Unorthodox

This is a story of a Hasidic girl who got out from under a repressive Jewish society.

Although that's not quite the right word. By 'story', I mean 'true tale of a woman telling what happened to her', being Deborah Feldman in particular. She tells of growing up in a very orthodox rabbinical society, and there's a lot she talks about that I'm going 'argh, can't you people see how controlling that is?'... except I know they don't see that. This is the culture they grew up in, this is what they know. For Deborah, it was too much, and it was a struggle to survive in it in many ways, and we read of what she had to do to get out. It ain't easy.

What she doesn't say is that could easily be translated to other tightly controlled ideological communities. Not just religion, but ideology in general. And that it's hard to see you are in one when you are in one. Right now, we might be in just another system keeping us under control, but it's what we know. The rules seem reasonable, but there could be better ones?

Anyway, give this a read. She was one of the first Hasidic women to speak out, although she won't be the last.

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