Diss-Orthodox

Talia Leibov Hendler (a/k/a Julia Haart), the star of Netflix’s “My Unorthodox Life” is an attractive, 50 year old quick-witted mother of four who claims she escaped an oppressive life in Monsey, NY and Cinderella-like, married the Prince (in her case an Italian telecom mogul).

She loves to wear deeply cut outfits exposing her breasts.

She apparently still wears a wig, but it is one that makes her resemble a brunette Brigitte Bardot,

Haart’s rapid trajectory into the public eye is a reflection of the axiom attributed to P.T. Barnum, of “There’s a sucker born every minute”.

There is no difference between what Haart is selling and what Barnum sold.

Her narrative is a freak show, meant to thrill and titillate.

People need to look behind the screen.

It wasn’t Orthodox life that “imprisoned” Haart, it was her own limitations.

Orthodoxy includes women who seek and obtain higher education, enter professions and are responsible for their own lives.

Her former husband is now engaged to her orthodontist, news that “surprised” Haart. Unfortunately for the Netflix spin, the fact that he is going to marry an Orthodox professional woman deflates the Haart myth of suppression of women.

Haart is a caricature of a liberated woman.

She values her worth on her sexual attractiveness, something that women have had to deal with their entire lives, no matter their accomplishments.

That she has chosen Orthodox Judaism to exploit is even more insidious.

The world is witnessing an exponential increase of violent anti-Semitic attacks.

The next Jewish man tackled, stabbed or shot on the streets of Brooklyn as he heads to morning prayers may well be the result of Haart’s demonization of the world she left behind, now called “repressive” (New York Times) and “ultra-Orthodox” (Los Angeles Times).