Before it was an award-wining Netflix miniseries starringShira Haas,Unorthodoxwas a bestselling autobiography byDeborah Feldman, who left her Satmar Hasidic sect in Brooklyn after the birth of her son.
现在,Netflix的另一个项目集中在life of a woman who left ultra-Orthodoxy: a reality show calledMy UnorthodoxLife.Theshow, which is set to premiere sometime in 2021, centers on the life of Julia Haart, who was born Talia Leibov in a Haredi Jewish home. Formerly a Judaic studies teacher, she became a pioneering fashion designer and executive who is now the CEO of Elite World Group (yep, as in Elite Models).
This show is sure to have a very different feel from all the other projects about people who left ultra-Orthodoxy on the popular streaming platform, including, of course,Unorthodox,as well as the heart-wrenching documentaryOne of Us. While these programs tend to focus on the struggle to assimilate — depicting the lives of formerly Haredi Jews as filled with tragedy and angst —My Unorthodox Lifewill focus on just how, well,glamorous, life can be on the other side.
Perusing Haart’s Instagram, you can see hers is a life of fancy designer outfits, impossibly high stilettos, runways, red carpets, and opulent vacations with her children and her second husband, Italian entrepreneur Silvio Scaglia, who founded PGM, the holdings company for Elite World.
The team behind this show will include the folks behindBling Empire,the much-binged reality series that washailed asCrazy Rich AsiansmeetsSelling Sunset(shout out to Jewish momMaya Vander!). So, we’re assuming this new reality show will be a sort ofUnorthodoxmeetsBling Empire— which we’re not really hating as a concept, to be completely honest.
According to the Netflix synopsis,My Unorthodox Lifewill depict Haart’s attempts to further revolutionize the fashion world while also helping her four children, who are “torn between two conflicting cultures” to “reconcile their Orthodox upbringings with the modern world.”
Haart’s four children are “a TikToker, an app designer, a lawyer, and a high schooler.” Her eldest daughter, Batsheva, has over one million followers on TikTok, where she shares outfits, lifestyle tips, and fun videos with her sister, Miriam, and with her hubby, Ben, whom she married at 19 when they were both still living an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle:
@batshevahaartSome throwbacks in honor of##internationalwomensday ##mylifestory ##thisismylife ##thisismylifenow ##religiouslife ♬ In The End – Mellen Gi Remix – Tommee Profitt
Haart’s two other children are sons Shlomo and Aron. She credits her youngest daughter, Miriam, as being “the impetus for my leaving our old world behind—without you, we wouldn’t be here today.”
Haart was born in Russia and moved to the U.S. when she was 3. When she was 7, her family settled in Monsey, New York. She married Shlomo Hendler when she was 19 (Hendler, according to Batsheva, recently gotengaged).
她以前教t at what is now Atlanta Jewish Academy, and according to theForward, “she was beloved by students and known for her sharp style.”
In 2013, when she was 43, she left her community and founded Julia Haart, a pioneering footwear company that made comfortable high heels (a mission we can stand behind!). She then became creative director of the Italian fashion house La Perla, where she designed Kendall Jenner’s 2017 Met Gala dress, which famously comprised of 85,000 crystals affixed to a single string.
Haart has truly lived quite a fascinating life, and we definitely see why Netflix is eager to share her story with its audience. And while yes, this show sounds nothing likeUnorthodox, we’re excited to make it our guilty binging pleasure when it arrives on the streaming platform.
Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images
