Julia Haart, who left the Haredi lifestyle for one of glamour and high fashion and is now featured in the Netflix series My Unorthodox Life, is the it-woman of the moment, but there are plenty of critics who disapprove of how she portrays ultra-Orthodox Jewish life.
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Allison Josephs, the founder of the group Jew in the City, whose goal is to break down stigmas about Judaism in general and Haredi society in particular, recently expressed her anger at Haart in an interview to TMZ.
Josephs argued that the story presented in the Netflix series is not Haart's true-life story, but rather an adaptation. Josephs also said that Haart made generalizations about Haredi society, casting it as fundamentalist and extremist – all at a time when antisemitic crimes were hitting a new peak.
According to Josephs, Haart's characterization of her former society is "destructive and dangerous." Josephs claimed that while she believed that Haart had indeed undergone experiences that had left her in pain, what is portrayed in the series "My Unorthodox Life" is "not what she experienced" as a member of a Hassidic community.
"It's not authentic," Josephs told TMZ.
Haart, 50, was born in Russia and moved to the US with her family when she was three. The family eventually relocated to Monsey, New York, home to a large Haredi community. She married at age 19 and had four children, but always felt suffocated. She later said in interviews that she even considered suicide.
At age 42, Haart decided to leave the Haredi way of life. She went on to launch a luxury shoe line, despite having no formal training in design. A few years later, she had worked her way up to creative director of the Italian luxury lingerie and swimwear brand La Perla.
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