I didn't grow up in a Hasidic community, though I've worked with a mixed range of Orthodox/Hasidic groups, so I'm not unfamiliar with these cultures, nor do I exoticize them. I've had experiences that accord with Feldman's depictions of some practices (such as keeping information about sexually transmitted diseases from adolescents) and the way stories spreads through the teen girl rumor mill, which is often more concerned with shocked and disapproving titillation than with accuracy. I've experi More...

The minute I started this book I was engrossed and I finished it within 2 days. I found as a woman, it was almost infuriating to read. I also think it is disgusting and awful that so many from her former "community" are stalking her and posting fake reviews calling the book false. This book is HER memoir and HER truth and she is completely and utterly entitled to it. This is a rare look into this strange community. It is an interesting read for me personally since I live in an area where there i More...

A brave woman wrote this book and her spirit shines throughout. It takes exceptional courage to break out of the only life you've ever known, especially one as repressive to women as Hasidic Judaism seems to be. The story is a fascinating look inside this closed community where, like all communities, there is both good and bad. The author knew instinctively that she couldn't thrive where she was planted, and she knew this at a young age.

The book is her journey from childhood to adulthood and ho More...

Would you like being brought up to never go into a public library? If you did manage to sneak in and get a library card which you have to hide, you would also have to hide your books under the mattress. You even have to hide 'Little Women'! If Deborah Feldman had not had the courage to wonder and then seek out knowledge about the outside world, this book never would have been written. I believe that her desire to know more her desire to read. That desire was a fountain of information for her and More...

I have been fascinated by Hasidim since a) I read Chaim Potok's novels, which led to b) my senior thesis on the relationship between Hasidic Jews and blacks in Brooklyn Heights, New York. As a result, I had high hopes for this book, and it did not disappoint. A fascinating, heart-breaking, beautifully written memoir.

Many of the details this book are apparently inaccurate, exaggerated, or even fabricated. I learned only after reading the book, for example, that the author has a much younger sister--so she couldn't have actually been abandoned by her mother as a toddler. She apparently also only attended a Satmar school for a few years after being expelled from one or two more liberal Jewish schools.

I was suspicious, additionally, about the author's silence on how exactly she gained custody of her son (when, More...

While "Unorthodox" is a fascinating and enthralling book, I feel as though it was written several years too early. The book left me with many questions, questions that perhaps could not be addressed by the author because her escape from Hasidism is still too fresh. Did she ever get to the bottom of her husband's infidelity? How was she able to take her son with her when she mentions in the book that 'it's never been done'? Did she lose all contact with her grandparents after she left? Did she be More...

I won this book through Goodreads, and it just arrived today. I plan to start reading it immediately. I will post my review as soon as I finish reading.

When I started reading this book I knew very little about the Sitmar sect of Hasidic Judaism. Fortunately the author did explain the terminalogy and fundamentals of the religion in an articulate and easy to understand way.

The author was raised in this insular, oppressive world where women are taught that they are incapable of independent thought. More...

A story of a girl brought up in a religion and culture that feels foreign to her from the start and her experience trying to separate from it. I gravitate towards stories like these because I think many people have similar experiences and can relate to the struggles of discovering who you truly are, and what you believe in. Then, how you deal with the negative impact that has on your future with your family and community who can't and aren't willing to understand. I gave this book two stars for More...

Deborah Feldman's "Unorthodox” is heartbreaking, inspiring & brimming with chutzpah.
She slowly and skillfully reveals the secrets of the fanatical Satmar Chassidic community. She pulled me into the daily life of her family as I met her bubby cooking chicken soup and her grandfather reciting biblical litanies. Her family members are deeply enshrouded in the old world belief systems.
Deborah secretly struggles to reclaim her voice and break free from her family traditions. She is a feisty, fas More...

I had higher hopes for this much anticipated memoir than were met, but It was still interesting and educational. Deborah Feldman was raised in Brooklyn, NY in a very strict Orthodox Hasidic Family. The world of the Hasidim is as foreign to most Jews as it is to non-Jews! I knew some of the traditions but others astounded me, and I could understand why Feldman longed to escape. She was married, by arranged marriage, at the age of 17, having been introduced to her husband only one time, for a shor More...

I'm almost halfway through this book, but it's my last-resort book when I'm tired of the other books I'm reading at the same time. It's not that it isn't a good read. It mostly is, though it's written in a pretty basic, I-wrote-this-in-college-English-class kind of style. The real problem is if you've read one I-escaped-ultra-Orthodox-Judaism book, you've kind of read them all. Unchosen (Hella Winston) was this book about a male Satmar Hasid done much better. And it's kind of a shame the message More...

It was amazing to realize that this woman was born in 1987 and is only one year older than my daughter! One would not think of this going on in the U.S., in this day and age. One more reason that I don't believe in organized religion, although there is no reason an individual family could not have equally antiquated beliefs and make their own rigid rules of conduct. She showed us that there are zealots in all faiths.
That being said, I also felt that her doubts have been shared by teenagers of al More...

I really enjoyed this little glimpse into Hasidic life, I must admit that I was a little shocked by some of the goings on, I mean, this is the US!! I'm not a believer in any type of organized religion and this book helps me realize that even more! I do hope that there is a follow up book as I would love to have more details on her life growing up and then her life after leaving her family.

Was a great interesting read but lacked a lot of detail.

For those of us who are athe­ists, or were at least raised non-​religious or as non-​believers, it can be hard to under­stand the dif­fi­culty behind giv­ing up every­thing you’ve known to break free of a life you don’t want. It’s also hard for any­one to pic­ture a life this dif­fer­ent from our own. I love to read books about unfa­mil­iar lifestyles—and dis­cussed this in my review of Leah’s Choice—and since this book is a mem­oir and not a novel, it’s an espe­cially inter­est­ing inside look. More...

This surprisingly revealing memoir is the story of a young woman who crashes out life in a restrictive Hasidic community on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is the author's love of learning and curiosity that lead her out of her bondage. She reads novels at the public library and eventually acquires books that she hides under her mattress. Characters created by Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott give her courage to express her spirit. Gradually she becomes a teacher, and experiences the confi More...

Was not impressed with this one. Initially wanted to read it because I have heard of this book for awhile and I am the type of person who in interested in the conservative, tightly controlled sub cultures of religion. Add to the fact that this author grew up in a Hasidic community in Brooklyn New York and we are about the same age, I was very much intrigued and wanted to try this book. However, by the end I became much disappointed by it.

I did not like the author. I think that is where 90% of my More...

This is a memoir in the genre of "I grew up in a cult"--you can find similar stories by people who've left the Amish, or a polygamous sect, or any insular religious community. The book grew out of a blog Deborah Feldman kept as she was breaking away from the Satmar Hasidic community in Brooklyn and in some ways it feels raw and unfinished, not too surprising when you consider she's still in her 20s and only a few years out. Feldman's family problems probably probably gave her more reasons than m More...

I don't usually like memoir: not because there isn't extraordinary memoir out there, but because it terrifies me. The idea of being so open and putting ugly truths on the page. I'm always perplexed by dialogue in memoir because no one remembers the "truth," only his or her interpretation of what happened and what was said.

After reading this well-written, beautiful and as Jeanette Walls stated, "harrowing" novel, I can only imagine and cringe at the criticism that Deborah Feldman has faced becau More...

UNORTHODOX
Deborah Feldman

The subtitle of UNORTHODOX, THE SCANDALOUS REJECTION OF MY HASIDIC ROOTS, sums up the rest of the book.
Following the divorce of her parents, author Deborah Feldman was raised by her grandparents in the Orthodox Satmar community in New York City. Her father was mentally disabled. Her mother, originally from England, left the while Deborah was a small child partly because of the way she was treated by her husband’s family. Her grandfather was very strict and her grandmot More...

I completely disagree with the reviewer who said that Feldman was "whiny" and "immature" I felt like she was a kindred spirit. A young woman with independent ideas and an indomitable spirit who refused to be caged by repressive society. I have read a number of books by people who left insular religious communities – two about people who left the Amish, and one about a boy who left the polygamist sect, and I have to say that a wall of them, I was able to relate most to Feldman. I found the author More...

I really enjoyed reading this book. I would've liked it if she took the time to describe her family life more. I think the average person wouldn't understand the sacredness of the Sabbath and how families prepares for it. I think that and also describing other holy days like Passover, Rosh Hashanah, etcetera.

There are those who say that she is lying. It's memoir, not biography, she doesn't have to put everything in exactly truth and detail. She had her reasons for embellishing and as far as not More...

I was hoping for more from Unorthodox. Feldman begins at the beginning and walked us through her childhood up through the time she leaves her religion (totally not a spoiler since it's in the title), a total of about 22 years. It goes chronologically, through childhood memories of her own rebellion to getting her period to the Hasidic marriage rituals to leaving her Hasidic life behind.

That was part of the problem for me, I think. I wanted more reflection, more connections between then and now. More...

Overall, I did enjoy this book and found it to be an interesting snapshot of one woman's life inside an insular, often unexplored community. Deborah Feldman's story exposed some very real problems within the restrictive Hasidic community, most explicitly the intellectual and sexual repression (and sometimes abuse) of women. Her escape from this life was daring and so is her willingness to share her story, since doing so has unleashed a lot of criticism from within the Hasidic ranks.

That said, e More...

This may be the lowest rating I've given a book. Not because I'm not discerning, but because I usually abandon books when they sink below a three star rating.

I continued to read this book even when I was bored or the writing grated only because the experiences of life in a deeply religious community were unfamiliar enough to be interesting—at least at points. The first chapters had almost no redeeming features. Though the childhood described seemed strictly regimented, it wasn’t extraordinary a More...

Mark Twain once said twenty years from now we’ll be more disappointed by the things we didn’t do than the things we did do. Mr. Twain might have changed that around some had he read Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman.

I was excited when I first heard about this book and excited when I finally got it. I was interested in learning about Hasidic Judaism from an insider’s perspective and what happened in the author's life to make her leave the faith. I wasn’t More...

"Unorthodox" is definitely worth reading. (Check it out of the library or borrow it from a friend, though.) The book was fine, I wouldn't call it good and definitely not great. I felt like it could have been so much more. I did find it interesting and learned much. But as far as a deep, insightful memoir, this book barely touched the surface. It's not that it needed to be longer -- it needed to be better. Deborah Feldman is brave, and certainly seems genuine in her feeling of disconnection to he More...

Here's the detail that gets me: on 9/11, in Williamsburg Brooklyn, the author went to her high school, had no idea why the students were dismissed in early afternoon, and didn't hear what had happened until 2:30 or so. Her community was so close, but so far away. They value a different kind of knowledge, and most of the author's story is about what it cost her to be forbidden to know things that her community devalues.

Her writing is very candid. She isn't coy about the details. She writes about More...

I'd probably rate this a bit above a 3. It was a very quick and easy read, and very engaging. I just wish the last couple chapters were a bit more in depth about her process of physically leaving. The other recommendation I have is that I would have liked to see a small glossary. Most of the Yiddish words were able to be understood through context but at times I would forget and be a little puzzled if they came up again. Same goes for some of the traditions and activities they participated in. Y More...