Comment: How Jews got 'My Unorthodox Life' renewed

• Author: AMY KLEIN
• Published date: 26 September 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

From online TMZ's blaring headline 'MY UNORTHODOX LIFE' RIPPED FOR UNFAIR, NEGATIVE DEPICTIONS By 'Jew in the City' Founder to [New York Magazine's] The Cut's "Losing My Religion: Julia Haart exchanged the teachings of the Torah for the gospel of money, pleasure, and sex," media were discussing aspects of the show. Even The New York Times' Style section weighed in about how Fashion is a Flashpoint in the show, actually quoting me and my original article in Kveller – exploring whether modesty in Orthodoxy is really as restrictive as Haart claims it is.

If one got through all the media pieces, you could still spend another few weeks reading the social media reaction to the show, about whether My Unorthodox Life causes antisemitism, or how many Orthodox women lead great lives hashtag #myorthdoxlife, as well as suggestions on what they think would make great reality TV.

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Well, Congratulations Jews. Netflix has just ordered a second season of My Unorthodox Life.

While Netflix would not say that the season was renewed because of the chatter about the show – nor does it discuss ratings – all the attention certainly didn't hurt.

"Netflix has renewed My Unorthodox Life, the series following Elite World Group CEO Julia Haart and her 4 children as they navigate life since leaving an ultra-Orthodox community and take the reins on the modern world," the Netflix press release said.

Attacking Judaism "has become weirdly common on Netflix," Rabbi Shmuley Boteach wrote in a piece on the reality show called "Orthodox Jews Have the Best Sex." "Indeed, you'd think its executives would at least have come up with a name more creative than the exact same title as the 2020 series Unorthodox," he said. I'm guessing that it was the success of Unorthodox, a scripted limited series nominated for eight Emmy Awards – that likely inspired My Unorthodox Life, idea for a "reality" show. (I put "reality" in quotes because it seems that many viewers – especially religious ones – are not aware that reality shows are, if not somewhat scripted, then heavily edited to create villains and heroes.)

This is not Netflix's only show capitalizing on Jewish shows' popularity in the press. Take Nice Jewish Girls, a new show Netflix is developing. Does it matter that it's about, according to Deadline, "a darkly comedic one-hour family crime drama about four sisters in...