Oprah Winfrey Interviews Hasidic Women and Discusses America's Hidden Culture

My Final Idea

It's time again, another blog post due.  Actually, this post was due last week but I was on Freshman Retreat so I'm a little behind. 

Anyway, I have settled on my idea to do explore Ultra-Orthodox Judaism.  When I searched Amazon for any books involving a woman's role in the Hasidic communities, I was glad to see that I had in fact read two of the books that they offered (Unorthodox and Hush - both great reads).  There were other books on the list that intrigued me and I am excited to read those soon and add them to my Hasidic Literature repertoire.  

And, as any seventeen year old would do, I searched YouTube for any possible research.  I was delighted to find a fascinating Oprah segment where Oprah visits and speaks to four Hasidic women.  (I will try to add the video to this blog) The network called it by the name of "America's Hidden Culture," for the lack of knowledge people have as we are outsiders of the Ultra-Orthodox communities.  In the interview, the women said that they were "not the basement, but the foundation of the home." At points in the interview it seemed that the women were over-romanticizing their roles, but that's just my opinion.  I need to do more research in order to really know. 

My mom also told me that A Stranger Among Us is a great movie involving Hasidim. Though it doesn't focus on the women's role, I could still get the gist and the dynamics of a Hasidic community. My mom said it was a great movie and wants to watch it with me, and who doesn't love some quality mother-daughter bonding time? 

Does this work?

I have always been interested in different religions, particularly the radicals of each religion, and often found myself searching YouTube and Google to find out more information.  Last year, I learned about the story of Deborah Feldman, and realized that I could not look at the other religions until I really knew about my own. Deborah Feldman is a young woman who left her Satmar roots in hopes of a better life in the "real" world.  I read her tell-all account, Unorthodox, and was surprised to learn so much about my own people.  This Satmar Judaism, though founded on the same basis as my own Modern Orthodoxy, seemed foreign to me. I would love to learn more of the difference in roles of women in the different sects of Judaism and young women see the way a young woman of my age would view the world after living for 17 years in an Ultra-Orthodox home in contrast to my living in a Modern-Orthodox home. 

I am not sure if this idea is too narrow in its scope and am concerned that I would not be able to have a "tangible" project to go alongside my research and research paper. Help!