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My Unorthodox Life (TV)

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Lawrence Goodman

Jan 25, 2023, 9:18 PM

Scientist, Zionist Hero, and Her Dog-Training Techniques Were Used by the Nazis

Menzel and her first boxer dog, Mowgli, in the early 1920s in Austria. (Courtesy Leo Baeck Institute)

Toward the end of her life, the Austrian-born Jewish scientist Rudolphina Menzel acknowledged a horrifying reality: the dog-training techniques she pioneered had been used by the Nazis to commit atrocities. "I suffered a lot knowing that my students in Austria...

Sheldon Kirshner

Dec 9, 2022, 5:32 PM

My Unorthodox Life (2)

Julia Haart, the central character in the Netflix reality series My Unorthodox Life, finds herself at loose ends in the first of nine episodes of the second season. Haart, in the first season, reinvented herself when she filed for divorce...

Daphne Lazar Price

Dec 9, 2022, 6:49 AM

My Unorthodox Life, revisited

Screenshot from a trailer for season 2 of 'My Unorthodox Life'

The show did well to bring activists fighting to free agunot, but they were then vilified for appearing on the show. If only the anger was against the chaining of women

Todd L. Pittinsky

Sep 14, 2022, 9:05 PM

The NYT and Hasidism in the Month of Elul

The problem with the New York Times’s provocative investigation into the schools in New York’s Hasidic enclaves is not the content, but the context. This tiny subculture has captured the media’s attention as potential hosts of COVID risk events (weddings),...

Elchanan Poupko

Dec 24, 2021, 5:02 AM

When Did Orthodoxy Become Big Enough?

In the most recent issue of Jewish Action, writers addressed orthodoxy's demographic growth, yet lowering retention rates and lower rates of Jews from other denominations joining orthodoxy. The writers share thought-provoking ideas on why this is happening and how to prevent...

Amos Schonfield

Oct 23, 2021, 2:02 PM

Celebrating the freedom to choose

My Unorthodox Life: Season 1. Episode 5, Secular in the City. Pictured: Julia Haart c. Courtesy of Netflix © 2021 (Via Jewish News)

When I think back to the most major decisions in my life, they normally start in the same way: having a cup of tea with my mum. We would reflect and consider, challenge and critique until she would pose...

Katriel Reichman

Oct 10, 2021, 3:07 PM

When your teen leans in or out of religious observance don’t go ballistic

Our children will make decisions that we don't agree with. Not all of our children's choices are as dramatic as Julia Haart's very public description (in My Unorthodox Life) of her decision to leave her Orthodox Jewish community and...

Carol Green Ungar

Sep 30, 2021, 11:07 PM

Lessons from Eve

Poor Eve the first woman. First, she gets herself and her hubby expelled from the Garden of Eden. Then her firstborn slays his younger brother-- brutally. The Midrash states that Cain pelted every inch of his brother's body with...

Sep 4, 2021, 7:44 PM

A Pakistani fan’s review of Israeli series Fauda

I know I am too late to join this party but better late than never as what counts is that now I am here in the league of fans of Israel’s biggest television export in recent times that is...

Sam Lehman-Wilzig

Sep 3, 2021, 11:17 AM

Orthodox, Ultra-Orthodox and In-Between

I have been reading too many news articles and commentaries recently using the term “Orthodox” when they mean “Ultra-Orthodox.” This confusion extends to TV as well, albeit there some poetic license is allowed (e.g., the hit Netflix mini-series “Unorthodox,”...

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