Has anyone watched Unorthodox on Netflix?

[ihatethecold]

I loved it. Really fascinating and interesting to see inside the traditions and customs of Hasidic Jews.
It sent me down a rabbit hole googling questions afterwards.
The men’s hats are incredible.

I have binged watched it today too - loved it! Found it so interesting and had no idea how strict some parts of the Jewish faith could be. Fab acting too 👍🏻

Thanks. I will look up one of us.

I tried to watch Shtisel and gave up.
My attention span isn’t great at the moment though.

Definitely persevere with Shtisel! It is slow to start but I binged the whole lot in a shorter amount of time than I'd like to admit!

spoiler alert! don't scroll down if you haven't watched unorthodox but want to...

can anyone tell me why she sang the yiddish/hebrew song in her audition? Was it that she knew she didn't have a chance (having already annoyed the judges) and wanted to made a point about her background. And was she any good? I'm pretty much tone deaf....
Generally, I thought the last episode was the weakest - left too many matters up in the air.

She was put on the spot and was unlikely to know any non jewish songs other than the first one she sang. The judges were visibly moved as were her friends.

Yes brilliant

SamG67

I must say I didn't rate the singing much but could see the emotion and reasoning behind it.
I'm not sure that would gain her entry to a prestigious music academy though but this wasn't the true story and it made for good viewing.

I actually felt a bit sorry for Yanky in the end too. He was equally lost

He was certainly nicer than Moishe. Things could have been different if he'd been given better sex education about what to do and if he hadn't gone blabbing to his mum every 5 minutes

I felt sorry for Yanky too. They were both prisoners really; it was clear he really did love her but was wrapped up in the doctrine and cultural norms and expectations.

They never did show whether she got into the academy did they? (It would not be realistic for her to gain entrance with that performance, even though it was really moving.)

Yanky was sympathetic but a total mama's boy. I'm glad she didn't go back to him.

Actually no they didn’t say she got in.
Hopefully there will be a second season so we can find out.

I thought it was really good. I think the men were just as much victims really. Yanky was like a lost little boy, totally unprepared for adult life. Moishe whilst quite unpleasant was also lost. It seemed to me he wasn't happy in the community and left but failed in the wider world but went back and was being punished. He was trying to find Esty as a way of being allowed back into his children's lives.

I saw a documentary about the Hasidic communities where it seemed like the women had education and careers, the boys had to be Talmud scholars and spend their lives doing nothing else. I think it was based in Israel. Again both seemed victims, the men with no choice and the women having to be the bread winners and have lots of babies and run the house. I assume there is more than one type of Hasidic community but babies seem to be at the centre of them all, lots of babies.

Binge watched it here over 2 nights at the weekend and absolutely loved it. Good to hear there’s a documentary about the making of, I will look it up. Also really hope there’s a second series, acting was brilliant and yes I also felt sorry for Yanky, they were both a victim of their community restrictions and traditions.

1forsorrow - there are different hassidic communities, as you say. In the UK, the wives would generally be expected to work, and her earnings would be supplemented by benefits and donations from wealthier community members (both of these hit hard by austerity). In the US there is generally more expectation that the men will work, because benefits are less generous, but with only rudimentary education it's hard for them to get well-paid jobs.

Yes I could see there were differences. I suppose it might make a difference where the founders of the Community came from, the one in Unorthodox was started by Hungarian Jews from what they said in the programme so I suppose traditions could be different in other places.

I spoke to a Jewish friend who isn’t Orthodox and she said it’s very realistic - they live in a Jewish part of the UK and she said even they have an eruv.

Found it fascinating

Just finished watching this and thought it was amazing. So much attention to detail.

I actually felt a bit sorry for Yanky in the end too. He was equally lost
I agree. It was really great to see a series where there weren't really goodies and baddies just people grappling with very human dilemmas.

Yom Tov!

I really enjoyed this, my family is orthodox Jewish (although not 'frum') and I have to say some of the characters were oddly familiar. I was really pleased they used Yiddish for so much of it.

I have just finished Shtisel which is 24 episodes and I and SO sad it's finished,I loved it. Better than Unorthodox imo.

I watched episode one - how did they work out she had gone to Germany? I’m confused.

It was fascinating.

What I understood after watching the Making of Unorthodox was that the deep control of the sect emanated from the deeply traumatised individuals mainly post world war 2 death camps (but the is a long history of antisemitism so there is more than that to draw on which the series hits on a lot) who wanted to make sense of the world. Add a few narcissistic psychopaths into the mix, of which power vacuums seem to immediately attract, and some extremely vulnerable and needy people and bobs your uncle you get yourself an extremely controlling religious environment.

Peachy because her mother, who ran away, holds a german citizenship and left for germany. German citizenship can and was passed to Esty from her mother.

@raffa yeh I saw that but how did the husband know? Did they find it in her room?

I watched episode one - how did they work out she had gone to Germany? I’m confused

I’m trying to remember but did they not get it out of the piano teacher.