So that’s been really great.”Ĭhoosing the “best” Israeli show of the year was tough - Israeli TV really leveled up in 2020. I love where I come from, but I was looking for something else,’ you know. “You know, lots of Catholics have told me, ‘This is my story.’ Someone from a tiny village in Bavaria who is like, ‘I moved to the city. “The struggle to fit in, that’s a universal struggle,” she said. While the show’s portrayals of the specificities of Satmar life enchanted audiences, co-creator Anna Winger told me earlier this year that the reason the show resonated with so many is that its message is relatable to so many - Jewish or not.
Haas stars as Esty Shapiro, who escapes her Haredi Satmar home, where she never felt like she truly belonged, and finds freedom and hope for a happier future in multicultural Berlin. The show, which landed its fiery star, Shira Haas, an Emmy, is a fictionalized version of Feldman’s tale. Even if you think the miniseries is a flawed depiction of ultra-Orthodox society, one thing is true: Audiences and critics alike were windswept by the Netflix award-winning hit, which is based on the memoir of the same name by Deborah Feldman. Unorthodox was the Jewish smash of this year - there is absolutely zero doubt about that. Below are my picks for the best of the best. Certainly, there is still so much more that we could wish for in 2021.īut as we look back on this very difficult year, let’s celebrate the great TV that, despite everything, still came out of it. And not all shows that attempted diverse representation succeeded - Netflix’s newest teen show, Grand Army, for example, gave us an adopted Jewish character who failed to meaningfully engage with and authentically represent her minority identities. America reintroduced us to feminist Jewish pioneers like Gloria Steinem and Bella Abzug - yet none of them were played by Jewish actors. Though it’s been a banner year, we’re just scratching the surface when it comes to Jewish representation on screen - especially authentic and diverse representation - both in the cast and onscreen. From amazing new Israeli shows to an increase in diverse Jewish characters, to lots and lots of shows about Nazis, at any point, we could have said, “ Dayenu !”Įxcept… not really. This was truly an incredible year for TV - and Jewish TV, in particular (not to mention a year of new super-exciting and super-Jewish new films like An American Pickle and Uncut Gems, which reached HBO Max this year). But there was one thing that those of us cringing about news reports and scrolling through discomfiting articles about the Covid-19 pandemic could rely on: We could always change the channel, or open a new browser tab, and distract ourselves with some groundbreaking, masterful, and, at times, deeply comforting television. Watching 2020 unfold from the rising discomfort of our own homes has not been easy.
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