of &quot;Meusharot,&quot; Israel&#39;s version of the &quot;Real Housewives&quot; franchise, from left to right: Iris Zander, Jennifer Snukal, Nicole Raidman, Leah Shnirer and Yael Gal. (Channel 10)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Snukal is an odd fit for the \u201cReal Housewives\u201d franchise. For one thing, she&#8217;s not a wife. For another, she&#8217;s hardly homebound.<\/p>\n<p>She recently opened her first fashion boutique, Sassy, and plans to expand with franchises in Tel Aviv and near the northern city of Haifa. She is also an \u201cimage designer\u201d for musicians and has launched a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jennifers.co.il\/\" target=\"_blank\">website<\/a>\u00a0that she hopes will bring online shopping to Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Snukal moved from Calgary to Los Angeles at 18. By 23 she was a millionaire thanks to a roofing company she opened with her Israeli (now ex) husband. The couple have remained friendly business partners despite divorcing soon after moving to Israel six years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Snukal comes off as a high-powered, take-no-prisoners Israeli businesswoman. When deciding whether to take on an emerging Israeli singer, Liron Ramati, as a client, she drives a hard bargain in his contract and won&#8217;t yield when criticizing his appearance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was married to an Israeli, so I learned the mentality quickly before I moved here,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t learn the survival skills, you\u2019ll be eaten up for lunch and stomped on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Snukal at times still seems like a newbie. She constantly alternates between English and Hebrew, often in the same sentence. In one recent episode, Ramati takes her to a Sephardic diner in the poor Tel Aviv neighborhood of his youth.<\/p>\n<p>Glancing around uneasily at first, she relaxes as she dips into the \u201cso tasty\u201d hummus. She tenses up again when the waiter brings her soup with cooked cow leg, a traditional Yemenite dish. Snukal gags, refuses and pretends to vomit. Finally she swallows a bite, drawing applause from the men sitting around her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted her to meet other people,\u201d Ramati tells the camera. \u201cNot everything is rosy. She should see the people, our people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Snukal lights up when talking about her children. One is her \u201cboss.\u201d Another has \u201cthe biggest heart.\u201d A third is \u201cthe dream kid.\u201d Two of them, she says, are just like her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is Disneyland for kids,\u201d she says of life in Israel. \u201cThey have much more freedom and warmth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Snukal says she dreams of living in an Israeli agricultural village where it&#8217;s quiet and her kids can run around freely, but she&#8217;s not ready yet to relinquish the spotlight. She may be returning for the third season of \u201cMeusharot,\u201d and she&#8217;d like to try her hand at acting or hosting a show about cooking and travel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not easy to be a celeb,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to go on the street. People jump on me and take pictures. And I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Jennifer%20Snukal%20brings%20energy%20and%20English%20to%20Israeli%20version%20of%20%27Real%20Housewives%27\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3491,3492,8781,3490,8790,8795,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8730"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8730"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8735,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8730\/revisions\/8735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}