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Rebecca Minkoff made waves with her Real Housewives of New York casting. She immediately caught outlets’ and viewers’ attention due to her religious affiliations. Rebecca is both Jewish and a practicing Scientologist. A person has to wonder what it’s like balancing both ideologies.
On November 6, Bravo released a preview for RHONY Season 15, Episode 7. In the clip, Rebecca sat down with Erin Lichy for brunch. After chatting about a snide comment from Brynn Whitfield, Erin said she had a “personal question.” She asked, “How does it work being Jewish and a Scientologist?”
Rebecca explained her beliefs and history with Scientology. “Being Jewish is my religion, obviously. And then the other one is really an applied philosophy that, like, when it gets rough, that’s where I can get tools to help me.” She said Scientology helped her “with communication, with the stress of life, like, dealing with kids, a business,” and more.
Rebecca Minkoff explains her religious beliefs to a confused Erin
With that explanation, Erin surmised that Scientology wasn’t exactly a religion. Rebecca said, “Everyone hears the word ‘religion’ and their like, ‘God, worship,’ right? But there’s also anything spiritual in nature. So, you could go as far as to say that going to Soul Cycle is a spiritual experience.” Erin didn’t touch the false equivalency and instead said she didn’t go to Soul Cycle.
In a confessional, Rebecca shared, “I think it’s unfortunate that there are a lot of stereotypes out there that are people who don’t have the right information [or] are working with inadequate data. And I would just ask people to go check it out for yourself. Whether it is reading a book, going online, watching the TV station about it.”
Someone behind the camera said the first book that comes to mind would be Going Clear by Lawrence Wright. The book contains interviews with current and former Scientologists, along with histories of the organization. When the producer brought it up, Rebecca smiled and said, “Don’t read that book.” Hmm.
To Erin’s credit, she said in a confessional that she didn’t want to disrespect Rebecca’s beliefs. She did, however, acknowledge that it was all hard for her to “understand.” Erin also said she knew “too much” about Scientology but didn’t elaborate. No reasonable person wants to disrespect another person’s beliefs. But it’s hard to ignore the controversies around Scientology, or the controversies in Rebecca’s family for that matter.
Real Housewives of New York continues Tuesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.
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