so much projection, so many expectations, and then you realize they don't even have a chance.' 'And what happens in this arranged marriage where all these hopes are projected - not just her hopes, but the hopes of her future husband, the hopes of both of their families. 'The story is very much about this one woman and all of her hopes and desires.

She says the book and the Netflix series tell overlapping stories. The show is inspired by the bestselling memoir Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots, in which Deborah Feldman wrote about leaving the Hasidic Satmar community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn and her own family. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. 'It's literally dangerous,' he says.Ĭlose overlay Buy Featured Book Title Unorthodox Subtitle The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots Author Deborah Feldman Actor Jeff Wilbusch, who was raised in Jerusalem and now lives in Berlin, says he'd think twice about going out on the street wearing a kippah, a traditional Jewish skullcap.

Now, a new, four-part series on Netflix called Unorthodox explores what it means for a Jewish American woman to seek redemption in the city. Yet the rise of anti-Semitic hate crimes and the far right means Germany is still a very fraught place to be Jewish. Germany's capital has secured its place as one of the cultural hubs of Europe. 'You have politicians who are relativizing the Holocaust, relativizing the Nazi period who are actively calling for forgetting,' Angelos explains.

īut despite Germany's memorials, there's been a backlash with the rise of the far-right populist Alternative for Germany party. 'Germany is seen around the world as a model for how a country can face its past - and it has done that in a way few countries have,' says journalist James Angelos. Somber monuments, museums, stumbling stones and plaques dot nearly every block. In Berlin, reminders of the city's violent past are everywhere. Shira Haas plays Esther Shapiro in Unorthodox, a four-part Netflix adaptation of Deborah Feldman's 2012 memoir.

Deborah feldman netflix