The Dispatch: More from CWR...

Unorthodox and the Modern Myth of Origins

The fairly clear implication of a new Netflix series is that the introduction of any value or set of values that might direct freedom or give it form would be seen as an intolerable imposition.

Shira Haas stars in the Netflix mini-series "Unorthodox". (Screenshot/Netflix trailer)

Unorthodox, a mini-series that debuted on Netflix a few weeks ago, is the story of a young woman who escapes from her oppressive Hasidic community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and finds freedom with a group of welcoming friends in Berlin. I offer this description with tongue pretty firmly in cheek, because, though it represents a fairly accurate summary of the narrative, it also hints at the oversimplification that makes this admittedly compelling and well-acted drama more than a little problematic.

The drama of Unorthodox centers around Esty (played by the astonishing Shira Haas, who deserves every acting award there is), a nineteen-year-old who has spent her entire life within a Hasidic enclave. Her education, her friendships, her marriage, her sense of self—all of it has been thoroughly shaped by the rigorous traditions of her religious community. Her marriage to a young man named Yanky proves to be unhappy, and when, at the promptings of his interfering mother, Yanky demands a divorce, Esty decides she has had enough. With the help of a Gentile friend, she slips the bonds of her society and makes her way to Berlin, where her mother, long estranged from the Hasidic world, has her residence. There, she falls in with a group of young, hip musicians who introduce her to a world of art, entertainment, and sexual liberty that she had never known. When Yanky and his cousin come to Berlin to fetch Esty and bring her home, the young woman resists and finds support in her circle of friends. At the close of the series, she walks through the Brandenburg gate, symbolically leaving her old life behind and ventures, smiling, into her newfound freedom.

Now, the makers of Unorthodox certainly intended this story to be a classic Bildungsroman, a coming-of-age story, but I also suspect they meant it to be something more—namely, a retelling of the great modern myth of origins. Especially for those who appreciate modernity as the definitive breakthrough in the history of Western culture, the modern emerged after a long twilight struggle with tradition, especially in its religious expression. This took the form of the breakthrough of the physical sciences and the breakthrough of individual freedom against, in both cases, the supposed opposition of the religious establishment. Once you understand these dynamics, you will commence to hear this story told over and over again in both the high culture and the popular culture—in books, essays, articles, films, and television programs. It is as though we have to be continually reminded of the enemy that modernity faced down in its emergence and against which it still struggles.

What I find as a religious person is that this narrative, though constantly repeated, is tiresome and simplistic, and in fact does justice neither to religion nor the distinctive culture of modernity. And I should like to show this with the help of a commentator who was deeply sensitive to the qualities of both—namely, the twentieth-century Protestant thinker Paul Tillich. One of the principal marks of any society, Tillich argued, is a tension between the polarities of what he called “destiny” and “freedom.” Destiny is what is given to us, prior to any particular choice we might make. Thus, language, culture, family, religion, a definite type of embodiment, and a conventional manner of thinking and behaving are all aspects of one’s destiny. Freedom, on the other hand, is our capacity to decide for ourselves, to determine who we are and how we are to behave. The two subsist in a mutually conditioning relationship: without freedom, destiny indeed becomes crushing; but without destiny, freedom has nothing to stand on and finally no sense of real direction. All of life is marked by a certain oscillation between these polarities, one asserting itself and then the other, and this side of heaven, a perfect equilibrium is never reached.

If the modern is appreciated as the triumph of freedom over tradition (destiny), then the story of modernity will always be told as a sharp contrast between the two. And since many contemporary religious expressions have lost their distinctive character and have become pale echoes of the modern consensus, present-day narrators of the tale have to find particularly oppressive forms of religiosity in order to make their point. Hence, the producers of Unorthodox identified Hasidic Judaism as a painfully domineering expression of religion and used it as a foil for their hero’s journey into personal liberation. But it is precisely this either/or manner of telling the tale that obscures so much and that fails to respect the subtle interrelationship between freedom and destiny that in fact marks every culture.

In all of their pronouncements, in all of their conversations, in all of their moves, the liberated company of Esty’s Berlin friends reveal that their supreme value is freedom—the capacity of each person to find his or her own path. Practically anything is fine as long as the agent in question is not being forced to do it against her or his will. The fairly clear implication is that the introduction of any value or set of values that might direct freedom or give it form would be seen as an intolerable imposition. Please, no shoulds or musts in this community! But this simply makes their society the mirror image of Esty’s Williamsburg society—which was nothing but shoulds and musts—and just as one-sided. For a freedom that has no relation to destiny commences, in short order, to drift. Moreover, when everyone in a society is radically dedicated to the way of his or her own choosing, we end up with no community at all, but rather a loose confederation of individuals with often competing visions of the good life. Though Esty’s Hasidic society is certainly excessive and oppressive, I wonder whether her Berlin friends couldn’t have benefitted enormously from some of the density, texture, and moral purpose that it embodies.

In the end, I would warmly recommend Unorthodox. It’s a fascinating story and the main character is presented with great psychological subtlety. But don’t let it indoctrinate you regarding the nature of either modernity or religion.


If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.


About Bishop Robert Barron 205 Articles
Bishop Robert Barron has been the bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota since 2022. He is the founder of www.WordonFire.org, a nonprofit global media apostolate that seeks to draw people into—or back to—the Catholic faith.

4 Comments

  1. It’s funny, a friend of mine made the reverse journey from a hip, secular culture to a Hassidic community.
    She found marriage, family, faith and fulfillment there.

    • I suspect if someone would do an in-depth study of the happiness levels in the Hasidic communities compared to the levels in any portion of the secular world, that the levels would be substantially higher in the former. The key here is who is telling the story and who is therefore defining who the heroes are – in this case it is hipster secularists fortifying their own world view in the stories they tell. Barron partly understands this but, in my opinion, goes in a confusing direction by focusing on Paul Tillich and his concepts, which include a degraded, inadequate concept of “destiny”. Destiny is more than just the “given” that one is born into, it is also the graces that one is offered and within which freedom is used and aided. Barron also is unfair to the Hasidic community in some of his own comments, they seem to me to retain a stronger concept of family and community than most of the modern “Christian” world does.

  2. So now we have the movies and shows about people leaving Catholicism, non-Catholic Christian sects/denominations, Judaism…I’m not holding my breath that’ll change, but did anyone notice that conspicuously missing from the list of faiths it is OK to leave according to those movies and shows is the Islam?

    Not that anyone in their right mind would want to leave the religion of peace, equality, and tolerance…

  3. Bishop Barron does have a gift for intellectual range and understanding of certain areas of our spiritual and temporal life. And so does many of the Souls that comment on the writers in this magazine. However we are now at a time of waiting such as during advent such as after the crucifixion. We need seem to unite under true leadership with the souls who comment, with the writers who write, with the magazines that coordinate, and Unite with the leadership that can begin to move forward and not fear to tackle this serious serious issue let’s do the best we can. And become the church militant that we are meant to be. God bless

1 Trackback / Pingback

  1. Unorthodox and the Modern Myth of Origins - Catholic Mass Search

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*