From New York to Tel Aviv, YENTA Finds His Place in the LGBTQ Community
As Tel Aviv prepares to hold its first official Pride weekend since the Hamas terror attack on October 7, thousands of participants are expected to attend the celebrations. For Jonah Merrills, known to his followers as YENTA, this is much more than another date on the calendar. For him, it is a milestone in a personal journey that began long before he arrived in Israel and came to fruition דווקא here.
Merrills grew up on Long Island in New York, in a Modern Orthodox family with strong Zionist ties. “I always knew I would live in Israel one day,” he says. “The question was never whether I would make aliyah, but when.” He completed his aliyah process in January 2024 with the help of Nefesh B’Nefesh and in cooperation with the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, the Jewish Agency, KKL, and Jewish National Fund USA.
After high school, he spent a year studying in a yeshiva in Jerusalem. That period strengthened his connection to Judaism, but it also raised difficult personal questions. “It was an amazing year, and I got answers to many questions I had about Judaism,” he recalls. “But from a young age I understood that the connection between the religious world and my identity as a gay man would be complicated.”
Over the years, his relationship with religious observance changed, but his connection to spirituality remained an inseparable part of his life. The move to Israel helped him see things differently. “Outside Israel, it often feels like you have to pick a side,” he says. “Here, especially in Tel Aviv, there is much more room for complexity. I feel free to be who I am, both spiritually and personally.”
That feeling also accompanied him when he came out during his college years. According to him, his family received him warmly and supported him throughout. After completing two degrees in the United States, he felt it was time for a change. In August 2023, he came to Israel to seriously explore the possibility of aliyah. Two months later, on October 5, he landed in Israel to begin his new life, and then came October 7.
“I woke up to a FaceTime call from a friend in California,” he recalls. “I didn’t really understand what was happening. I didn’t know what a safe room was, and I didn’t have Home Front Command apps on my phone.” Despite the uncertainty and shock, leaving was never considered. “I didn’t think for a moment about going back to the United States.” Instead, he chose to stay and build his life alongside Israelis during one of the hardest periods the country has known.
“In retrospect, being here during that time was one of the most meaningful things I have experienced,” he says. “I arrived in Israel during a very difficult moment everyone was going through, and at the same time I was also starting to build my life here.” Like many new immigrants, he looked for a way to take part and help. He volunteered in hotels that were hosting evacuees from the south and the north, and with children who had been displaced from their homes because of the war.
“That volunteering brought me straight into Israeli society,” he says. “I wasn’t just a bystander.” Two months after the war broke out, he began studying at Reichman University. At first, he thought his future was in the Israeli high-tech sector. For a while, that was indeed the direction, but as he deepened his roots in Tel Aviv, he discovered that he was increasingly drawn to creativity, content, and community.
“Israel brought out things in me I didn’t know existed,” he says. “I discovered parts of myself I didn’t know.” What began as a small hobby gradually became much broader work, a growing audience, a community formed around his content, and a social media persona already known as YENTA.
The name came about by chance, while he was studying Yiddish. The word “Yenta,” which usually describes someone who likes to talk about everyone and know everything, immediately struck him. “When I saw that word I said to myself, this is me,” he laughs. “Jews like to talk about people. For me that is not a negative thing. That is how connections are made, that is how a community is created.” Over time, YENTA became his brand name, one associated with positivity, authenticity, and connection between people. “I stopped trying to fit myself in. Today I am just myself, and that is enough.”
His activity on social media gained momentum unexpectedly. Early this year, a video in which he reviewed a taco restaurant in Tel Aviv received tens of thousands of views. “That made me understand there really are no rules,” he says. “If you enjoy what you are doing and it makes people happy, you are probably going in the right direction.”
The response encouraged him to think bigger. During Pride Month last year, he decided to post content every day and showcase the people, businesses, and places that make Tel Aviv’s LGBTQ community what it is. The project stopped because of the escalation with Iran and the disruptions that accompanied it, but it left a deep mark on him. “I started seeing my shadow everywhere,” he recalls. “And then I understood that there is a shadow only when there is light.” For him, it was a reminder of the essence of Pride, finding light, visibility, and joy even in complicated times.
Last month, he held his first solo exhibition, called “Who Is YENTA?” “It was the biggest night of my life,” he says. “It was the first time I was able to show people who Yenta is and who I really am.” The exhibition, along with his earlier Pride project, led to the launch of his new initiative, Thirty Days of YENTA. As part of the series, for a full month he is highlighting LGBTQ-owned businesses, community initiatives, self-expression, and the people who make Tel Aviv such a special city.
At the core of the project is a simple idea, to be who you are without apologizing for it. For him, Pride is much more than parties. “People sometimes forget that,” he says. “I love parties, but Pride exists because of people who fought so that we could live our lives openly and freely.” The series also reflects his desire to show the world the Israel he knows. “YENTA always has a positive approach,” he says. “I want people to see what life in Tel Aviv really looks like. To meet the people who make me smile, and who make others smile too.”
Ironically, despite growing up near New York, one of the cities most associated with LGBTQ history and culture in the world, he says that only in Israel was he able to truly shape his queer identity. “Only when I got to Tel Aviv did I feel I understood my place within the LGBTQ community,” he says. “I built that identity here, over time.” According to him, one of the things that makes this experience special is the diversity that characterizes Israel’s LGBTQ community. “I have Arab and Druze friends who live here openly as gay men. The ability to live as queer in the Middle East in a relatively open and safe way is something extraordinary.”
As Tel Aviv’s Pride events return this year at full strength, Merrills will celebrate them not only as part of the community, but also as an Israeli citizen. “This is the first time I am experiencing the official Pride parade in Tel Aviv as an Israeli citizen,” he says. “There is an amazing feeling there of love and acceptance from every direction.”
And for anyone considering aliyah, especially from the LGBTQ community, he has one piece of advice: “Just do it.” He says his own move happened almost without advance planning. “I made aliyah pretty spontaneously, and the best things happened בדיוק when I least expected them.” He does not ignore the difficulties, but believes that LGBTQ people already have experience dealing with major change. “As a queer person, you have already learned what it means to step out of your comfort zone. You have already had to choose courage over security. So why not do that when it comes to moving to a new country too?” For Merrills, that leap led him exactly where he needed to be. “If something in you is pulling you here,” he concludes, “just go for it.”
