Netflix returns to Jewish content with release of ‘Unorthodox’

DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDS

The show, about a young woman leaving hasidic orthodoxy for a new life in Germany, is the platform’s first Yiddish language show.

Shira Haas in the Israeli drama ‘Princess.’ (Credit: Yes) / (photo credit: YES)

Hot on the heels of last year’s surprise hit Shtisel, Netflix has returned to Jewish themes for it’s latest drama, Unorthodox, but this time with a very different take on the subject matter.

Shira Haas, the Israeli actress who played Ruchami Weiss in Shtisel, is also back, this time as Esther Shapiro, a young woman who leaves an unhappy marriage within the Hasidic Satmar community in Brooklyn for a new life in Berlin.

The trailer, which dropped on March 6, portrays Esther’s emotional experience of moving beyond the world she knew, and features scenes of her casting off her sheitel to pursue her own interests. The show will hit the platform on March 26.

The series is the first by Netflix to feature Yiddish as a main language, alongside English, according to Distractify.

It’s also based on the real life of Deborah Feldman. Born in 1986 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to a Hasidic Satmar family, Feldman grew up speaking Yiddish, and was banned from speaking English at home.

Shortly after her birth, Feldman’s mother left Judaism, and, as her father was unable to care for her, the young Deborah went to live with her grandparents. At 17 she was wed in an arranged marriage. By 19 she already had a son but decided that she wanted to study, and enrolled at Sarah Lawrence College.

Over the following four years her experiences led her to seek more from life, and in 2009 she left her husband and community, eventually moving to Berlin with her son in 2014.

It appears to be this experience that the show draws upon, although no mention is made in the trailer of Esther having children. Nonetheless, the plot draws upon Feldman’s 2012 novel Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots.

Netflix does’t release viewing figures, but if Unorthodox can re-create the buzz that surrounded Shtisel, we could see much more of Haas, and Jewish themes, in the future.

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Argentina’s first Jewish coronavirus death is cremated, sparks controversy

JTA STAFF

Cremation of the dead is not allowed under religious Jewish law.

Old part of the Jewish cemetery of La Tablada, in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina / (photo credit: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/DARIO ALPERN)

Despite protests from a Jewish community in northeastern Argentina, the first Jewish victim of the coronavirus in Argentina was cremated by local authorities, causing controversy and sparking concern among other Jewish communities throughout the country.

Cremation of the dead is not allowed under religious Jewish law.

Ruben Bercovich, a 59-year-old businessman and father of three, passed away on Thursday in Resistencia, the capital of the northern Chaco province.

Bercovich, owner of the BercoMat construction materials company, had returned to Argentina on March 9 after a trip to the United States.

His death and subsequent cremation has started a dialogue between Argentine rabbis and officials over a possible compromise to uphold Jewish law.

Authorities said the cremation was the best practice to avoid further spread of the disease.

Rabbis and officials have already compromised on leaving open mikvahs, or Jewish ritual baths. Those who wish to use one correspond with the government and get a code to enter once they are deemed healthy enough.
Bercovich was active in Jewish institutions in the Chaco community and represented Argentina in golf in global Maccabiah Games events.

Netanyahu temporarily isolates after close aide contracts coronavirus

GIL HOFFMAN

Rivka Paluch, the prime minister’s parliamentary aide, diagnosed with COVID-19. She spent time with Netanyahu and his staff at Knesset last week.

PM Benjamin Netanyahu with parliamentary adviser Rivka Paluch, who tested positive for the coronavirus / (photo credit: Courtesy)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his staff will temporarily isolate themselves until the end of an epidemiological study that is expected to reveal that he was not exposed to the coronavirus, his office said.

But Netanyahu’s office continued to deny reports on Monday that a decision had been made to quarantine him for a week after his parliamentary adviser, Rivka Paluch, was diagnosed with the virus.

His office said that Health Ministry professionals were conducting a thorough study to determine what needs to be done next.

The first indications of the study indicate that there is no need for Netanyahu to enter quarantine, because he did not meet with Paluch and did not come into close contact with her. They were not in the same room over the past two weeks.

Netanyahu, in coordination with his personal doctor, has been maintaining health restrictions strictly and is conducting most of his work from his home and most of his consultations by video.

Netanyahu intends to be tested for the virus again on Monday after taking it multiple times before.

Channel 12 reported on Monday morning that the prime minister will enter isolation for a week after Paluch tested positive for the disease.

Paluch told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday night that reports Netanyahu would have to be quarantined were incorrect.

Paluch said that while she did go to the Knesset on Thursday to prepare the prime minister for the vote for Knesset speaker, she did not have any real contact with Netanyahu.

An investigation by the Knesset found that Paluch had been in the Knesset on March 16, 23, and 26, so anyone who had been in her company for an extended period of time on one of those days must quarantine themselves accordingly.

If Netanyahu tested positive, he and his entire staff would have to be quarantined, as would Blue and White leaders Benny Gantz and Gabi Ashkenazi, who spent eight hours with him overnight on Saturday night negotiating entering his government.

But Paluch said it was very unlikely that she had passed the virus on to her boss.

Paluch’s husband tested positive for the coronavirus before she did. She said he got it after visiting Ichilov Hospital. She said that both she and her husband felt well and had minimal symptoms.

Speaking before she got the positive test, Paluch said she did not think she would test positive.

Paluch is one of Netanyahu’s few female advisers. While most of the closest advisers to Netanyahu are in their 20s, she is a haredi (ultra-Orthodox) grandmother with many grandchildren. She is considered especially close to his wife, Sara.

A veteran of the Israeli political scene, Paluch once organized a visit of MKs and reporters to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas. She ensured that a lunch at the Mukata presidential compound would be strictly kosher.

British prime minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for the virus and is quarantined. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau said Saturday that she has recovered from being ill from COVID-19 disease caused by the new coronavirus. She and her husband had been self-quarantined.

Alex Winston contributed to this report

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