Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots [Kindle Edition] Author: Deborah Feldman | Language: English | ISBN:
B005GG0M60 | Format: PDF, EPUB
Download Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots
You can download Download Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots from mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link 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, featuring a new epilogue by the author.
As a member of the strictly religious Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, Deborah Feldman 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. Direct download links available for Download Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots
- File Size: 1953 KB
- Print Length: 274 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1439187010
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (February 14, 2012)
- Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
- Language: English
- ASIN: B005GG0M60
- Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,073 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #1
in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Judaism > Women and Judaism - #11
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Biographies & Memoirs > Leaders & Notable People > Religious - #15
in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Jewish
- #1
in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Judaism > Women and Judaism - #11
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Biographies & Memoirs > Leaders & Notable People > Religious - #15
in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Jewish
I start with this title, because after reading many of the reviews below, it seems that most people have not, and there is a not so subtle battle ensuing as people are defending their belief system against those that offend it. The reviews below remind me of those surrounding "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins, which simply became a battleground of athiests vs believers. Take most reviews and ratings with a grain of salt.
About the book:
WHAT I LIKED
1) This is a rare glimpse into the Satmar world, unique among books because a)The author is the rare person who got out b) She had the courage to write about it c) Has the decent enough English skills to do so (Yiddish is the first language for Satmar Jews)
2)It exposes the darker side of the Satmar sect, where religion is more a matter of appearances that true spiritual growth. It shows religious hypocrisy at its worst.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
1) While the book is most certainly authentic in a general sense, I wonder about how much exaggeration there might be. The author is passionate and clearly has a very personal agenda. It remains a question how much the author allowed her emotions to stretch the truth at times. The incredulous murder story, (since debunked?) certainly lends some credence to these doubts.
2) The book seemed to delve into detail when such detail was boring, but often devoted only a short paragraph to matters that begged for more. Overall, there was too much on her childhood, not enough on the story of how she left.
3) While impressive for an ex-Hasid, it is not written particularly well.
First, I actually read the book. Secondly, I am a Roman Catholic, but I do have Jewish ancestry, which is what inspired me to read this book.
The author is very young and sometimes her writing seems amateur and immature. Other times, she seems to contradict herself, almost as if she is still having trouble parting with her faith; she probably is. Her upbringing, culture, and faith are her foundation and questions, parting with, and being highly critical of that foundation would make most wobble a bit and appear to make contradictions, especially at the age of 24.
That being said, she does a good job introducing the reader to a world and culture usually closed to outsiders; the world of the Satmar. Some of her claims seem unbelievable and far-fetched, such as a story about a man that kills his boy when he catches him masturbating. What makes this story even more unbelievable is her claim that the Jewish emergency service helped him cover-up the killing of his child and dispose of the body. This story is obviously not true. The author doesn't claim to have witnessed this event, but instead, she claims that her husband was told about this, from another source. I can see how someone raised in a culture that shuns televisions, the English language, newspapers, and just about any form of media, could easily be led to believe such a story. It is possible that the author made up this story to embellish the book, but it is more likely that she was told this story, by someone she trusted, and she was gullible enough to believe it.
This story is about a culture that turned insular, in an effort to survive and became repressive and oppressive.
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