‘American’s Next Top Model’ Messes With the Wrong Jewish Mother

America?s Next Top Model contestant Esther Petrack
Marina Petrack, mother of America’s Next Top Model contestant Esther Petrack, wants everyone to know that her daughter will not give up Shabbat for the runway. The Jewish Chronicle reports that Marina, an Orthodox Jew, is blaming bad editing for the appalling suggestion that her daughter would forsake observing Shabbat to further her modeling career.
Esther, 18, was born in Jerusalem, and grew up attending a Jewish school in Boston. On a recent episode of the reality show, Tyra Banks, the show’s host, questioned Esther about her religious identity. Esther initially said that she planned to honor Shabbat but then said she’d be willing to break the laws if necessary. Esther’s mother claims that her daughters controversial words “I will do it” — a response to Tyra’s question about working on Shabbat — were the result of editing and the producers desire to “create a more scandalous storyline.”
“These words were taken from a long conversation about the principles and laws and how Esther was planning to observe them,” The Jewish Chronicle reported Marina saying in response to a blog post. Just in case other Jewish mothers were as outraged as Marina, she went on to explain that Esther is such an observant Jew that “she koshered a cooking pot in the Pacific Ocean” when on location for the show.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Gaza and Trump have left the Jewish community at war with itself — and me with a bad case of alienation
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Fast Forward Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’
-
Fast Forward 5 Jewish senators accuse Trump of using antisemitism as ‘guise’ to attack universities
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.