The most talked about couple in this season's "Love is Blind", is Brennon and Alexa - a match between a Southern American and a curvy Jewish-Israeli with chutzpa.
Netflix's original reality TV show collects men and women from all over the world to go on blind dates and try to find love, for the purpose of conducting a social experiment.
More often then not, shallow connections and dramatic scandals take up most of the screen time. However, the connection between Alexa Alfia and Brennon Lemieux seems genuine, and viewers are eating up the smitten interactions between the two.
In an interview with Ynet, Alexa admitted that already two days after they met, she wrote Brennon's name with a heart around it in her diary. She said no one else had interested her, after meeting him and that every one of their dates lasted for hours and entailed deep and meaningful conversations. Ironically, the two initially bonded over their mutual love of shakshuka - a landmark Israeli dish.
“I’m Jewish; that’s like a fundamental part of me,” Alexa said to Brennon on one of their dates in the show. “I’m not super religious by any means, but like, I am Jewish and I’m proud to be Jewish and I’m proud to have an Israeli family. I love that, but if someone had a big issue with that, there’s nothing that I can do about that, you know?”
Spoiler: the couple ended up staying together after the show and have now been married for a year and a half.
The 27-year-old Dallas-raised Jew is one of six siblings, in what she describes as a big, loud, Israeli family. Alexa lived in Israel for four years during her studies at the Tel Aviv University, and still has many family members in Israel. Her last visit was two years ago, in the peak of the COVID pandemic, when her grandmother passed away.
Her next visit to Israel, Alexa said with a smile on her face, will be very soon and likely not along. Brennon and his family are very eager to get to know her culture and come to Israel, she said while sharing they plan to do so this upcoming summer.
Aside from being the first curvy contestant on Love is Blind, Alexa's Israeli-Jewish identity draws a lot of attention and controversy amongst viewers.
Despite Brennon not being Jewish, the couple's wedding entailed all the essentials of a Jewish wedding, such as a Rabbi, the ritual of breaking the glass, and folk dancing. Alexa even revealed that Brennon wore a Kippah during the wedding, and enjoyed breaking the glass.
Alexa shared that while there was quite a lot of antisemitic backlashes towards her participation in the show, most of the feedback she received was that people were happy to see Jewish representation on screen. She is very proud of her Jewish and Israeli identity, and prefers not to take her role to a political place.
Regarding the drama surrounding Kanye West's recent antisemitic remarks, Alexa emphasizes that its important to her to pass on the message that there is no room for antisemitism of this sort, and is happy to be speaking out against the famous rapper.