(Photo: Courtesy of Kupperman Productions)

Hedge-Fund Stud Conquers Israel
Battle of the Semitic brides.
Ari Goldman, 34, seems like a Jewish mother’s dream: The dashing yeshiva-educated NYU grad and Great Neck native is a partner at a hedge fund who lives on the Upper East Side. What’s more, he wants to marry a Jewish girl. Now he’s the star of From All the Girls in the World, an Israeli-television take on The Bachelor that will be taping its final episodes of the season from September 24 to 30 in Manhattan and at Goldman’s parents’ beach house; he has to choose among Gali, Galit, Orit, Ofira, Etty, Moran, and Neta. “When I first came to Israel in 1987, I wasn’t really attracted to Israeli girls,” Goldman says. “They didn’t really put themselves together in a way that appealed to me. I was used to New York girls, who always looked beautiful, whereas [Israeli] girls are, like, going into the Army. Now they’ve become so cosmopolitan it’s astounding. They look great. They wear the same brands as girls in New York.” And his mother couldn’t be happier about the show: “It’s all Jewish girls? God bless you!” Likewise, Goldman has been charmed by the Holy Land. “I don’t have to go out on a date and then figure out, Is this girl Jewish or not? Israel takes that variable out.”
—Rebecca Milzoff