Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on July 30, 2021

When strong, powerful women sashay along in Dior dresses, with hopelessly expensive wine in hand while between frank conversations about their sexually liberated selvesPack my vibrator!you are subconsciously trained to think: Keeping Up With The Kardashians! But the CEO of Elite World Group, Julia Haart, one of the biggest model management companies around, is no former-socialite-turned-reality television star and didnt know the Hiltons of Hollywood, either. In her own words, an education-less Haart was married into a fundamentalist Jewish family at a tender age, to a husband she didnt love, and with four kids, she eventually leaves behind her then family home to make something of herself: at 43!

Eight years later, Julia Haart becomes the CEO of a multi-subsidiary million-dollar brand. My Unorthodox Life is a dive deep into Haarts life circa 2020-21, with occasional rewind backs to how she shunned her past rigged with too many rules and the journey she wishes to take with her new partner Silvio Scaglia.Batshevathe eldest of fourhas one foot in her orthodox community and the other, in the modern chasm her mother introduces her to. One sequence in particular encapsulates the 27 YOs dilemma: a very well-groomed Batsheva can be seen arguing with her stringent yet affable husband Ben to let her wear pants, forbidden in their religion. The stark contrast between Haart Sr.s world and that of Bens is palpable. Her mother urges her to be bold and shatter the self-imposed boundaries of her older selfand even leave her husbandBat (as she is lovingly called) refuses both. The dust from the past is yet to settle in here, we reckon.

Perhaps the most out there character is the Standford-tutee Miriam Haart. In My Unorthodox Life, Miriam, 20, and the second youngest in the family, is bi-sexual, a first for many around her, and has no qualms about displaying her most intimate moments on camera, with a crew inside. She has been away from Monsey, New Yorka safe haven for fundamentalist Jews, they claimfar too long to care, her mother reasons or justifies? Juggling Stanford homework and a plethora of romantic interests (and Mommas yes maam duties) unabashedly is Miriams forte. Sass sans drama seems to be this Gen Zs aesthetic.

The grips of cultural conditioning seem to be the tightest around Haart boys (also, Hendler from their fathers side) Shlomo and Aron. At 24, Shlomo is still immune to the appeals of female touch. Oh! We were just thinking about you, his sister Bat exclaims. Why? Were you watching The 40-Year-Old Virgin? he jokes. The tug of war between the two boysin all fairness, Shlomo slightly more contemporary than his 14 YO brother Aronand the rest of the family to drag them out of their supposed misery is part heartbreaking and part funny. Yet, the collective love these men have for what their mother stands up forboth good and the crassis what makes them real (by reality TV standards).

Robert Brothertons the Chief Operating Officer of Elite and Julias best friend of five years. If Julia and the other women shepherd in the spices in right amount for the reality show to be a hit on Netflix (its already at Number 2 in Lebanon we hear), then Roberts raunchy jokes and chirpy demeanor gives it a smooth landing. Touch!

The fundamentalist Judaism that Julia goes gung-ho about is deprived of a fair, eagle view in My Unorthodox Life. We do not question the why; just demand a how.

A while back, a similar-titled-but-not-similar-fashioned miniseries Unorthodox had popped up on Netflix where a Hasidic Jewish woman in Brooklyn, Esther (played by a fantastic Shira Haas), brought forward the sense (and level) of patriarchal mindset this community exhibits. The in-depth researchadapted from a book, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Rootsaround the central theme and its various facetsthe clothes, Yiddish language, the whole charadetook that series notches higher by sheer means of its crisp, matter-of-factly content. This series is more noise and less smell.

Julia Haarts hedonistic persona, coupled with her very luxurious lifestyle and a penchant for grandiosity, makes My Unorthodox Life an entertaining extravaganza. But, given the fact that she has turned her life had a superhero-esque U turn and rmoved herself from a setting that is plagued with oppression, it is criminal that Julia Haart didnt harp on that.

Could the personable Haarts be the new queens of reality TVnow that the Kardashians have officially retiredno! Is the intent there? Hell, yes! Julia Haart may be the matriarch of a Rabbi-free household now, sitting pretty in her throne trying to fight nepotism debates around her: ahem! But no one can discredit her struggles and the subsequent riseto the very top! And, to that, we say, shalom shalom!

'MyUnorthodox Life' is streaming on Netflix.

Read more:

My Unorthodox Life series review: Fanaticism, fashion, frillin that order! - WION

Category: Hasidic
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