Thread by @MalkaSvei

More #myorthodoxlife content: An Orthodox- positive media appreciation thread (1/)

A lot of Orthodox folks are saying “the critiques of Orthodoxy are valid, but why are the stories of those who leave the only ones being told?” (2/)

News flash: they’re not! Here are some examples of the kinds of nuanced, loving depictions that are possible when Orthodox/ “non/no longer Orthodox but still love the community“ artists decide to tell their stories. Caveat: these stories are not uniformly positive. (3/)

Many of them tell hard truths- as art is supposed to do. But all of them depict the Orthodox communities they focus on as complex & multifaceted. Loving, beautiful. Supportive. Restrictive, flawed- but never irredeemable. Funny. Strange. Moving. & more. So here goes: (4/)

The classics: The late, great Chaim Potok’s early novels. The Asher Lev novels- about a young artist coming of age in a (very) thinly disguised Chabad Chassidut , and his relationship to the community as an adult. Asher Lev faces rejection by the community for his (5/)

Commitment to artistic expression, but the Rebbe (Rabbinic leader of a Hassidic community) supports him all the way. And Asher Lev never abandons observance, or even the Orthodox community(6/)

The Chosen - about the friendship between a Modern Orthodox and a Chassidic student, during their high school years, & at a(n even more thinly) disguised Yeshiva University. (Full disclosure: in sequel The Promise, Reuven Malter leaves Orthodoxy 4 Conservative Judaism) (7/)

Most straightforwardly entertaining: @shtiselofficial (from @yescoil, now on @netflix). Soapy series lovingly depicting the foibles and trials of a Hareidi (Israeli Ultra Orthodox) family living in Jerusalem’s Meah Sheaarim neighborhood. Hebrew & Yiddish , eng subtitles (8/)

The most challenging (or even ambivalent): @JudyHush’s novel Hush, originally published under the pseudonym Eishes Chayil) . CW: Child Sex Abuse , Suicide, Mental illness.
A young woman tells her story of growing up the chassidic community of Boro Park, Brooklyn, (9/)

& her childhood friend Devoiry, how Devoiry was repeatedly raped by an older brother, & how this affected both girls & their community. The book is VERY critical of the community- but the narrator stays, eventually finding in it a loving marriage & supportive mentors (10/)

Runner up for challenging/ ambivalence: @Slelio’s movie Disobedience, adapted from @NaomiAllthenews’s novel of the same name. (Also excellent- but I prefer the movie) Bisexual Ronit, who is no longer observant, returns to her former (Orthodox) community in Hendon, London UK (11/)

After the death of her father, a beloved local Rabbi. There she confronts her childhood best friend- and teenage lover- Esti, a lesbian, who stayed closeted & in the community. The movie (like the book) illustrates how each women has lost something in the choice she made (12/)

More Orthodox lesbians! HaSodot , (The Secrets), directed by Avi Nesher. Two young women fall in love at an Orthodox ( I’m not familiar enough with Israeli nuances to identify more specifically) women’s yeshiva (Torah study institution) (13/)

In Tsfat (Safed). Also: Murder! Kabbalah! An angry Rabbi! A soulful musician ! A mysterious French woman! And more. Hebrew wi/ English subtitles (14/)

Also by Avi Nesher: The Other Story. Secular parents (& ex couple) Tali and Yonatan struggle to accept the choices of their newly religious daughter, Anat. Also: ex hippies! No sex! Drugs! Rock & roll! Goddess worship! Father daughter bonding! Etc. Hebrew, English subtitles(15/)

The one with an adorable Yiddish speaking kid: Menashe, by @joshua. The widowed Menashe (@MenasheLustig , as a fictionalized version of himself) struggles to parent his young son, against the disapproval of a family who don’t much believe in him. Yiddish, English subtitles (16/)

The most uncomfortable: Rama Burshtein’s “To Fill the Void.” After the death of her older sister, a young Chassidic Israeli woman is encouraged to marry her widowed brother in law. Hebrew, English subtitles (17/)

This is not a comprehensive list! All the above are only the works that I personally have read/watched and enjoyed - there are many more, including The Vigil, by director Keith Thomas, a newly released horror movie which is high up on my watchlist. (18/)

Although I haven’t personally read, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Faye Kellerman’s Decker/Lazarus series, a set of mystery novels featuring an Orthodox yeshiva teacher and her LAPD detective (& Orthodox Baal Teshuva (adult-adopter of observance) )husband(19/)

Also, shoutout to @GWillowWilson’s @MsMarvelNow comics, for one of the few popular media depictions of a Modern Orthodox character- & for #Jewish #Muslim #Solidarity ! (20/)

Finally , I reiterate, this is not an exhaustive list! Please feel free to comment with your recommendations- and let me know if there are any obvious ones I missed (21/end)

@prof_dainy

@DBashIdeas no pressure or anything but I’d love your recommendations &/or hot takes 😁

Just remembered another one! Ruchama King’s novel “Seven Blessings,” about a group of Orthodox Jewish expats (literal expats from their countries of origin, not figuratively from Orthodoxy) living in Jerusalem, and their search for love in the shidduch (matchmaking) system

Also contains the most spot on hilarious depiction of a hardcore midrasha girl (I’m loosely paraphrasing) :
Character A: “What we’re doing is assur! (Forbidden)”
Character B: “No it’s not! I looked it up”
(Don’t @ me, I know the RMB”M, the character presumablydoes too)

I was just rightfully called out for not acknowledging @naomiregan - I haven’t read her works (yet), but I know evoked really strong feelings (both positive & negative) in the community

I was also trying to stick to contemporary, not historical, fiction (Potok’s novels were contemporary or nearly so when he wrote them), but I will make an exception for The Golem and the Jinni, by @helenewecker - my favorite Jewish fantasy novel (1/)

Characters are not exclusively Orthodox, but it has one of the best examples of the “Wise, empathetic rabbi; firmly committed to tradition, but with a complex inner relationship to faith” trope that have been published in the past 2 decades (2/)

Another great use of this trope being the @SandroNivola’s Dovid, in Disobedience. ( in the book, Dovid is more of a “holy fool” character- a trope I prsnlly find both less convincing & less interesting) (3/fin)

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