The word “cult” is trending right now in conjunction with the words “Orthodox Jews.” We can likely thank Julia Haart for that uptick on Google, as she’s the anti-Jewish gift that keeps on giving. I haven’t watched season 2 of My Unorthodox Life yet. I already gave up too many brain cells on watching most […]
Many think they know about Orthodox Judaism thanks to TV shows like “Unorthodox” and “My Unorthodox Life,” a.k.a. media that shows off the community in a negative light without any sort of context that these are dysfunctional families. But where are the stories of inspiration? Where are honest, nuanced alternative narratives to balance that out? […]
Julia Haart, star of Netflix’s My Unorthodox Life, became infamous in religious Jewish circles after she publicly badmouthed Monsey, the community she was raised in, on the show. The picture she painted was that of an ignorant, monolithic, extremist community. While numerous friends of hers have discredited many of the facts she presented, Haart obviously […]
When “My Unorthodox Life” came out on Netflix last summer, Julia Haart became the latest spokes- woman for the Orthodox world — and not in a positive way. She spoke openly about how she left an ultra-religious community plagued with fundamentalism and oppression — that she wasn’t allowed to be educated, seen, heard, or even choose […]
When Goldy Guttman heard from Jew in the City founder, Allison Josephs, that most non-Jewish people have never met a religious Jew, she reached out to share her story as a Satmar Hasidic woman. Growing up in Boro Park in a Satmar home, Guttman practiced Hasidic customs and attended Hasidic schools. While the media views […]
Since Netflix released the reality series My Unorthodox Life this past July and renewed it for season two this month, Jew in the City has been at the forefront of defending the image of Orthodox Jews in spite of their unlikeable depiction on the show. Haart’s assertion that, “The women in our community are second-class […]
