1 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The dictionary definition of trauma is: 2 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Severe emotional shock and pain, 3 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 caused by an extremely upsetting experience. 4 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There is no set way to process trauma. 5 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But, in "Unorthodox," we see how two different communities, 6 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 one in Berlin, and another in Brooklyn, 7 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 cope with the tragedies that have shaped them. 8 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And, in turn, we learn ways to deal with our trauma. 9 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In Brooklyn, trauma forms 19 year old Esty's, 10 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and her community's, identity. 11 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The action follows the secretive Satmar community 12 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of Hasidic Jews. 13 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Established by a rabbi who had fled Satu Mare, 14 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in present-day Romania, during the Holocaust. 15 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The Satmar community does not mix with others. 16 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In "Unorthodox," 17 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 at the head of the sex-segregated table, 18 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for Pesach dinner, 19 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 an annual commemoration of the Jews who escaped slavery 20 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in ancient Egypt, 21 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Esty's grandfather gives his reasons why. 22 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Grandfather] We tell ourselves 23 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the story of Passover 24 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to remind us of our suffering. 25 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Narrator] The show celebrates 26 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the strong bonds of family and tradition, 27 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 within Esty's community, 28 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 where religious customs and prayers 29 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 can take place safely, 30 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 while deadly attacks 31 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 on synagogues, and other venues frequented by Jews, 32 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 rise, across the world. 33 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This community defies anti-Semitism, by living devoutly. 34 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We also see, in this scene, 35 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 how Satmar Jews draw on past trauma, 36 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to make members scared of the big, bad outside. 37 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Grandfather] When we trusted 38 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 our friends and neighbors, 39 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 God punished us. 40 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When we forget who we are, 41 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 we invite God's wrath. 42 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Narrator] The Holocaust 43 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 caused PTSD in its survivors. 44 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Its impact lives on. 45 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 As Auschwitz survivor, chemist, and writer, 46 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Primo Levi puts it: 47 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Auschwitz is outside of us, 48 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but it is all around us, in the air. 49 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The plague has died away, but the infection still lingers, 50 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and it would be foolish to deny it." 51 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This generational trauma grows from the roots 52 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of Esty's family tree, and shapes Esty's personal identity. 53 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 She is discouraged from exploring passions 54 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that contradict the community's values. 55 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Her piano lessons are so frowned upon, 56 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 she must take them in secret. 57 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Her teacher, Vivian Dropkin, 58 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is derided as 'a shiksa,' or non-Jew. 59 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But interestingly, though the show never mentions it, 60 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Dropkin is a secular Jew. 61 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Despite her faith, her choices are not Jewish enough 62 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for Esty's devout community. 63 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Many Orthodox Jews believe that the way 64 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to undo the trauma of the Holocaust, 65 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is to repopulate. 66 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 2013 research for the Pew Center 67 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 shows that Orthodox Jews have a birth rate of 4.1, 68 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 as opposed to the U. S. national average of 1.8. 69 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Esty totally believes what she's been taught to believe, 70 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 later insisting, 71 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "We are rebuilding the six million lost." 72 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Jews killed in the Holocaust. 73 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Grandmother] So many lost. 74 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But, soon, you'll have children of your own. 75 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Narrator] Six million is no small sum. 76 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So, alongside the housework needed to keep her home tidy, 77 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and her husband, Yanky Shapiro, 78 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 well fed and in perfectly ironed suits, 79 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Esty's job is to have as many children as possible. 80 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Woman] You will have no leverage in this marriage, 81 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 until there is a baby. Understand me? 82 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Narrator] She is told that sex will give her husband pleasure, 83 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which, in turn, will give her exactly what she wants: 84 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 what she has been told she wants... a baby. 85 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The problem with this way of dealing with trauma, 86 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 as we see it through Esty's eyes, 87 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is, it creates a domino effect. 88 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There is a field of academic study 89 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 called epigenetics, 90 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which deals with the concept 91 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of trans-generational trauma, 92 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 or, the idea that trauma can be inherited. 93 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Some study suggests that DNA 94 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 changes in response to horrifying experiences, 95 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and that, then, passes down generations. 96 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Whether through epigenetics or not, 97 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in "Unorthodox," traumatized parents 98 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 unintentionally traumatize their children. 99 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Esty's grandparents are still, understandably, 100 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 bereft by the Holocaust. 101 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Their son, Mordecai, is mentally unwell. 102 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 As for Leah, her trauma comes, mainly, 103 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 from not quite fitting the mold that's been set for her. 104 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Esty is tarred by her parents' pain. 105 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Now that she is a bride herself, she finds the rules troublesome. 106 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Mrs. Shapiro] We shouldn't have agreed to this marriage. 107 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Yanky Shapiro] Mommy, please! 108 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Mrs. Shapiro] The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. 109 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Narrator] When Esty tries to argue the case 110 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for her to be pleasured, rather than traumatized in bed, 111 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 using scripture as evidence of God's will for it, 112 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 she is shut down. 113 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Yanky Shapiro] Women are not allowed to read the Talmud! 114 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Narrator] This text is for men only, not for women's eyes, 115 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 due to something known as 116 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Kavod Hatzibur," or the dignity of the community. 117 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Esty's story shows how socially restrictive responses to trauma 118 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 often unfairly muzzle women. 119 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Esty can't get away with half of what her cousin, Moishe, can. 120 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Moishe is a thief, a liar, an aggressive lout, 121 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 with no consideration for others. 122 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Yet, his behavior seems rooted In self-loathing. 123 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 His moral decay, his own trauma, 124 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is catching up with him, 125 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 as he realizes, he has neither 126 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the commitment of one community, 127 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 nor the tools of another. 128 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Moishe cackles laughing.] 129 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Narrator] Meanwhile, Yanky, 130 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 a saint next to Moishe, 131 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ends up meting out trauma, 132 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 through his childishly ignorant commitment 133 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to maintaining his community, 134 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 by any means available. 135 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In Brooklyn, we see how trauma, 136 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 sadly, sometimes begets more trauma. 137 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 As Esty's mom puts it: 138 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Leah] So much damage done in Brooklyn, 139 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in the name of God. 140 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 All the rules, all the gossip. 141 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 No wonder Esty can't stand it. 142 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Narrator] Berlin, meanwhile, 143 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 has a very different way of dealing with trauma. 144 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Classical music.] 145 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Unorthodox" presents 146 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Adolf Hitler's former stronghold 147 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 as a liberal, diverse idyll, 148 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 where people, especially the young, can do 149 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 what they want, when they want, with whom they want. 150 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Once the epicenter of suffering, 151 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Berlin counters its past trauma 152 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 by celebrating joy, 153 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and reclaiming some of its character 154 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that the Nazis tried to extinguish. 155 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This is the city 156 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that once saw the Golden 1920s of the Weimar Republic, 157 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 when Marlene Dietrich rose to fame, 158 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 cabaret was popular entertainment, 159 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and the Bauhaus art movement was founded. 160 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This social liberalism comes across in public displays 161 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of affection, that the naive and modest Esty is struck by. 162 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 She is used to a traumatic sex life, 163 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that only ever happened in private, 164 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 yet was discussed so publicly. 165 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In Berlin, the opposite is true. 166 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This is because pleasure, rather than procreation, 167 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is the goal. 168 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Esty begins to realize 169 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that the world is not as black and white 170 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 as she has been taught. 171 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Man] You could try to rescue Robert's attempt at a salad. 172 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [Narrator] The city's physical spaces 173 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 are examples of how traumatic sites can be reclaimed. 174 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 On Esty's first excursion with her new friends, 175 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 she ventures upon what is, 176 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to her community back in Brooklyn, 177 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 hell.