“Oh, look at the tchotchkes!”
That was Debbie Schwartzberg Levy’s first sentence — which she then repeated excitedly — when she was the first contestant to debut in Season 7 of Netflix’s The Circle — and the Jewish world immediately recognized one of their own.
The Circle is a reality competition on Netflix where contestants communicate only through a social media platform, aiming to become the most popular player and win a cash prize. Players can be themselves or use fake personas. They rate each other, with top-rated contestants gaining power to eliminate others. The show involves strategy, social media manipulation, and surprise twists each season.
Fifty-four-year-old Levy didn’t hold back her Yiddish, entering her introductory confessional with an “Oy, gott! Oy gevolt” as she comically struggled to climb on the stool.
The Staten Island-born and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-raised mother of three has joined the show catfishing as a 26-year-old.
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“I’m always with college kids, and my own kids are Gen-Zers,” she explained. “So I’m going to come into The Circle as 26-year-old Rachel, this adorable, young, amazing girl, but with my smarts and my life experience. Cause nobody wants to listen to 54-year-old Deb. I say it, people go, ‘Forget it, that’s not fun.’ But 26-year-old Rachel, if she says something’s cool, then it’s cool.”
She certainly did not have it easy before coming onto the show, having overcome some severe personal hardships. She revealed in the first episode that her oldest son, Jonathan, passed away at 22 with Type 1 Diabetes.
“My son is here with me,” she said, wiping away a tear. “He’s a part of me.”
Despite this, her attitude toward joining The Circle could not be brighter. Excited to show off how she can get away with catfishing as a young woman, she said, “This right here is rizz, baby,” referring to the Gen-Z slang meaning “charisma.”
Always with the hostages in mind
Before joining the show, her social media content was primarily focused on her Jewish faith, but, like many Jewish and Israeli people worldwide, her posts became more somber post-October 7.
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Since the massacre on Simchat Torah, she has regularly posted calling for the return of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, as well as sharing her support for Israel, including openly donating to pro-Israel causes, such as the Friends of the IDF.
You can watch Levy on Netflix in the new season of The Circle.