Recording of the Virtual Panel Discussion of Unorthodox. 

On May 7th, the Program in Jewish Culture & Society hosted a virtual panel discussion of the mini-series: Unorthodox featuring Rachel S. Harris (U of Illinois), David Myers (UCLA), and Nomi Stolzenbeerg (USC), Professor Dara E. Goldman (Director, Program in Jewish Culture & Society) moderated and Dr. Liat Maggid Alon (Israel Institute Visiting Scholar, U of Illinois) participated as a discussant.

Many of us have watched the mini-series, Unorthodox, loosely based on Deborah Feldman's memoir--which has generated numerous threads on social media in addition to informal conversations among family workers and friends. The Program in Jewish Culture & Society wanted to take this opportunity to covene a virtual panel discussion about the show and about the communities represented therein. Along with Rachel S. Harris, who specialzies in Jewish and Israeli literatures and cultures, we have invited David Myers and Nomi Stolzenberg to share their expertise on Haredi Jewish traditions, Satmar communities, and the complexities of leaving such communities. Liat Maggid Alon, who works on women and families in the Middle East, will also join us to help faciliate the discussion. 

Rachel S. Harris is Associate Professor in Comparative and World Literature, focusing on Israeli literature and culture. She is author of Warriors, Witches, Whores: Women in Israeli Cinema (Wayne State Press 2014), An Ideological Death: Suicide in Israeli Literature (Northwestern University Press 2014), and co-editor of Narratives of Dissent: War in Israeli Arts and Culture (Wayn

e State Press 2013).  Professor Harris’ latest research focuses on terrorism in literature and cinema. 

David N. Myers is the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Professor of Jewish History at UCLA, where he serves as the director of the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. He is the author or editor of fifteen books in the field of Jewish history, including a forthcoming book with Nomi Stolzenberg on the Satmar Hasidic community of Kiryas Joel, New York. Myers also serves as President of the New Israel Fund. 

Nomi Stolzenberg is the Nathan and Lilly Shapell Chair in Law at the University of Southern California. Professor Stolzenberg’s research spans a range of interdisciplinary interests, including law and religion, cultural pluralism, law and liberalism, and law and literature. A strong proponent of multidisciplinary research and teaching, she helped establish the USC Center for Law, History and Culture, which involves scholars and students from throughout USC’s campus. She is the author of numerous articles of book chapters, including "Is There Such a Thing as Non-State Law? Lesson from Kiryas Joel” and “The Return of Religion: The Rise, Decline, and Possible Resurrection of Legal Secularism” and is currently completing a book, American Shtetl: Kiryas Joel Through The Lens of Jewish History and American Law, with David Myers.