Deborah Feldman Biography | Wiki

Deborah Feldman is a popular American-born German writer residing in Berlin whose 2012 autobiography, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots, features the story of her escape from an ultra-Orthodox community in Brooklyn, New York, and became the basis of the 2020 Netflix miniseries Unorthodox.

She started blogging, and in 2012, Deborah published her autobiography, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots, which became a bestseller and was interpreted into Hebrew in 2013. In 2014, Deborah published Exodus: A Memoir. Deborah’s books have been translated into German and well received by German critics, which led to her appearing on many talk shows on German TV.

In 2014, Deborah moved to Berlin, settling in the Neukölln district, where she proceeded to work as a writer. Deborah’s first visit to the city had been deeply unsettling, given her family history and Berlin’s Nazi past. But on Deborah’s second visit, the city impressed her with its openness, its welcoming of refugees, and its several bookstores. Following her first summer living there, Deborah called the city her “secret paradise”, and she resolved to stay. Later, Deborah quickly adapted to talking and writing in German, due to its similarity with Yiddish.

Deborah Feldman Age

Deborah was born on August 17, 1986, in New York City, in the United States. She is 37 years old. Deborah celebrates her birthday on August 17, every year.

Deborah Feldman Height

She is a woman of average stature. Deborah stands at a height of 5 ft 6 in ( Approx. 1.65m ).

Deborah Feldman Family

She was born in New York City and was raised as a member of the Hasidic Satmar group in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City. Deborah has written that her dad was mentally impaired and that her paternal family had arranged a marriage for him to her mother Shoshana Rachel Levy, whom Deborah described as an intelligent woman who was an outsider to the community because she was of German Jewish origin. Deborah’s mother was born in Manchester to refugees from Germany, and after researching her mother’s family, she discovered that one of her mother’s grandfathers was of non-Jewish (Catholic) German ancestry on his father’s side and had tried to integrate fully into Gentile society.

She was brought up by her grandparents, both Holocaust survivors, following her mother leaving the community and coming out as lesbian, and her mentally impaired dad was unable to raise her on his own. Like all kids in the community, Deborah was raised to be pious, spoke Yiddish, and was prohibited from going to the public library. Denied a typical American education, Deborah hid books prohibited by the community under her bed. Her maternal great-grandfather, Gustav (Naftali) Spielman, came to Manchester from Bavaria in 1938.

Deborah Feldman Mother

Her mother Shoshana Rachel Levy was born in Manchester. Deborah described her mom as an intelligent woman who was an outsider to the community because she was of German Jewish origin. Her mother left the community and came out as a lesbian.

Deborah Feldman Grandmother

Deborah was brought up by her grandmother after her own mother left a miserable marriage to a mentally ill man. She is delved into her paternal grandmother’s eastern European roots. She found her grandmother distant and perplexing, which left her restless and anxious for something more. Despite the fact that her maternal Holocaust survivor grandmother Pearl did her best in bringing her up, the mother-deprived girl felt discriminated against by her large Satmar family, who treated her strictly because she was the only one of the clan not residing with her parents.

Deborah Feldman Husband | Ehemann Esposo | Partner

She now lives in Berlin with her German boyfriend, who is not Jewish. Deborah got into an arranged marriage at the age of 17 and became a mother at 19. She was married to her ex-husband Joel Feldman. These days Deborah lives in Berlin with her son Yitzi, who is now 14.

Deborah Feldman Boyfriend | Husband Now

Deborah is now in a relationship with her German boyfriend whose name is not disclosed. Her boyfriend is not Jewish. The two live in Berlin.

Deborah Feldman Ex Husband

Deborah was married to her ex-husband Joel Feldman. The two met when she was 17 years old through a match-maker, saw him twice prior to her wedding, and married him seven months later. Deborah’s ex-husband has since remarried and has two children.

Deborah Feldman Wedding

At only 17, she was unprepared for her arranged marriage to her orthodox Jewish husband Eli, a man Deborah had only met for 30 minutes.

Deborah Feldman Son | Son 2020

She has a son named Yitzi who makes regular visits to the US to see his father, who left the Satmar community many years after Deborah did, a part of the story that did not make it into the hugely successful TV adaptation of her memoir.

Deborah Feldman Education

She studied literature at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville.

Unorthodox Deborah Feldman | Book | Memoir | Unorthodox Book | Unorthodox Amazon | Buch

In 2012, Deborah published her memoir titled Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots in which she narrates her ultra-religious Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York. The book is loosely based on The Netflix miniseries Unorthodox. The New York Jewish Week also announced that the book “spurred a cottage industry devoted to dispelling its inaccuracies”. Deborah’s move away from the community began with going to the library and hiding books written in English.

Deborah Feldman 2021

In 2021, Deborah disclosed that she had a ‘great relationship’ with her ex-husband – a decade following she escaped their strict Jewish community in New York for Berlin.

Deborah Feldman Books | Memoirs Of | Amazon

– Exodus, Revisited: My Unorthodox Journey to Berlin (2021)
– Exodus: A Memoir (2014)
– Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots (2012)
– Exodus (2021)

Deborah Feldman Exodus | Exodus Deutsch | Exodus A Memoir

On March 25, 2014, Deborah published her book titled Exodus: A Memoir. This book is a deeply moving exploration of the mysterious bonds that tie us to family and religion, the bonds people must sometimes break to find their true selves.

Deborah Feldman Husband Joel Feldman

She met her ex-husband Joel Feldman when she was 17 years old through a match-maker, saw him twice prior to her wedding, and married him seven months later. Deborah was such a stranger that she didn’t remember his face until they met again at the hupah on her wedding night. Over the seven interim months, Deborah was trained to be a dutiful wife, learned the traditions required of Satmar women, and was taught that sex was a necessary religious duty to produce kids and rebuild a devastated community.

Deborah Feldman Film | Unorthodox Film

The drama television miniseries Unorthodox premiered on Netflix on March 26, 2020. Its first Netflix series to be primarily in Yiddish, it became also inspired by Deborah’s 2012 autobiography, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots. Unorthodox received eight Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Limited Series.

Deborah Feldman Interview

During a 2017 interview with the Dutch-born writer Arnon Grunberg said she grew up in the extremist and reactionary Satmar Hasidic sect in Williamsburg, New York. Deborah discussed without restraint her disturbed childhood, her beloved Grandmother “Bubbie,” a survivor of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen who took care of her and saved her from a mentally ill dad and a mother who abandoned her, and her failed arranged marriage.

Deborah Feldman Historia

She was born into the Satmar community in Brooklyn where the primary language is Yiddish. The community maintained a code of customs governing everything from what one wears, what is read, as well as to whom one generally speaks. Deborah’s move away from the community began with going to the library and hiding books written in English. At 17, Deborah was married. She said she did not have sex education, claimed she was trapped in a sexually and emotionally dysfunctional marriage, and the failure to produce a kid dominated her life. Following becoming pregnant, Deborah realized she wanted something more for her child and planned to leave the community.

Deborah Feldman Net Worth

Deborah gets her wealth from her work as a writer whose 2012 autobiography, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots, features the story of her escape from an ultra-Orthodox community in Brooklyn, New York. Therefore, Deborah has accumulated a decent fortune over the years. Deborah’s net worth is $5 million.

How Old Is Deborah Feldman

Deborah is a 37-year-old who was born on August 17, 1986, in New York City, in the United States. Deborah celebrates her birthday on August 17, every year.

Did Deborah Feldman Get The Scholarship

In 2012, Deborah claimed to have received a scholarship to study at Sarah Lawrence. Deborah said she was admitted without having a high school diploma or a transcript.

Did Deborah Feldman Remarry

Deborah lives in Berlin with her German boyfriend, who is not Jewish.

Deborah Feldman Social Media Account

Instagram – deborah_feldman