Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots
As a member of the strictly religious Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, Deborah Feldman grew up under a code of relentlessly enforced customs governing everything from what she could wear and to whom she could speak to what she was allowed to read. It was stolen moments spent with the empowered...
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As a member of the strictly religious Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, Deborah Feldman grew up under a code of relentlessly enforced customs governing everything from what she could wear and to whom she could speak to what she was allowed to read. It was stolen moments spent with the empowered literary characters of Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott that helped her to imagine an alternative way of life. Trapped as a teenager in a sexually and emotionally dysfunctional marriage to a man she barely knew, the tension between Deborah’s desires and her responsibilities as a good Satmar girl grew more explosive until she gave birth a
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9781439187012 (1439187010)
ASIN: 1439187010
Publish date: October 2nd 2012
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages no: 272
Edition language: English
Category:
Non Fiction,
Autobiography,
Memoir,
Biography,
Literature,
Book Club,
Adult,
Jewish,
Religion,
Biography Memoir,
Judaism
I’ve been a bad bad reviewer. I haven’t managed to read more than a single book this entire year. Okay, one and a half if I’m being honest…I am halfway through another. But, in my defense I did give birth and now have a 5 month old daughter. So I’ve been a teensy bit busy. But I found time to read! ...
Devoireh was born into the Satmar community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. As a Hasidic Jew, and a woman, she gives us a look into growing up in a tight and controlled environment, where everything from your dress to your every movement throughout the day is decided by the Rebbe and enforced by not only...
This book doubles as a memoir and as an expose of the Satmar Jewish sect, a group so conservative that they're anti-Israel because that was supposed to be returned to them by God, not by the UN. Feldman's portrayal of them is scathing, but probably fair; Satmars are, after all, like any other religi...
Although I was deeply moved by this book (I have not read or watched any interviews by the author of the book), I am one of those who feels strangely unsettled by it. I am NOT a Hasidic Jew (I am a Jew, but not a religious one), and of course the author grew up in the community, but I cannot help bu...
The story of one woman growing up as a Hasidic Jew in Williamsburg. The opening chapters, comprising Feldman's childhood, are strong and interesting. But once she gets older, the story starts running into problems. First of all, it seems a little generic: Feldman's problems with Hasidism and her ...
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