Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots
(Libby/OverDrive eBook, Kindle)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Contributors
Published
Simon & Schuster , 2012.
Status
Checked Out

Available Platforms

Libby/OverDrive
Titles may be read via Libby/OverDrive. Libby/OverDrive is a free app that allows users to borrow and read digital media from their local library, including ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines. Users can access Libby/OverDrive through the Libby/OverDrive app or online. The app is available for Android and iOS devices.
Kindle
Titles may be read using Kindle devices or with the Kindle app.

Description

The instant New York Times bestselling memoir of a young Jewish woman’s escape from a religious sect, in the tradition of Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel and Carolyn Jessop’s Escape.The Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism is as mysterious as it is intriguing to outsiders. In this arresting memoir, Deborah Feldman reveals what life is like trapped within a religious tradition that values silence and suffering over individual freedoms. Deborah grew up under a code of relentlessly enforced customs governing everything from what she could wear and to whom she could speak to what she was allowed to read. It was stolen moments spent with the empowered literary characters of Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott that helped her to imagine an alternative way of life. Trapped as a teenager in a sexually and emotionally dysfunctional marriage to a man she barely knew, the tension between Deborah’s desires and her responsibilities as a good Satmar girl grew more explosive until she gave birth at nineteen and realized that, for the sake of herself and her son, she had to escape.

More Details

Format
eBook
Street Date
02/14/2012
Language
English
ISBN
9781439187029

Discover More

Other Editions and Formats

Excerpt

Loading Excerpt...

Author Notes

Loading Author Notes...

Similar Titles From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for titles you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
These books have the genre "life stories -- religion and spirituality"; and the subjects "hasidim," "jewish women," and "oppression (psychology)."
Born with wings: the spiritual journey of a modern Muslim woman - Khan, Daisy
These books have the appeal factors serious, candid, and own voices, and they have the genre "autobiographies and memoirs."
These books have the genre "spirituality and religion -- judaism"; and the subjects "hasidim," "jewish women," and "judaic doctrines."
These books have the genre "spirituality and religion -- judaism"; and the subjects "hasidim," "jewish women," and "fundamentalists."
In these candid memoirs, women raised in strict Hasidic Jewish families in Brooklyn find their faith tested after balking at the expectations of their arranged marriages. -- Kaitlin Conner
Cut me loose: sin and salvation after my ultra-Orthodox girlhood - Vincent, Leah
These books have the genre "spirituality and religion -- judaism"; and the subjects "jewish women," "fundamentalists," and "judaism."
These books have the appeal factors candid, and they have the genre "autobiographies and memoirs"; and the subjects "hasidim" and "orthodox jews."
These books have the genres "spirituality and religion -- judaism" and "life stories -- religion and spirituality -- personal faith"; and the subjects "hasidim," "jewish women," and "judaism."
These books have the appeal factors own voices, and they have the genres "autobiographies and memoirs" and "spirituality and religion -- judaism"; and the subjects "jewish women," "judaic doctrines," and "jewish people."
These books have the genre "spirituality and religion -- judaism"; and the subjects "hasidim," "judaism," and "judaic doctrines."
These books have the subjects "hasidim," "jewish women," and "women authors, american."
These books have the appeal factors candid and own voices, and they have the genres "autobiographies and memoirs" and "biographies"; and the subjects "hasidim," "judaic doctrines," and "women authors, american."

Similar Authors From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for other authors you might want to read if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
These authors' works have the subjects "jewish women," "hasidim," and "jewish people."
These authors' works have the appeal factors own voices, and they have the genres "autobiographies and memoirs" and "spirituality and religion"; and the subjects "jewish women," "jewish people," and "judaic doctrines."
These authors' works have the subjects "jewish women," "hasidim," and "fundamentalists."
These authors' works have the subjects "jewish women," "hasidim," and "jewish people."
These authors' works have the genre "spirituality and religion"; and the subjects "jewish women," "hasidim," and "jewish people."
These authors' works have the appeal factors candid and own voices, and they have the genres "autobiographies and memoirs" and "life stories"; and the subjects "jewish women," "hasidim," and "jewish people."
These authors' works have the genre "spirituality and religion"; and the subjects "hasidim," "judaism," and "judaic doctrines."
These authors' works have the subjects "jewish women," "jewish people," and "self-discovery."
These authors' works have the genre "spirituality and religion"; and the subjects "jewish people," "judaism," and "judaic doctrines."
These authors' works have the subjects "hasidim," "fundamentalists," and "judaism."
These authors' works have the appeal factors reflective, candid, and own voices, and they have the genres "autobiographies and memoirs" and "spirituality and religion"; and the subjects "jewish women," "jewish people," and "judaic doctrines."
These authors' works have the genre "spirituality and religion"; and the subjects "jewish women," "hasidim," and "jewish people."

Published Reviews

Booklist Review

Feldman spent her first 20-odd years growing up in the ultraorthodox Satmar community. As the daughter of a mother who left to live as a lesbian, Feldman already was marked as different. Raised by her grandparents, she tried to go along to get along, but after marrying, at age 17, she knew a Hasidic life was not the one she wanted to live. There's no doubt that Feldman's evolution as well as her look inside a closed community make for fascinating reading. But this also seems to be a book written to settle scores, especially with the author's inlaws. Moreover, after all the buildup to her leaving, Feldman leaves many questions unanswered, primarily, how did she get custody of her son, the very thing she said the community would not allow? The final photo of her in jeans, smoking a cigarette, doesn't convey the image of the liberated woman she's trying for, but her storyteller's sense and a keen eye for details give readers a you-are-there sense of what it is like to be different when everyone else is the same.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Powered by Syndetics

Publisher's Weekly Review

Born into the insular and exclusionary Hasidic community of Satmar in Brooklyn to a mentally disabled father and a mother who fled the sect, Feldman, as she recounts in this nicely written memoir, seemed doomed to be an outsider from the start. Raised by devout grandparents who forbade her to read in English, the ever-curious child craved books outside the synagogue teaching. Feldman's spark of rebellion started with sneaking off to the library and hiding paperback novels under her bed. Her boldest childhood revolution: she buys an English translation of the Talmud, which would otherwise be kept from her, so that she might understand the prayers and stories that are the fabric of her existence. At 17, hoping to be free of the scrutiny and gossip of her circle, she enters into an arranged marriage with a man she meets once before the wedding. Instead, having received no sex education from a culture that promotes procreation and repression simultaneously, she and her husband are unable to consummate the relationship for a year. The absence of a sex life and failure to produce a child dominate her life, with her family and in-laws supplying constant pressure. She starts to experience panic attacks and the stirrings of her final break with being Hasidic. It's when she finally does get pregnant and wants something more for her child that the full force of her uprising takes hold and she plots her escape. Feldman, who now attends Sarah Lawrence College, offers this engaging and at times gripping insight into Brooklyn's Hasidic community. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Powered by Syndetics

Kirkus Book Review

Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Powered by Syndetics

Booklist Reviews

Feldman spent her first 20-odd years growing up in the ultraorthodox Satmar community. As the daughter of a mother who left to live as a lesbian, Feldman already was marked as different. Raised by her grandparents, she tried to go along to get along, but after marrying, at age 17, she knew a Hasidic life was not the one she wanted to live. There's no doubt that Feldman's evolution as well as her look inside a closed community make for fascinating reading. But this also seems to be a book written to settle scores, especially with the author's inlaws. Moreover, after all the buildup to her leaving, Feldman leaves many questions unanswered, primarily, how did she get custody of her son, the very thing she said the community would not allow? The final photo of her in jeans, smoking a cigarette, doesn't convey the image of the liberated woman she's trying for, but her storyteller's sense and a keen eye for details give readers a you-are-there sense of what it is like to be different when everyone else is the same. Copyright 2011 Booklist Reviews.

Copyright 2011 Booklist Reviews.
Powered by Content Cafe

Library Journal Reviews

It's hard to imagine life in any strict religious community, and the Satmar Hasidim seem particularly remote from the experiences of many Americans. Raised in a Satmar Hasidim community in Brooklyn, Feldman gives us special insight into a closed and repressive world. Abandoned by her mother and married off at 17 to a man she had known for less than an hour, Feldman started taking classes at Sarah Lawrence College and soon determined that she had to leave the community, together with her young son. At first glance, her memoir is fresh and tart and quite absorbing.

[Page 58]. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Powered by Content Cafe

Publishers Weekly Reviews

Born into the insular and exclusionary Hasidic community of Satmar in Brooklyn to a mentally disabled father and a mother who fled the sect, Feldman, as she recounts in this nicely written memoir, seemed doomed to be an outsider from the start. Raised by devout grandparents who forbade her to read in English, the ever-curious child craved books outside the synagogue teaching. Feldman's spark of rebellion started with sneaking off to the library and hiding paperback novels under her bed. Her boldest childhood revolution: she buys an English translation of the Talmud, which would otherwise be kept from her, so that she might understand the prayers and stories that are the fabric of her existence. At 17, hoping to be free of the scrutiny and gossip of her circle, she enters into an arranged marriage with a man she meets once before the wedding. Instead, having received no sex education from a culture that promotes procreation and repression simultaneously, she and her husband are unable to consummate the relationship for a year. The absence of a sex life and failure to produce a child dominate her life, with her family and in-laws supplying constant pressure. She starts to experience panic attacks and the stirrings of her final break with being Hasidic. It's when she finally does get pregnant and wants something more for her child that the full force of her uprising takes hold and she plots her escape. Feldman, who now attends Sarah Lawrence College, offers this engaging and at times gripping insight into Brooklyn's Hasidic community. (Feb.)

[Page ]. Copyright 2011 PWxyz LLC

Copyright 2011 PWxyz LLC
Powered by Content Cafe

Reviews from GoodReads

Loading GoodReads Reviews.

Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Feldman, D. (2012). Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots . Simon & Schuster.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Feldman, Deborah. 2012. Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots. Simon & Schuster.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Feldman, Deborah. Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots Simon & Schuster, 2012.

Harvard Citation (style guide)

Feldman, D. (2012). Unorthodox: the scandalous rejection of my hasidic roots. Simon & Schuster.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Feldman, Deborah. Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots Simon & Schuster, 2012.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

Copy Details

CollectionOwnedAvailableNumber of Holds
Libby101

Staff View

Loading Staff View.