My unorthodox life Season 2

[LisaJool]

Anyone else looking forward to this? I've followed them all on social media since the first season, it will be interesting to see what went on behind the scenes.

I agree Robert probably didn’t get the COO job completely off his own back but his Linked In does show a somewhat relevant career background before Elite World.

They seem really isolated to me as a family. No extended family due to being disowned by Julias family, no long standing friends, no warmth around them. I think that's why they are a bit too enmeshed and Julia is in battle mode, they only really have each other. Robert has a nicer extended family.

I also looked Robert's linkedin, He has a really good high end fashion and comms / marketing background and was part of La Perla as their CEO North America way before Julia came on the scene. I'd almost be tempted to suggest that he carried her when she was at elite

www.linkedin.com/in/robert-brotherton-a60aa111/

@comical2023 I wasn’t sure when Julia rocked up at La Perla. I bet Robert is regretting hitching himself to her wagon now. It’s wrong if he was fired just for being her friend but I know the US has shocking employment laws.

That's one of the things that really struck me, was how poor their employment laws are. How there was no consultation, no opportunity for him to keep his job, no real investigation. And they all just accepted it as a fact of life. Shocking

You're right- he's way more qualified than I realised.

Poor guy still hasn't got a job.

American employment laws are a disgrace. Imagine just being fired on a whim, or because you are friends with the chairman's ex wife. Disgusting.

Looks like Robert did a cabaret show in November and is looking to do a reality show of his own. I am a bit disappointed, feels like a waste of a career but then Silvio is a powerful billionaire. Robert may be finding it hard to find a new job in fashion.

I am one of those oppressed ultra-orthodox women (to be fair I only really feel oppressed at Passover!) and I tried watching this show, both seasons, but couldn't get past one or two episodes. Not a big fan of reality tv in general. All I can say is I would a million times rather be ultra-orthodox than have a mother like Julia. It borderline child abuse what she does to Aaron. And I would NOT want to discuss my sex life with my mum! Ever. However rich she was.

Orthodox Jews cover a huge spectrum of observance. Julia is from the Yeshivish community - called so because they value yeshiva/torah study. In that community many men will stay in yeshiva for years after marriage while their wife works. (akthough many men go to college and get jobs also) As a result Beis Yaakov type schools give the girls excellent educations so they can get high paying jobs and become computer programmers, work in business, therapists, etc. and support their families if they want to marry a long term learner. There are very few jobs a frum girl can't do - but most girls would not choose a career in something that impedes family life. Movie acting or theatre can be difficult due to shabbat observance and tzniut (modesty) restrictions.

The Yeshivish community itself has a wide spectrum. You can be an instagram influencer and go to broadway shows. Or be a school teacher married to a kosher slaughterer and not allow secular books in your house.

And if being really restricted is too difficult for you? Its generally acceptable to move to a different group, which can be as simple as moving schools.

Not all religious men are patriarchal controlling bastards, although sadly there are some. Many are wonderful, some are mediocre. And if someones spouse chooses to be less religious - in some communities, mostly Hasidic ones, this can be a real issue where the non religious parent loses custody. WIth some couples they even stay married, while respecting each others lifestyle choices. WIth others they have amicable divorces. (which Julia and her poor ex seem to have, although I do wonder if it is tru about the get refusal)

I am not yeshivish, I am chabad but in my family we have academics, doctors, therapists, influencers and a whole bunch of Rabbis. And a wide wide range of observance and how much we let secular culture into our lives.

Or maybe their friends and family don't want to be on reality TV?

@Booksbythebed I thought one of Julia’s reasons for leaving was Miriam, who wanted to play sports and sing and was questioning her sexuality? It wasn’t disputed by their father that she wasn’t allowed to sing or play sports. I would view that as a form of oppression, particularly if Aron’s views on women’s roles are indicative of their community’s views as a whole. I can understand why Julia herself would also feel suffocated within her specific community with more rigid role expectations than those she wants to live. I haven’t read the book but obviously Julia sees her community’s expectations as oppressive, I don’t think she was speaking for all Ultra Orthodox Jewish women.

I am interested to know why you view Julia’s behaviour towards Aron as child abuse. I can see that Aron is uncomfortable being in Julia’s world which I can completely understand but I don’t think you must finish your secular education before becoming a rabbi is child abuse? Julia and his siblings went out of their way to ensure people respected him keeping kosher.

@Booksbythebed thanks for sharing your experience. I'm not Jewish but I'm fascinated by the world of the ultra orthodox. I think it was very obvious that a lot of things were exaggerated for the sake of the show. I too think Julia is a controlling bully. She's not accepting Aron's religious views, she wants him to adhere to a level that SHE finds acceptable.
I think her first ex husband and his wife are saints! I think her dc are probably quite embarrassed by her behaviour but they are hanging on to benefit from the gravy train.

And I think Julia saying her dc come first is crap. In this season she basically said Silvio always hated them and was hostile towards them, but she stayed with him regardless. Even Aron crying wasn't enough for her to leave him. She only filed for divorce after he sacked her.

So glad to have found this thread. Agree on those saying Ra'ed is dodgy. He is not really into Robert. He is into the fame and money, and then shags around to fully enjoy his life. Poor Robert, I hope he finds some confidence to dump his ass.

Julia is definitely too skinny, those fake boobs on a skeletal chest is awful.

I think Miriam is the only one who has a chance of doing something decent with her life.

@LisaJool - They were divorcing before the firing, I think they were just going to do it more slowly and then he fired her.

I also have more sympathy towards her when it comes to Aron. It must be so scary to watch your child become more and more fundamentalist in their religious beliefs when you have gone the other way. I do think it’s a reaction to his mother, as his father and his step mum (who I agree seem to be saints), seem to be more modern orthodox and Aron seems to be moving away from them too. His Dad seems to be more let’s just wait and see what happens which is a healthier response but if Julia really feels she was that oppressed by her religion I can see why she is scared.

@Flapjackquack hmm I guess I would have to watch the entire horrible thing to respond properly. But I saw one episode in season one where she is haranging Aaron about being too religious and it was horrible. In general the way she treats her children is awful but at least the adults can walk away, he can't.

I am not sure where Aaron is now, as far as I understood he was attending a Modern Orthodox school. But maybe he would like to study more torah, that is his choice. I am not very familiar with the US yeshivish school system or where he is in school, or if any of it is actually true.

BTW in most yeshivot you can come out with an equivalent to a BA called a BTL. (bachelors in Talmudic law) One of my relatives was able to go to medical school based on that, although he needed to take a few pre med classes.

It seems to me Julia greatly exaggerates how 'oppressed' she was. Maybe she was, maybe her parents/husband/friends were controlling people. I don't know them.

@Booksbythebed - I admit I don’t remember the first season. Aron is 15, in the second season he wanted to leave the Jewish school his parents agreed on, which provided a secular and religious education, to go to the Yeshiva study Torah to become a rabbi. There was no mention of a degree and Aron seemed to agree that there was little education outside of Torah studies. I am coming from an atheist mindset but to allow a child to pick such a narrow path at 15 seems poor parenting to me. She offered to pay for more Jewish tutoring outside of school and said she’d support him when he left school at 18 to join a Yeshiva. Why such a rush at 15?

Julia probably has exaggerated, she seems to exaggerate most things but I think it’s clear from what others have said there is less freedom in her previous community for women, then there is in the life Julia leads now. Miriam not being allowed to sing or play sports or have a same sex relationship and women having to dress modestly is considered oppressive to those in a more secular world.

This !

I actually just read a NY times article about the incredibly poor education of yashidas including issues with corporal punishment.

She’s probably also not just talking about herself but how repressed these women are in general. She point blank asides Aron these views on things like how a woman can’t get divorced and asked if he agreed with them, if he found them just. And he said he did.

@BiscuitLover3678 - I don’t think Aron speaks for her community as a whole. He seems to be more fundamentalist than his father, but I agree there is a level of oppression in comparison to my own worldview.

Aron seems very withdrawn in general, he has an insta page where he gives inspirational Jewish advice. Even orally he's hard to make out, he comes across as quite awkward, even worse than Shlomo. I think the poor boy has been incredibly messed up, it's hardly a bit of wonder that he's seeking refuge in something! Julia has a tendency to make everything about her, that must be incredibly draining. Her ex employees said she would regularly have them in tears.

Glad to see other fans here, no one I know watches.

I think Aron is seeking stability. He saw his parents break up and his sister divorce, arguably because the women were pulling away from Orthodoxy so I think in his mind stricter adherence means more stability. He’s 15 and working out his understanding of the world. Julia needs to spend more time with him doing what he wants I’d say.

also I always want to hear more about the shoe business. Did she sell it? That probably wasn’t a good move. You’d think she would have learned to keep something fall back on that was hers alone.

I don’t watch reality tv at all but I find this really compelling.

this is about a certain subset of yeshivot, mainly Hasidic. They teach almost no secular subjects even in primary. (FWIW this has been a concern in some Stamford Hill schools too, mainly secondary, and the Schools Bill was meant to outlaw this but it was scrapped.)

In the schools Aron would have gone to as a child, the secular education in primary would have been decent. They vary in how and when they taper them down in secondary. Some yeshivish schools provide a full secular education through grade 12, some don't.

Where Aron goes now is very similar to where Miriam went, a Modern Orthodox college-prep school with a strong education. If I had to guess, I would say that he doesn't feel culturally comfortable there. He's gone back and forth religiously. I don't know how his father practices at home, but then he has Julia, and this school is really a compromise that doesn't match anything he does outside of it. I feel badly for him, but I think that this is why he's pushing in the other direction.

I follow Julia’s ex’s new wife on Instagram. Bizarrely I followed her before I watched the show. She is an event planner and creates these incredible looking events. I then realised after I watched it who she was. It’s a business page but she posts some personal things on there and they seem more modern orthodox. I am wondering if Julia’s husband was more ultra orthodox before he married his new wife and has become more modern? That might be difficult for Aron too.

Still catching up.

I really like Robert, and feel like Julia lets her guard down on camera a bit when she's with him.
I wish he had people who loved him who could have told him he didn't need surgery.