The “One of Us” Netflix documentary came out on Friday chronicling three former members of the Hasidic Jewish community and how they were demonized by the Hasidic community for leaving it.
The film has elicited a myriad of responses. A lot of people have voiced their support for the film, stating that it exposes a serious problem in the Hasidic community:
#OneofUs on @netflix shows the effects of too many man-made-fences around the Torah. The good news – a lot of us are finding a good balance.
— Mendy Pellin (@MendyTV) October 24, 2017
@HeidiLoki just saw your documentary 'One of Us' on @netflix. Much love and respect. 🙏🏾
— Chloé S. Valdary 📚 (@cvaldary) October 24, 2017
You HAVE to watch "One Of Us," a very powerful documentary a/b what it's like to try to leave a Hasidic communityhttps://t.co/Jo4DQ8GVId
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) October 24, 2017
One Of Us on Netflix: My God, what a documentary. Outrageous, infuriating, heartbreaking. How can this be happening in NYC?
— Kevin Pang (@pang) October 22, 2017
https://www.facebook.com/AbbyChavaStein/posts/859239830912678
Yitzchok Adlerstein wrote in the orthodox Cross-Currents blog that the film “was extremely painful” to watch because “it was painful to witness the deep pain and suffering of three human beings, all the time realizing that there are many more whose stories are still untold.”
Others, like Amy Spiro of the Jerusalem Post, felt that the movie wasn’t representative of the Hasidic community as a whole.
“The film is powerfully shot, and tells compelling, disturbing tales,” wrote Spiro. “It is a dark, engrossing and incomplete story of hassidic life.”
Spiro wrote that one of people featured in the film admits that a lot of people in the Hasidic community “are very happy.”
“That cannot be found in any portion of the film,” said Spiro.
One of the co-directors of the documentary, Heidi Ewing, came under fire for stating in an interview that Hasidic Jews were killed in the Holocaust for not blending into society. She apologized, although some believed her comments discredited the movie.
For more Journal coverage, read Gerri Miller’s piece here and Eli Fink’s piece here.
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