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At some point last year, this Israeli television show called Srugim started making its way through the Orthodox crowd here in NY. There were screenings, people were downloading, etc., but I didn't pay much attention because the show is in Hebrew (no English subtitles) and my Hebrew was...well, let's just "abysmal" wouldn't be an exaggeration. I knew that the show was about the religious singles scene in the Katamon section of Jerusalem, but that was pretty much it. Over the last year though, I've been taking an online Hebrew class to try to improve my Hebrew and I've been shocked to find it actually getting better. Whatever mental block I had as a kid that prevented me from getting it during my years of schooling seems to have broken down. Not that I'm fluent -- faaaaar from it -- but there's no question that I get a lot more than I used to and also that I've gotten *much* better at recognizing the patterns and styles of words so that even when I don't know it I can tell if it's a noun or verb or passive or active, etc.
For a lark I decided to get my hands on a copy of the first season to see if I could understand any of it. To my shock and delight, the show does have subtitles -- Hebrew ones. As it turns out, I would not be able to understand the show at all by just watching it as Israelis make me look like a slow-talker and also swallow half their words, but with the subtitles I'm able to pause it, read them, see what I know, look up the rest (and add them to my list of words to learn) and continue. This means that it takes roughly two hours to watch a 1/2 hour show, but I've been able to enjoy it anyway.
A lot. Because here's the thing -- I have watched a lot of TV over the years and seen many movies. I have related to characters and situations because there are certain universal experiences that all humans go through. But the truth is that I've never before seen anything even remotely resembling my life depicted in any medium. All these HS shows I've loved...I didn't exactly have jocks and cheerleaders in my all-girls yeshiva, you know? And even "Jewish" life as portrayed on TV never looked like mine. Either it's Chassidim living in the dark because people think they don't use electricity or secular Jews who eat roast pork at the Seder. Occasionally there is a regular Orthodox Jew on Law & Order or something who wears a big white skullcap and pronounces things wrong. And that was always ok, you know? I didn't particularly feel the *need* to see my life on TV. In fact, I thought it was probably better for us regular, non Chassidish, Orthodox Jews to keep flying under the radar.
But Srugim is a show produced and directed by Orthodox Jews. Granted, they are quite modern, and the actors aren't religious, but the lifestyle they're portraying is mine and everything is totally accurate. It's cool, but it's almost *eerie.* Granted, it's not exactly like my life. I obviously don't live in Israel or speak Hebrew, and I don't live in a singles community (I suspect if I lived on the Upper West Side I'd be even more freaked out by this show.) But the little things are there. For instance, the most "holy crap" moment to me in the whole series so far was in the pilot. The episode ends on a Friday night, and the main male characters are back in their apartment, having eaten Shabbos (Shabbat, to Israelis) dinner elsewhere. The lights in their apartment are off, either because they were set to go off already, or because they didn't leave them on since they were going away for the meal. The camera pans around their dark apartment and comes to rest on one of them, sitting on the floor by the bathroom and reading the newspaper by the light from the open bathroom door. Duuude! What observant Jew hasn't done that! We've all done that! Where we're either really into a good book or just aren't tired yet but all the lights in the house are already off and the only light left is in the bathroom. When I was 12 or 13 I actually got so wrapped up in a book that I brought my blanket and pillow in there to read more comfortably and my mother found me sleeping on the floor the next morning. That they would include a detail like that was just incredible. And that's not even getting into the portrayal of the singles scene which is so accurate a lot of people who've experienced the real thing find it too damn painful to watch.
I wish, so badly, that I could show the show to all of you so you could at least see an accurate portrayal of Modern Orthodox life, but obviously that's not possible as the show is in Hebrew. There are apparently DVDs with English subtitles, but it's not clear whether they're even playable on American players. (Also, they're not cheap as they'd have to be ordered from Israel.) For some reason I actually have started writing a recap of the first episode but I'm not sure there'd be any point in posting them as I doubt they'd be at all interesting without also seeing the show and the actors.
For a lark I decided to get my hands on a copy of the first season to see if I could understand any of it. To my shock and delight, the show does have subtitles -- Hebrew ones. As it turns out, I would not be able to understand the show at all by just watching it as Israelis make me look like a slow-talker and also swallow half their words, but with the subtitles I'm able to pause it, read them, see what I know, look up the rest (and add them to my list of words to learn) and continue. This means that it takes roughly two hours to watch a 1/2 hour show, but I've been able to enjoy it anyway.
A lot. Because here's the thing -- I have watched a lot of TV over the years and seen many movies. I have related to characters and situations because there are certain universal experiences that all humans go through. But the truth is that I've never before seen anything even remotely resembling my life depicted in any medium. All these HS shows I've loved...I didn't exactly have jocks and cheerleaders in my all-girls yeshiva, you know? And even "Jewish" life as portrayed on TV never looked like mine. Either it's Chassidim living in the dark because people think they don't use electricity or secular Jews who eat roast pork at the Seder. Occasionally there is a regular Orthodox Jew on Law & Order or something who wears a big white skullcap and pronounces things wrong. And that was always ok, you know? I didn't particularly feel the *need* to see my life on TV. In fact, I thought it was probably better for us regular, non Chassidish, Orthodox Jews to keep flying under the radar.
But Srugim is a show produced and directed by Orthodox Jews. Granted, they are quite modern, and the actors aren't religious, but the lifestyle they're portraying is mine and everything is totally accurate. It's cool, but it's almost *eerie.* Granted, it's not exactly like my life. I obviously don't live in Israel or speak Hebrew, and I don't live in a singles community (I suspect if I lived on the Upper West Side I'd be even more freaked out by this show.) But the little things are there. For instance, the most "holy crap" moment to me in the whole series so far was in the pilot. The episode ends on a Friday night, and the main male characters are back in their apartment, having eaten Shabbos (Shabbat, to Israelis) dinner elsewhere. The lights in their apartment are off, either because they were set to go off already, or because they didn't leave them on since they were going away for the meal. The camera pans around their dark apartment and comes to rest on one of them, sitting on the floor by the bathroom and reading the newspaper by the light from the open bathroom door. Duuude! What observant Jew hasn't done that! We've all done that! Where we're either really into a good book or just aren't tired yet but all the lights in the house are already off and the only light left is in the bathroom. When I was 12 or 13 I actually got so wrapped up in a book that I brought my blanket and pillow in there to read more comfortably and my mother found me sleeping on the floor the next morning. That they would include a detail like that was just incredible. And that's not even getting into the portrayal of the singles scene which is so accurate a lot of people who've experienced the real thing find it too damn painful to watch.
I wish, so badly, that I could show the show to all of you so you could at least see an accurate portrayal of Modern Orthodox life, but obviously that's not possible as the show is in Hebrew. There are apparently DVDs with English subtitles, but it's not clear whether they're even playable on American players. (Also, they're not cheap as they'd have to be ordered from Israel.) For some reason I actually have started writing a recap of the first episode but I'm not sure there'd be any point in posting them as I doubt they'd be at all interesting without also seeing the show and the actors.
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