Heidi Silverstone and Shayna Maydele: The Instagram Famous "Jewish" Pup

   Join us for a heartwarming episode of the Mazel Pups Podcast as we welcome Heidi Silverstone and her adorable Instagram-famous Coton de Tulear, Shayna Maydele. Shayna Maydele (who is the January “calendar girl” for Mazel Pups and PrintArtKids’ Positively Jewish 2025 Calendar) has a fluffy coat and calm demeanor that make her the perfect ambassador for blending Jewish traditions with delightful doggy snapshots. 
Discover the charming tale of how Shayna Maydele came into Heidi's family and how she got the name Shayna Maydele (“beautiful girl” in Yiddish). And learn how Heidi’s using Instagram as a simple way to share pictures of her new puppy with friends and family turned into a vibrant community celebrating Jewish customs and the whimsical life of Shayna Maydele. Hear about the amusing encounters that happen on the streets of New York City resulting from Shayna Maydele's fame.
Heidi also offers practical advice on taking pictures of dogs for social media, managing a popular Instagram account and the joys of engaging with the online community.
Don't miss the moving reflections and humorous anecdotes that make this episode a delightful listen for dog lovers and those interested in Jewish culture alike.

You can follow Shayna Maydele on Instagram @shayna.maydele.the.coton

You can purchase the Pawsitively Jewish 2025 Calendar at PrintArtKids.com/Calendars

And Shayna Maydele is the only non-human in the “Humans of Judaism” book. The book is being released in October 2024. For information: https://humansofjudaism.com/book

I hope you enjoy listening to the Mazel Pups podcast as much as I enjoy making it. If you have an idea for a future episode or want to be in touch, email me at mazelpups@gmail.com.

If you want more of Mazel Pups, you can:
* Follow on Instagram @mazelpups
* Follow the Mazel Pups Facebook Page
* Join the Mazel Pups Facebook Group

And the PAWSITIVELY JEWISH 2025 CALENDAR, which features super-cute dogs dressed up for & celebrating Jewish holidays, and includes Jewish & Israeli holidays, dog holidays & national US & Canadian holidays, is now for sale at www.PrintArtKids.com/Calendars. A portion of the proceeds from the calendar will go to the Israel Guide Dog Center. Check out this awesome calendar and get one for yourself - and they make great gifts for friends and family, while helping to support an awesome cause. 

Finally, I'd love it if you'd subscribe to the podcast and let us know if you enjoyed it by giving it five stars.

Thanks for listening!
Rabbi Robyn

Transcript

00:08 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

Shalom, welcome. I'm Rabbi Robyn Frisch and this is the Mazel Pops podcast. If you're Jewish or Jew-ish, however you define it, and you love dogs, this is the podcast for you. 

To say I've been looking forward to today's guests - and I am very intentionally using the plural here  - would be a major understatement. 

00:26

I first learned about Shayna Maydele's account a couple of years ago, when I first went onto Instagram. I didn't know what I was doing at all, but I can tell you that one of the first dogs I saw, one of the first dog accounts, right away, was Shayna Maydele's account - and I was in love. She had not only fantastic pictures, she just talked about Judaism and the holidays in this straightforward, accessible way and I was thinking: “that is great, that that's out here and that people are seeing that.” And I really felt like I knew Shayna Maydele. Then, a few months ago, I announced I was starting a Mazel Pup's podcast on Instagram and I asked people: ”who would you like to hear from?” And by far most of the responses were “Shayna Maydele. I want to hear from her.” Often it was just her, sometimes it would be her mom, or occasionally people knew your name was Heidi, And I'd always have to write back: “I plan to. I plan to. She's on my original list.” I have here today, Heidi. Can you introduce Shayna Maydele?

01:54 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

This is Shayna Maydele. She is barely 10 pounds of fluff and she loves people and she loves dogs and she's just happy go lucky. And I love her and I have to say as much as I know about her. 

02:07 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

When Heidi came in just a few minutes ago and I said: “Wait, she's a lot smaller than I thought.” And when you said 10 pounds, I was shocked because she does have so much fluff. I would have never imagined she's only 10 pounds, but she has as much - I don't know if it's the right term for a dog - as much personality as I imagined she would. 

02:23 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

She's bigger than life. When she gets wet, she completely disappears. All of her fluff goes away. 

02:33 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

So, even though I'm sure many of the people watching right now know a lot about her already, I want to ask the four questions, and the first two happen to do with a dog, and her in particular. The first one is: do you have a dog? 

So we know the answer to that, but maybe you can expound a little bit about that and tell us about the kind of dog that she is. 

02:51 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Sure. We have our lovely, wonderful Shayna Maydele. She's a Coton de Tulear. The name sounds very pretentious but it's actually very descriptive. “Coton” is French for cotton, and if you pet a Coton, their hair - it's hair, not fur - is very, very soft. Tulear is the name of the city in Madagascar where they originally come from, so it's just a descriptive name. 

03:19 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

And probably Coton de Tulear is their most famous these days, because of Barbara Streisand, who cloned one of hers. 

03:26 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

I would joke around with people and say, “yeah, she's a clone,” but she isn't. 

03:30 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

So, again, those of us who follow her on Instagram know all kinds of facts about her, but can you share a fun fact or two about her? 

03:38 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Sure, she has a few superpowers. One superpower is she can leave a bowl of food untouched for hours, which is unheard of for dogs. She's very picky. Her other superpower is she can sleep through fireworks and thunder. Nothing seems to bother her. I am so jealous, I think maybe because she's a New York City dog and there's always fire trucks and noise that it just doesn't bother her. 

04:05 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

I think I told you I had to change the name of my Lighting Round to The Four Questions because one of my dogs is so traumatized by lightning. It just felt like an inappropriate name.

So I want to ask these questions of you now, not of Shayna Maydele. What is your favorite thing about Judaism? 

04:22 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

There's so many great things about Judaism. There's so much. But my favorite part of Judaism are all the, the customs that bind us. I know wherever I go in the world, if I meet another Jew, you might have slightly different customs because of the part of the world they're from, but the underlying ritual, it's all the same. 

04:42

When I travel with my family, wherever we are in the world, we always go to a synagogue. We've been in Morocco and Argentina and Europe and it's just amazing. We might not speak any of those languages, but when it comes to the Hebrew prayers, we know them and can follow along. And what's amazing is sometimes even the tunes are the same. And so wherever I am as a Jew, it doesn't matter, we're all together. One of the most unique experiences we had at a synagogue on our travels of all places was in Rapid City, Douth Dakota. It was hard to find the synagogue. The GPS brought us through all these windy roads. We didn't know where we would end up and the synagogue was. Actually it looked like it was a house in the suburbs. So during the silent Amidah, my son, Michael, tapped me on the shoulder, pointed out the window and he saw a herd of elk. It was so good. It was like so South Dakota. 

05:40 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

You don't get that in New York City when you're in Park Avenue Synagogue.

05:44 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

But that's what I love about Judaism, because all these synagogues, whenever we would go, we would be embraced, we'd be invited for Shabbos dinner, we would get an Aliyah. So that's my favorite part,

05:56 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

And I know you celebrate all the holidays because I see it on Instagram through Shayna Maydele. But what is your favorite holiday? 

06:00 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

My favorite holiday is the most frequent holiday. It's Shabbat. There's something about a mandatory day of rest that I find appealing. I think it's good for anybody, if you're Jewish or not. Before the pandemic, we would very frequently have friends and family over, have big Shabbat dinners, or we would go to friends' houses. We don't do it as much and hopefully we'll get back into the rhythm again. But I love to cook and I find cooking a Shabbat meal…it's not nearly as difficult as putting together a break fast or frying up a thousand latkes or preparing a seder. 

06:39 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

I love that every there's always a post of Shayna Maydele, usually in her yarmulke. 

06:46 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Yes, a yarmulke, because they're always different. 

06:49 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

Yes, and often they have significance that you'll explain. And she's in front of candlesticks and she's in front of a kiddish cup, and you know what I think. What's so nice to me is I know that you're not just putting them out for the picture. You can tell: they're going to use this tonight and they're going to celebrate Shabbat with that exact challah that's sitting out, that she is somehow sitting in front of and not eating. 

07:11 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Which amazes me. That takes a lot of work, but also because she's picky, she doesn't go for it.  Any other dog would die for it. 

07:18 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

But there is something I think very special about knowing that, while they may be posed, they're not posed with things that you're not using. 

07:23 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Right. 

07:24 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

And I think I'm not the only one who's touched by that, and I think that's part of what makes a big difference. 

So you are clearly a dog person now. Were you always a dog person? I? 

07:34 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

I was always a dog person. I had dogs growing up. My first dog was Boots. She was a mutt. She was all black but her legs were brown so it looked like she was wearing boots. She had this funny trick she would do. We had a central vacuum cleaner, so there were little doors on the floor where you put the hose in. 

07:54

So she'd run over to the door with her nose, open the door but the machine that ran the vacuum was down in the basement. So she would run downstairs and bark at it because it was making noise, run back upstairs and close the door with her paw and that was it. But that's what Boot did. Then my second dog was a beautiful Irish Setter. My brother actually found her in college but he wasn't allowed to keep her there, so he brought her home. She was very skinny so of course my Jewish mother was constantly feeding her, trying to fatten her up. Ironically, Irish Setters, they're normally skinny anyway. So she was always trying to feed her. 

08:34

Ruby, no matter how much she liked the food my mother gave her, always wanted more. She ate some soap a friend gave us from France. She ate a bottle of Vaseline. She ate my Red Badge of Courage book report and my teacher believed me because I showed him the scraps with the doggy DNA on them. But the one thing that she really liked to eat the most and wasn't supposed to, was my mother's zucchini bread. My mom had an amazing vegetable garden and we made delicious zucchini breads when I had a chance to eat them. If not. Ruby would always find them, no matter where she hit them. 

09:11 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

That is so right. Well, you are, I think, the only person I know, maybe in history that exists, who truly the dog ate your homework. 

09:18 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Yeah, truly the dog ate my homework. 

09:20 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

Did you have other pets as well? I'm just curious. Or was it just dogs? 

09:23 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Did I have other pets? Oh, we had one more. It was sort of our pet. My brother had a dog, but a lot of times he left the dog with us. Her name was Sasha. She was a small dirty white dog. She wasn't dirty, that was just the color dirty white. But my Jewish mother thought that the dog was just dirty. So one day she gave Sasha a bath and the dog would not turn white because the dog was not white - that poor dog, And I have a picture of that and every time I look at it, I laugh. 

09:53 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

So your two sons are actually adults now and don't live at home. Did you have pets when they were growing up?

09:58 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

It's funny, my kids and I, we wanted a dog. My husband, he likes dogs but he was the smart one. I knew it would just be so much work. And you know what? I'm glad we didn't have one, because I see how limiting it can be. Even though it's wonderful living in the city, it's completely different how you take care of a dog. So the kids had fish and one day we went on vacation and when we came home the person who took care of them overfed the fish. So that was that was quite sad. Then they also had a pet slug, which I'm sure that's also a first for Mazel Pups, that slug. 

10:37

One day I was cleaning broccoli and I found a slug and I showed it to the kids and I was just going to throw it out. They're like: “oh no, let's keep it as a pet.”

10:50 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

Did they name the slug? 

10:56 -- Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

The pet's name was Broccoli. So we went to the store and we bought a little tank and I'm like: how am I going to take care of a slug? But coincidentally my younger son was, I think, maybe in first grade at the time. He's now an ordained Cantor, so it was a long time ago. He was learning about slugs in school at the same time, so he knew what to feed the slug. We fed it chalk -  as in writing on a chalkboard. 

11:17

I would have never guessed that. And lettuce. And it grew…and it grew like more than tripled in size, and every now and then we would look in the tank and we would panic. We wouldn't see it, but it would climb up the walls. Eventually, broccoli passed on. 

11:34 

So we gave broccoli a dignified burial in Central Park.

11:40 = Robyn Frisch (Host)

So, you know, it's interesting when you talk about having a dog in the City. I have, you know, a fenced backyard. Though my dogs would rather I walk them up and down the cul-de-sac on a leash than run around in the backyard, which I don't understand. 

11:54

But at least I have that option. Obviously in the City you don't. But I have to say, many people I know say: “Okay, we've raised our kids, now we're empty nesters. This is our last dog.” So it's interesting that you and your husband decided to get a dog at that point in time where you're probably doing more traveling and can get away more easily during the week. What prompted you, at this point in your life, to get a dog? 

12:17 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Well, we still always wanted a dog and everything you say, I agree. It was like: “No more kids, yay, we're free.” But because we didn't have a dog, we would frequently dog sit for friends’ Coton de Tulear and they were going away and asked if we would watch Julius the Coton and we said “sure.” So we had so much fun. Rob fell in love with this dog and you know we got to see what it was like taking care of a dog in the Ciity. So after Julius left and we wiped away our tears, my husband said: “you know, if we ever get a dog, this is the kind of dog that I want.” But what I heard, what happened in my brain? I heard: “we're getting a dog.” So I immediately scoured the internet to try to find our very own Coton. 

13:10 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

And your breeder was not exactly next door. either. 

13:13 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

The breeder was in Arizona. We chose her based on a lot of things. We were checking references. Also the timing of when the dog was born. We had no idea until after the contract was signed that it was the same as Barbara Streisand's breeder. I don't think they're related in any way, but it's the same place and we had to go to Arizona to pick her up. Arizona is beautiful. I don't recommend it in the summertime. It's very, very hot. 

13:43 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

So did you know before you went what you were going to name her? 

13:48 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

We had a whole discussion about what to name her. We're a big Springsteen family, so I thought 
 “Let's call her Rosalita,” and we didn't even have to have a discussion, it's like “oh yes, that's the best. “

14:00 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

Now, were your sons involved? Or just you and your husband? 

14:04 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Oh no, my sons too, all four of us. All four of us are big Springsteen fans. So we decided on Rosalita. We did toy with a bunch of Yiddish names, but we said “You know what? Rosalita is the name.” So we got to Arizona, went to pick her up. I looked at her and I said: “oh, that's my Shayna Maydele.” And that was it. Rosalita went out the window. 

14:23 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

How did your husband and sons react to that? I mean they were okay?

14:25 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

I think in a way, they probably thought I would do that, but it's okay. When I told my dad, it was funny. He's like: Really? Come on. What's really her name?” I'm like: “Shayna Maydele.” He didn't believe that was it. I'm sure it wouldn't have mattered. But I'm just trying to imagine like Rosalita's, like this big Jewish dog on Instagram doesn't have the same right to it. And you know, I was, in a way, glad we didn't, because we meet a lot of dogs and there are a lot of Rosie's, there are a lot of dogs named Rosie and we probably would have ended up calling her Rosie. So it's, it's better. 

15:03 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

You know this has come up many times and many people who are watching or who are listening I'm sure already know she has this very popular Instagram account. Tell me a little bit about your Instagram experience before Shayna Maydele. 

15:16 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

I had zero social media experience at all. I don't have any social media. I don't have Facebook, Instagram, nothing. So it was all new to me and the only reason I started the account was my friends and family. They were all asking me to send pictures and I'd be sending pictures all day, so I figured this would be easier. I didn't put any privacy on it, thinking: who's going to look? 

15:40 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

And how long ago was this? What year?/

15:41 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

She turned five in April, so it was like 2019, right before the pandemic. So that's how she ended up so I just started posting almost like privately, but I didn't set it privately and I wasn't really carefully curating, or like a click, like there weren't even great pictures at the beginning because I didn't think it was so important, and then you know we would go to the dog park and meet other dogs. Are you on Instagram? 

16:13

I didn't even know that was like a thing about dogs. So it was kind of funny because then some Cotons were following me and then, like I started following some Cotons, but then it really exploded. Once on a Shabbat I put a yarmulke on her head to wish my friends and family Shabbat Shalom. I thought it was only my friends and family. And then all of a sudden there's smoke coming out of my phone, like Instagram is going crazy. It ended up the Instagram site Hey Alma, a Jewish site. 

16:46

They shared her picture and so she got hundreds of followers and I thought: “wow, that's crazy.” So the next week I did the same thing. I shared a picture and got more followers and Hey Alma, it's part of a whole bunch of other Instagram accounts. There's 70 Faces. 

17:07 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

70 Faces Media and they're part of it. There's Kveller and Hay Alma and others.

17:15 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Right, so Kveller and my Jewish Learning and Jewish Food. They all shared pictures of her. Oh, that's great and in fact it was very interesting. The first time my Jewish Learning shared a photo of her. the topic was “Can Jews have dogs?” And it was talking about how it depends on how you interpret it if Jews shouldn't have, or they can or they can't. So I thought it was really interesting. 

17:30 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

So you didn't even know they were going to use her picture?

17:35 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

 I didn't know, but you know I don't mind, because if it's out there and as long as they give her credit, that's fine with me. I love when people share her picture, as long as they give her credit. 

17:50 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

So it sounds lie that was the beginning. 

17:54 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

And then because they were big accounts and every time they shared I'd get more people and it just kept growing and growing. 

18:08 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

So we've talked about your posts on celebrating Shabbat and the holidays. You have some other great posts as well. I have to say, I started following you because of the Jewish part, but then I get a real kick out of the selling things on the street. So can you tell us what that is, and what in the world? What's going on? How do you think of it? What's going on in New York City? 

18:24 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

So you know what's so funny is that it's very normal to any New Yorker. You walk out on the street and you see a dresser, you see a chair, you see a mattress. It's crazy because we're a vertical city so there are hundreds of apartments and if somebody moves it's not like if you're moving in a house. You get a dumpster and you have one thing outside that you know people want. At the end of the month you could barely walk on the sidewalks. So there's all this stuff. So I thought it'd be funny and I took a picture of her and so the caption was “New Business Venture - I'm Selling.” I'm selling you this couch. Free bed bugs,  because you never know. 

19:02

What's nice about it is some people do take the furniture, the furniture that looks in good condition or fixable condition, and otherwise the rest goes to the garbage truck. I actually find it to be a Jewish value to respect the environment, and I think when people put out furniture on the curb they're probably secretly hoping somebody takes it. A lot of times there's a sign on it that says “Free,” or “Take Me Please,” or “Fiend Me A New Home.” So I'm hoping most of that furniture finds a place. Some of it found a place in my house. 

19:38

We have a coffee table. It's wood and it's ornately carved. My husband found this beautiful art deco and end table and I said: “where did you get that?” And he said: “on the street.” And I said: “On the street next to a moving van?” I mean, it was just so nice. And once we found a dresser. It was in very bad condition but the hardware on it was beautiful. So we got our Black and Decker, we took off the hardware and now we have it on our furniture at home and it's antique, it's beautiful. 

20:07 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

Now, are any of these things the things you put pictures of her in front of?

20:11 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

No, because they were already in my house. 

20:13 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

I mean, you have a very good sense of humor with the things. 

20:17 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

They're actually entertaining. 

20:19 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

Do you try to do that once a week, or just when you see things?

20:22 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

There's so much stuff. I could do it every day. You know, when you have Instagram, it's hard to come up with new ideas all the time. So, yeah, I try to do it once a week because I can't come up with so many ideas. But each piece of furniture is so unique. 

20:47 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

So which posts have been the most popular of her?

20:22 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

It's funny. Well, actually it's not so funny. Her Jewish her Jewish posts are the most popular. And because when I started her account, I didn't start it as a Jewish Instagram account, so that's I guess that's why I find it so funny. But now she is known as the Jewish dog, I think probably because of those like you.

21:07 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

I'm just one of thousands. 

21:08 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Yes. 

21:09 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

I followed you because of that. 

21:10 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Right. 

21:11 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

Now, that's like. So much of your audience. 

21:13 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Right, right, but her most popular Instagram posts. I did it two years on Hanukkah. It was a video tutorial about how to light the candles. It got over a million views. And then her second most popular post. 

21:29 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

Was that reposted somewhere, like through Hey Alma, I think?                 

21:33 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

It was definitely reposted, but it was shared by so many people and if you share it, then they follow you and they share it. But I couldn't believe how many followers it was getting. And then my second most popular post - it was a video of a Shabbat dinner. Right after October 7th, we hosted these two Israeli sisters. They came from Indian and Yemeni descent, but they lived in Israel. At the time people didn't know what was going on right away, so their mother sent them out of Israel – said: “just leave.” And so we signed up with I don't even remember the organization that will take somebody if they need housing. So we ended up getting these two sisters and so they cooked us this amazing Shabbat meal. And one thing that makes me so happy that the video of that meal went viral is because it was Yemeni Indian food, and so many people think that Jews are only from Europe. But we're from North Africa, we're from Asia, we're from the Middle East. So that made me really happy. That has almost a million views. 

22:47 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

That's amazing. So the other thing about Shayna Maydele that amazes me - and this is more about my dogs. They would not sit still, Like I. If I can, I'll put a bandana on. That's about it, And then chase them around trying to take pictures for the next three days, and it's never easy. 

23:04

I'm sure it may not be as easy as it looks when I see it, but she's always sitting, you know, in front of a challah - sitting there perfectly, her tongue out. Everything's placed perfectly right. How on earth do you do that? Um not, I'm not even going to aspire to do that - maybe some of our listeners will. But I'm just so in awe of how that happens. 

23:24 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

And she moves. 

23:25 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

I mean, I'm looking at her. It's not like she just sits there waiting to be photographed. She's got a lot of whatever the dog version of personality is. 

23:33 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

I have a very helpful assistant. I'm also married to him, so, yeah, it really takes two people to wrangle this ball of fluff. We try to minimize the time that she's there for the picture. So I set up everything in advance, and sometimes it means moving furniture, changing lights. I'll take a few pictures without her there, set it up and then, once it's ready, Rob will put her in the spot, put the camera on and then I start, no pun intended, barking orders at him: “Move the camera to the left, move it to the right. It's covering her eyes. Move her back. Go left. Right. Move the candles because I want to try to center it.” And so we do that. And she's very patient. I guess she also enjoys being with us. 

24:17

So then, before I start snapping the pictures, Rob runs to stand behind me and starts waving his arms, and the two of us are making all these crazy noises. So she'll look towards us and look at the camera. Now, sometimes I just click, click, click, go away, and then we're done. But sometimes she's just sitting there but she's not smiling. And what is a dog smile? It's literally just them opening up their mouth and their tongue hanging out. So how do you get a dog to do that, if they're happy, if they're running around, so she's not smiling? We take her down and Rob and I literally chase her around the room just to get her going and once that tongue is out, we throw her back up there. 

24:58 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

Actually, I feel a lot better I was kind of expecting you to say: “we put her up there then we take a picture.

25:11 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

No, no, no, not at all. Part of me is glad that you know. It's funny what everyone else does. 

Well, because the setup is so difficult to do, I'll start clicking. And even if the very first picture worked, I don't even look at them until I take like a million of them, but yeah, but then a lot of them are really good. So I have a hard time deciding which one to use. 

25:33 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

I have to say that I'm incredibly excited. As you know, Abbe Lunger and I are creating a Positively Jewish 2025 Calendar and we decided we wanted to use 12 dogs, obviously for each month, and I said to Abby when we started: “I can't make the decisions.”

It's like I love every one of these dogs that I don't know, but I've been posting their pictures. 

25:50 

I'm going to show you different options. You pick the dogs because it was just too tough for me, but I said: “You have to….not you have to, but you're going to want to use Shayna Maydele.” I said, “And don't worry, pick from the others which months because they have to have the right lighting and the things in the right place and be centered. I said: "Pick the other dogs that work because for any holiday there's a good picture of her.”

26:12 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

You just fill her in and we could put her in January. 

26:15 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

You know, all there is in January of 2025 is the last night of Hanukkah we're not focusing on Hanukkah until December. There's like great Shabbat pictures, like everything. There's a good picture of her that would work, and so she is our Shabbat. 

26:26 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

January girl celebrating Shabbat. 

26:30 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

I was very excited the other day when I needed some music. “Calendar Girl” is perfect and so she is our calendar girl. You know, obviously we asked all of the people whose pictures are going to be in it if it's okay to use their dogs and you referred earlier to people sharing your dog and just want to kind of re-emphasize, like it's okay with you that people use the pictures, but you do want to be able to be tagged or get permission absolutely. 

26:55 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

You know, I was really surprised all the times. I've seen her picture without her Instagram name, because social media has been around for so long this isn't a secret that you could just take a picture. 

People know, so you know: everybody listening use your picture, I don't care, just give, give my dog no, and I think that's important, obviously, because it's not just to protect your dog, it's about all people and their dogs. Of course, we're going to reuse them and most people appreciate that if you tag them or any picture on social media. 

Yeah, if somebody composes music and they have sheet music, don't copy it - buy the sheet music. It's the same thing. 

27:32 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

Thank you. I think that's really important. 

27:25 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

You know it's nothing personal, but she's the celebrity. 

27:36 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

Yes, and you once told me that you have been stopped on the streets of New York. People recognize her. What is that like? 

27:48 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

It's really funny. There was one time we were downtown in Madison Square Park. They just renovated the dog park there and it's really beautiful. And I'm not exaggerating. We were stopped twice before we got into the park and once when we got in the park. “Is that Shayna Maydele?” Like they knew her. We weren't even in our neighborhood. Just the other day we were in Gramercy Park, another prark we don't live there,

28:16

I saw this cute little dog and I'm like: “Oh, what kind of dog is that?” “It's a Havanese. And oh, what kind of dog is that? A Coton? Is that Shayna, Maydele? Oh my goodness” And he went crazy. He's like: “My whole family. We all look forward to your pictures. We love you. Oh, my goodness.” He took out his phone and he's texting his family and taking pictures. “Can I take a selfie?”

28:37 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

Do they ask you first? 

28:38 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Oh, yeah, people ask, or a lot of times because, remember, I live in New York City, so anytime I walk outside there's like a million people on the street. So I see people looking and I'm like: “do you want to pet her?”

28:50

and it's always “yes” and is that people who recognize, or just in general, but also where we live, there are a lot of restaurants with outdoor seating, so we'll walk by and even people who are eating they're like: “oh my goodness.” I'll pick her up and they pet her and I don't have to worry that she's trying to grab their food because she won't do it. But yeah, it's so nice here though because New York City, like any city, like people you know are all kind of doing their own thing, even though there are so many. 

29:17 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

Yeah, you don't always think of the warmth and so just the fact that she connects people in that way is pretty amazing, 

29:30 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

You know it's funny, when we used to live in this apartment building, every day I'd wait for the elevator. My next door neighbor would be there, and it's a very New York thing, and I'm friendly. But in New York you just you don't talk to people. You don't look up, necessarily. You get on the elevator, you mind your own business. 

29:40

And the day that we were moving, we were locking the door to move. The next door neighbor said: “Moving?” And I'm like “yep,” and those were the only words that we ever spoke. But that's normal. Now with the dog. Oh, my goodness. Luckily I don't mind speaking to people, because if you're an introvert and you don't get a dog….

They just…people just gravitate to you. 

30:00 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

I think that's really nice to hear. In addition to getting stopped on the street she's done some pretty cool things because of who she is. So can you tell us about them?

30:13 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Sure. Another 70 Faces Media brand is the New York Jewish Week, a very big newspaper, an online newspaper in New York, and they contacted me and did an interview. So it was really a lot of fun. They came to the house. They took some pictures and she was dubbed as “Possibly the Most Jewish dog in New York.” You know people. They're forever known as Academy Award nominated. 

30:41

She is forever ”Possibly the Most Jewish Dog in New York.” That's a good title and then recently I worked with the Jewish Week again, and we spent the day in Coney Island and they shot a video of Shayna Maydele in Coney Island, which is really fun, because that's' where I spent a lot of time as a child. My grandmother lived there. From there, I got a message from somebody from the Jewish Chronicle, which is in London, and it is the oldest continuously operating Jewish publication. So that I found fascinating. And so I was interviewed. Too bad, they didn't fly me to London, It was a Zoom or a phone interview. And then from there Shayna Maydele was popping up in newspapers all over the world. 

31:29

They weren't necessarily interviews, but they would pick up on the stories. I had somebody from England not from the Jewish Chronicle. Somebody said some local British paper and a local Australian paper. So, I would get messages from people: “I was reading a paper this morning and I saw your dog.” It was incredible. And then, once I googled Shayna Maydele, I found an article in Mexico. It was written in Spanish, so I guess that's journalism today. They just take an article, and they credit, I hope they're crediting the sources. 

32:02

So that was pretty amazing to get. 

32:08 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

And there was another thing I remember seeing last year she was involved with, I think it was the Museum of the Dog on Purim.

32:16 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Yes, the Museum of the Dog. It's a really fascinating museum. It's really only for people, it's not for dogs. It’s about dogs. But I think once a month they have a program where you could actually bring your dog. So they asked if she would host a Purim party P-A-W-R-I-M party. So all these dogs showed up in costumes. It's funny. I don't dress her up, but for Purim I dressed her up. She dressed up like a little aviator, and it's funny. There was another dog there who dressed up like an airplane, named Finley, and I think Finley might be in the calendar as well. 

32:53

So we posed the two of them together. 

32:54 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

It was the first time they met? Finley is a gorgeous little Papillon. 

33:02 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Yes, so that was really cute.

33:05  - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

So I thought that was planned. 

33:07 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

No, we didn't even know each other. And the museum also had dog safe hamantaschen,, so yeah, that was nice. 

33:14 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

So I want to actually ask about a person. So there aren't a lot of humans in your posts. Very rarely do you see you or your kids or your husband, but I think the one you see the most is your dad. 

33:17 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Yes, we call him Papa.

33:19 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Papa. And he and Shayna Maydele seem to have a very special relationship. And they live in different cities. But it seems like your dad comes to New York or you make it to visit him a lot. Have they always been close? 

33:35 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

My dad and Shayna Mayele have a very special bond and the only time there's a little trouble in paradise is when he comes to visit. His favorite chair to sit on is also her favorite chair. So you know, whoever gets it first gets the chair, but otherwise they have a wonderful relationship. 

33:54 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

I think I've even seen them Zoom when they're not together. 

33:57 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Yeah, they'll Zoom. You know, my dad's amazing. He's 94, and he's driving. He takes classes at a local college, he goes to foreign film night, he cooks, he golfs, he walks. I mean, he's incredible. But COVID was a tough time. He didn't see anybody for a year and a half, so he learned how to Zoom. He’s great, you know now he does it like he listens to lectures online.

But, yes, he and Shayna Maydele became very close over Zoom. But she also has some other grandparents. Rob's mother, Grandma, loves Shayna Maydele, and so whenever she comes to visit, Shayna Maydele goes crazy and jumps all over her. It's wild, it's really sweet. And Rob's father isn't the biggest dog fan. He, you know he likes dogs but isn't into it as much as the other grandparents. But what's ironic is that I have this wonderful picture of the two of them and it is quite possibly the best picture I ever took of her and of him. It was just, it was just so funny. I had to convince him to hold her.

34:57 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

So we talked about your love for Israel and Judaism and you post a lot about Judaism, obviously, and most of the people who follow you and many follow you because of that and have found you because of that. But I'm curious, just based on what we all know about Instagram, do you get some haters or some problems and some comments that you'd rather not have to some of your Jewish or Israeli-related posts.? 

35:27 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Well, I mean, antisemitism has been on the rise for the past few years. This isn't new since October 7th. So for a few years, yes, I would get nasty comments. I did not like the comments and I'm not a news organization, so I feel I don't have any obligation to keep the comments and to not block the person who posted it. So if there's a nasty comment, I delete and I block. There's no room for that on my page. After October 7th, the following day, October 8th, Rob and I went to a pro-Israel rally and we brought Shayna Maydele with us. We had an Israeli flag and I posted about that. The comments I received. They were so vile. She also lost 5,000 followers because of that post and it was so upsetting to me. Not that I lost 5,000 followers, it's why I lost them. And people were following me and knew very well it was a Jewish dog. So I think so many people are just misinformed. 

36:33

It's about Israel and they're really misinformed about what's going on. So that I had a really hard time with it. Because I told you I'm new to social media and I always heard: “oh, it's so bad for your mental health.” That is when I really understood what it can do – it really messed me up. It was awful. 

36:56

I would get such terrible comments. One of them was, “put the dog in the oven.” I mean, it was gruesome. So I posted, I made a post I forget what day it was, but I used the Z word, I used Zionism, I used the word Zionism. People went crazy with the comments and it was the first and only time I had to actually cut off the comment section in a post and because of that I edited. I left what it said originally, but then I added something to the bottom saying just want you to know. Like this is really sad, but I had to cut off the comments and luckily, one of my followers messaged me because I wasn't used to using Instagram or social media. He said: “you know, you can set filters on your account” and once I was told that I filtered out certain things.

37:43

So now I get far fewer comments, but they still make their way. And yesterday I got a terrible…I don't even want to talk about it. It was so bad and I deleted it.

37:54 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

What's been the best part of having a dog that thousands of people just enjoy looking at and seeing? 

38:02 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Oh, that's a hard question to answer. The best part of having a dog, you know it's nice. I've met a lot of people IRL/in real life, I'm learning all this stuff. 

38:15

One woman saw that I would go to Maryland a lot to visit my family and she has two Cotons. So she messaged me and said: “next time you're in Baltimore let's get together.” So I'm like, “okay, stranger, let's meet in a public park.” I'm from New York, I'm not stupid, I don't know who these people are. So we met and now we're actually very good friends. We visit them, they visit us. She met another Katon the family that I think they lived in Virginia but now they're in Ohio and they travel a lot. So every time they travel they swing by New York and we see them. So I think that's really been fun, really nice meeting people. 

38:54 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

The internet, the Instagram, has gone offline. 

38:58 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Yes, I had a woman from western Canada come and visit with her husband. Yeah, you know, we're going to be in New York and we meet up. And you know, and I met them somebody else, I forget where. Oh, it's funny, we were in is Israel a couple of years ago and one of my followers said: “Oh, I'm here too.” And we weren't able to meet up, but we were kind of messaging each other: what did you do? What restaurant? And then eventually, when she was in New York with her husband, we met up. Nice. That is really nice. 

39:27 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

So let's say, someone calls you up or reaches out to you and says: “I want to start an Instagram account for my dog. Do you have any advice?” 

39:35 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

Oh boy, all I can say is really think about why you want to do it and if it will bring you joy. 

39:44

But if not, don't. It really depends. You know why I, if I'm going to do it, I want it to look good and I want it to have a purpose, and so I spend way too much time on it. So if you don't care, if you just want to take a couple pictures, throw them up for your friends, by all means go for it. But if you want a serious Instagram account, just know you have to spend a lot of, a lot of time. 

40:12 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

And I think - and I'm way less of an expert than you are at this point - but it's also later in time and there are a lot of accounts- It would be hard to go on expecting to have that many followers. 

40:26

Yes, it could happen and you can do all these things, but you really have to do it because you love it I think of when I started this podcast. Actually, Stacey, who owns the company that we're sitting in their space right now, said: “What's your goal?“

40:40 

You know, do you want to make money? 

40:41 

I'm like well, that'd be awesome, but that's probably not going to happen. I said my goal is really to have fun and for someone to be listening, and if no one's listening it's probably a waste of my time; but if I stop having fun, it's also a waste of my time. And, like, those are my goals and anything else is bonus. 

40:55 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

And I think almost for Instagram, very similar, very similar because it is a lot of work, but I really do enjoy doing it, putting it out there when it's out there. I love the comments, I like the Instagram experience. But for a goal, if I could make it something bigger, you know, I don't know. I mean Shayna Maydele. Like everybody wants Shayna Maydele, so if I could do something, something else with it, I would love to do that. I have yet to figure out what that is. Also, I just wanted to thank you for including her in the calendar. We are very excited about that. I'm especially pleased that a portion of the proceeds are going to one of my favorite charities, the Israel Guide Dog Center. Rob and I visited there in Israel a couple of years ago. 

41:53 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

In a past episode we had Michael Leventhal, who you met, who's very involved. 

Speaking about that, so people can, If you haven't seen that episode, you can go back iand hear and see him talking about the Israel Guide Dog Center and the work that they do. 

So you may not know based on what you just said, but what's up next for Shayna Maydele? What's up besides going back to New York? 

42:10 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

The long car trip. She was whining the whole way. It was so funny. You know if I could do something you said to monetize it. You know like I enjoy doing it. I've been fortunate enough to work with some companies where they'll give me products and. I'll post about them, but I only really post the products that I that I would actually use.

42:31

There was a vodka company that asked me to post and I said “I'm sorry, I don't drink vodka,” so I wouldn't do it. And they actually said “thank you,” like that was nice that you told us why. But I like helping especially small business - a lot of them, small Jewish businesses. 

42:55

For example, there's an artist and she has a business called Glam Judaica where she creates these gorgeous handbags in the shapes of challahs and dreidels and k’nishes. She even has like a gefilte fish one. They're handmade with beautiful crystals, thousands of crystals, and so she made a beautiful challah purse. So she posed with it and I gave them a shout out. I didn't get money, it wasn't a paid partnership. I received a beautiful handbag which I love. And then there was another company called Custom Challah Covers. it. It's new. He just started it where you send in a photo and they make you a beautiful challah cover. So shout out to both those small businesses, look - them up. So a goal…I enjoy doing that. But actually her first partnership, of all things, one of my favorite pictures of her: she posed with gefilte fish. 

43:56 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

It's a really great picture. I know that one, it was such a great picture. 

43:58 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

I think I posted it two or three times already and we said in the post how much we like Tulkoff horseradish. Living in New York we don't have that. It's a Maryland brand and I know it from my family being down in Maryland. So when I posted about it Tolkoff was so excited and they sent her some horse radish. 

44:17 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

Oh, that's awesome. 

44:20 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

We ate it. She didn't eat it. So you know I'll continue to do that and we'll see. Maybe bigger and better things will come. 

44:28 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

Well, she's doing great and tell us how - I will put this in the Show Notes, but how we can follow her 

44:32 - Heidi Silverstone (Guest)

@shayna.maydele.the.coton

44:48 - Rabbi Robyn Frisch (Host)

Thank you. Thank you so much and thank you for being here. This was such a treat and she was such a good sport. 

Thank you all for listening. I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did. I encourage you to purchase the Positively Jewish 2025 Calendar. The link will be in the Show Notes as well, and I hope you enjoyed hearing from Heidi and Shayna Maydele as much as I did, And look forward to having you back at the next episode. 

Hi again, I hope you enjoyed this podcast episode. If you did, don't forget to hit the subscribe button, and I'd really appreciate it if you'd give us a five-star rating and follow Mazel Pups on social media. Thanks for listening.