Jewish Matchmaking star gets engaged
“Our first official date was at the Kotel at selichot,” Cindy explained, referring to late-night or early-morning prayers before the High Holy Days. “It’s just the most Jewish thing I can think of. It was really special.”
For Cindy Seni, the idea of getting engaged was surreal.
“You go to all these weddings, you hear about all these things, but it happens to other people,” the star of Jewish Matchmaking told Hey Alma.
“You never really feel like it’s gonna happen to you. Or at least I never felt that way.”
Well, it’s happening for her.
This past July 3, her birthday, Cindy and boyfriend Eldad Cohen got engaged at the Kotel in Jerusalem. She is now the second cast member of Jewish Matchmaking to become engaged.
Fans of Netflix’s Jewish Matchmaking will recall the 29-year-old Jerusalemite for her intelligence, independence and zingy one-liners like, “No abs, no Cindy” and “Putting on tefillin is hot.”
Her journey on the show didn’t include finding her partner.
After two dates with Daniel, a 34-year-old tech engineer from Tel Aviv, she and matchmaker Aleeza Ben Shalom had a frank conversation about emotional baggage. Together, they concluded that Cindy hadn’t completely processed a break-up from her past, and that is the last viewers see of her.
Behind the scenes, however, a different story was playing out.
In May 2022, while still filming for Jewish Matchmaking, Cindy met Eldad through her job. Cindy works for Brothers for Life, an Israeli organisation that supports injured veterans, and Eldad is a “brother”. At first, the pair chatted on WhatsApp, but when Eldad was slow to ask her out, Cindy “blew him off”.
Then one day, Eldad happened to come into the Brothers for Life office.
“And I’m like, ‘Oh damn. Oh, no. What have I done? He’s so good-looking,’” Cindy recalled. Later, she and Eldad more fully reconnected during a Brothers for Life retreat in Eilat, where they talked the entire night. That wasn’t their first date, though.
“Our first official date was at the Kotel at selichot,” Cindy explained, referring to late-night or early-morning prayers before the High Holy Days. “It’s just the most Jewish thing I can think of. It was really special.”
Flash-forward to last week, and Cindy had an inkling that a proposal might be coming.
“I had no idea but I kind of had an idea so I did my nails,” she said.
After a birthday spa day for Cindy, arranged by Eldad, he suggested they head to the Kotel. Wanting to get out of the heat, Cindy declined and the couple went back to her apartment where he popped the question.
“I just looked at him, blank-faced. And I said, ‘Why didn’t we go to the Kotel?’ And he’s like, ‘That’s your yes?’ And I was like, ‘I have nothing to say right now.’ So, we ended up going to the Kotel and he did the official thing. So it was nice and I got two proposals,” she said.
Though Aleeza didn’t set the pair up, Cindy said that the Jewish matchmaker still had an impact. At the beginning of their relationship, Cindy was nervous that her boisterous personality was too different from Eldad’s, who is more easy-going. So she called up Aleeza.
“I told her that I didn’t know if I could speak to him about philosophy or French art and literature. He’s an Israeli and I’m a woman of the world, you know? And I love going to museums, and he hates museums,” Cindy said.
She went on, “Aleeza said, ‘Do you absolutely need that in a partner? Or can you find that in someone else?’ Meaning, can you be fulfilled with going to a museum or talking about Baudelaire with someone else? I thought about it for a second and was like, you know, I guess I don’t need it in a partner, it’s okay if I can speak with it [sic] with my sister or my friends.”
From then on, the relationship was smooth sailing.
Now, Cindy and Eldad will begin actually planning the wedding. For the bride-to-be’s part, she’s hoping to have a very small wedding, around 50 people, either on a beach or somewhere in Jerusalem. What’s definite, however, is that the couple wants to have a short engagement, with the wedding likely coming in the winter. If Cindy’s parents have anything to do with it, however, the wedding might happen even sooner, after the High Holy Days.
And if you’re wondering whether or not Eldad prays with tefillin, don’t worry, we made sure to ask that, too. Cindy smiled, laughing, before responding, “Absolutely.”
Hey Alma
Aleeza Ben Shalom will be live for one night only in Melbourne on August 31, presented by Caulfield Shule in partnership with The AJN. For tickets: trybooking.com/CJMMY
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