A panel discussion featuring J.S Margot (author of Mazel Tov), Yehudis Fletcher (political and social activist) & Eli Rosen (actor and adviser to the series) and moderated by Pamela Druckerman (award winning author and journalist).
The Netflix series Unorthodox has been one of the “must see” shows during this period of lockdown.
It has opened many peoples’ eyes to the ultra-orthodox world of the Satmar that they might not have considered before. But how accurately does that reflect reality?
The evening will look at orthodox Jewish worlds through different lenses – those of both reality and fiction, exploring how and where they intertwine. Our discussion will include insights into how Unorthodox was researched and made and explore the extraordinary relationship that J.S Margot developed with a modern orthodox family, which she has written about in her award-winning book, Mazel Tov.
Print: You can purchase the print book of Mazel Tov and support your local bookshop via Hive here.
E-book: You can buy a copy of the ebook of Mazel Tov via Amazon here.
This event is produced in partnership with Byte the Book, the leading international network for all those in the publishing industry. Helping authors publish, educating everyone on technology and connecting people with each other and other industries that can use your content.
Panel Biographies■
J. S. Margot
J.S. Margot is a writer and freelance journalist based in Antwerp. Her award-winning book, Mazel Tov, explores her extraordinary relationship with a modern-orthodox family in Antwerp. Deborah Feldman, whose autobiography inspired Unorthodox, said that Mazel Tov is ‘illuminating a section of society rarely seen’. When 20 year-old non-Jewish student J.S. Margot responded to a job advertisement, little did she know it would open up an entire world. Taking on a challenge that six of her fellow students had failed in , she agreed to tutor the four children of an intriguing Orthodox Jewish family living in Antwerp's tight-knit community.
Yehudis Fletcher
Yehudis Fletcher was brought up in a chareidi home and at the age of 18, had an arranged marriage to a boy from a Satmar family. She is a political and social activist with a special interest in safeguarding. She is also an Independent Sexual Violence Adviser at Migdal Emunah, a charity providing support to Jewish people who have experienced sexual violence, and the founder of Nahamu, a think tank examining extremism in the Jewish community. She is a student of social policy at Salford University.
Eli Rosen
Eli Rosen was born and raised in a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn, which he left to pursue life, liberty and a law degree. Shortly thereafter (i.e. seven years of indentured-servitude-to-his-Uncle-Laban later), he saw the error in his ways. A recovering lawyer, Eli is now discovering his long-repressed passion in the dramatic arts. When he's not ably and competently dispatching (read: dodging) his duties as managing director of New Yiddish Rep, Eli can be found translating obscure tomes, updating his website and hatching ill-fated schemes for world dominance. He was the cultural and Yiddish adviser on the Netflix series Unorthodox where he played the part of Reb Yossele.
Pamela Druckerman
Pamela Druckerman is an Emmy award winning author and New York Times journalist. She pens the Dress Code column for 1843, The Economists’ monthly magazine. She is the author of Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting and her latest book is a portrait of modern middle age called There Are No Grown-Ups: A Midlife Coming-of-Age Story.
