Madeline
New York has a large Jewish population. In fact, my family is a family of New York Jews. However, I was not aware of the Williamsberg neighborhood of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn. Unorthodox is a short series based on a real story of a women, hardly a woman at 19, leaving this neighborhood to start a new life in Berlin, Germany. Where she finds herself in a music school with a new group of friends.
The Inspiration
Based on the book “Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of my Hasidic Roots” by Deborah Feldman, these series highlights the pressures and rituals that are put on Hasidic women. There is the pressure to be polite. The pressure to not upset. And most of all the pressure to have a baby, which doesn’t come easy to main character Esty. Pressure that builds so much that Esty feels as though her only choice to leave the only life she knows for good, an unorthodox one, in Germany.
Once in Berlin, with her new friends, Esty has full exposure to what it’s like to be a normal young person in the world. She explores what it’s like for women to have opinions and talents. This new world is full of night clubs, makeup, and love for the sake of love. In this new world, there is no pressure to get married nor the pressure to have a baby. No pressure to put tradition first. And no pressure to be who she doesn’t want to be.
The drama enters this new world, when Esty’s husband and her husband’s cousin travel to Berlin. They are on the hunt to bring Esty back to the world she escaped.
Final Thoughts
This show was a big eye opener. As I mentioned above, I come from a Jewish background. I grew up with the traditions, although not from a Hasidic house myself, I have seen first hand what it is like to be apart of a stricter Jewish family. I was brought up that there are different ways to be Jewish and all are fine. My imagination could not lead me to believe that this kind of life, especially for a women, a young women, actually exists.
