Doubting the Devout: The Ultra-Orthodox in the Jewish American Imagination

by Nora L. Rubel

Before 1985, depictions of ultra-Orthodox Jews in popular American culture were rare, and if they did appear, in films such as Fiddler on the Roof or within the novels of Chaim Potok, they evoked a nostalgic vision of Old World tradition. Yet the ordination of women into positions of religious leadership and other controversial issues have sparked an increasingly visible and voluble culture war between America's ultra-Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews, one that has found a particularly creative voice in literature, media, and film.

Unpacking the work of Allegra Goodman, Tova Mirvis, Pearl Abraham, Erich Segal, Anne Roiphe, and others, as well as television shows and films such as A Price Above Rubies , Nora L. Rubel investigates the choices non-haredi Jews have made as they represent the character and characters of ultra-Orthodox Jews. In these artistic and aesthetic acts, Rubel recasts the war over gender and family and the anxieties over acculturation, Americanization, and continuity. More than just a study of Jewishness and Jewish self-consciousness, Doubting the Devout will speak to any reader who has struggled to balance religion, family, and culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion, Judaism

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2009

Reviews

[Samuel A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book analyzes American Jewish literature to get a sense of American Jewish thoughts on the ultra orthodox. The results are as one would expect, and this book makes the culture war evident.

The writing is enthralling. Not a must read book in terms of information, but a very fun and enjoyable book to read because of the author's writing style.

[Jengordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Examines images of the Ultra-Orthodox given to American Jews through film and novels, with the base thesis that the way the UO are imagined through these media represents the anxieties American Jews have about themselves and their relationship to Judaism. Discusses questions of authenticity (i.e. anxieties about the UO being the "real" Jews), women's roles, and the UO as the "other" that traps women and takes children away from families.