![a woman wearing a hat: The Netflix series "Unorthodox" is based on the true story of Deborah Feldman, who left her Hasidic Jewish community when she was 23.]({"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"40","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB11LlA3.img?h=400&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=381&y=336"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"31","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB11LlA3.img?h=312&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=381&y=336"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"31","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB11LlA3.img?h=312&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=381&y=336"}})
Unorthodox, a new four-part Netflix miniseries, tells the riveting story of tje journey of 19-year-old Esther Shapiro’s (Shira Weiss) out of her insular religious community in Brooklyn toward a secular and independent life in Berlin.
The four-part miniseries is inspired by Deborah Feldman’s life. Her bestselling memoir, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots, was published in 2012, and provided the framework for the show, with Esty’s character based on Feldman.
Feldman’s involvement with the Netflix project from inception is described in Making Unorthodox, a 20-minute documentary that also premiered alongside the miniseries. The show is produced by her friends, Anna Winger (Deutschland 83) and Alexa Karolinski.
“I realized that if anybody is ever going to be able to grasp what this story is about and execute it in a way that is going to have a positive cultural pact, it’s these women,” Feldman said in Making Unorthodox.
Deborah Feldman was born into the Hasidic Satmar community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 1986. It was founded by a Rabbi from Satmar, Hungary after WWII. Most of the community’s Yiddish-speaking residents are Holocaust survivors, or descendants of Holocaust survivors.
“It was founded by people who are struggling with the most immense trauma we can imagine,” Feldman said.
