More Evidence Deborah Feldman Lied

Deborah Feldman, the author of the memoir "Unorthodox," makes it seem as if she attended strict Satmar schools her entire life before going to Sarah Lawrence College. Here is proof she attended a much less strict haredi school first. Along with that, I've included evidence that she may have been happier at home and in school than she wrote in her book.

 

"I go to Satmar school now. Chaya [her aunt Shaindy, principal of Bais Rochel d'Satmar] decided which class to put me in; she is the principal of the elementary division. The other students were initially jealous of me, assuming I had unlimited grace, but the truth is, it's another opportunity for Chaya to keep tabs on me and report back to my grandparents. She says she put me in the smart class, so that I would feel challenged. There are twelve sixth-grade classes...."

Feldman makes no mention of having switched schools, and the reader's impression is that she's simply starting to tell her story here, not that she attended elsewhere previously. But that is false, as you can see here:

Tuition bill made out to both parents from a Satmar school in 1997, 6th grade:

Letter-poem written by Feldman to her Aunt Shaindy, called "Chaya" in "Unorthodox," for Hanukkah in one of Feldman's later high school years:

Closeup of Feldman's signature:

The text in black and white:

Comments

[netflix]

calm down Shmarya. smiling for a picture means nothing, i thought we got past this already yesterday.

[Anon]

Shmarya, you are overdoing it.

No one gives a rats ass.

We don't care if she said in the book she used one piece of toilet paper and it's really two.

[Bruria the Talmudist]

Shmarya,
What do you want from her??? How do you know if she was happy or not? Stop acting like a Bolevan and take liberties with her. I don't know her at all BUT your attacks are very offensive to me. Get over her and move on!!!

[Nicole]

I believe that saying "I go to Satmar school now" clearly implies that she did NOT go to Satmar school before. I think there are many who can't understand or simply chose not to see that.

[SkepticalYid]

Although she doesn't discuss Bais Yaakov, Feldman makes it reasonably clear in the book that she entered Satmar school in middle school/junior high school.

You didn't even read the book, Shmarya, did you?

Is this your next Rubashkin? You're covering her about as much.

Chill out, dude.

[Devil in the Details]

Some people may think this is trivial, but Deborah Feldman should not get away with writing her fake memoir. She is entitled to her opinion and feelings, but facts are facts, and Deborah willfully gets her facts wrong throughout the book. She, and her cohorts at Simon & Shuster, are guilty of committing a literary fraud, and if it takes Shmarya a whole year to unearth and chronicle all the lies, big and small, in this memoir, I, for one, will be very grateful for his perseverance.

[B.Reader]

One can hardly claim to have grown up in Satmar--as she does--having gone to these schools. With a mother and other family members who are not Satmar and only 6 years in the Satmar girls' school, she ain't the real deal.

[Mike]

I do think this is slightly overdoing it, but none of the Satmar apollogists can accuse Shmarya of one-sided reporting.

If this was some Haredi guy writing about the horrors of the secular world I'm sure everyone would relish in it. But the fact is that books with false evidence can seriously damage the reputation of people who know the things they have to endure in Satmar-land. I doubt Shmarya is doing this because he has a vendetta against Feldman.

It just happens to be that so much garbage goes on the ultra-orthodox world that the truth can't afford to be distorted.

[thelion]

simon and schuster needs to apologize for publishing her lies

shmaya is right in persuing this

[David]

It just happens to be that so much garbage goes on the ultra-orthodox world that the truth can't afford to be distorted.

Posted by: Mike | March 02, 2012 at 04:18 PM

Good point.

Unfortunately I think Feldman comes from a Charedi cultural mindset whereby lieing, cheating and fraud toward the outside world is considered acceptable, indeed, a way of life.

[abandoningeden]

"I go to Satmar school now. Chaya [her aunt Shaindy, principal of Bais Rochel d'Satmar] decided which class to put me in; she is the principal of the elementary division. The other students were initially jealous of me,"

it seems pretty clear to me from this statement that she transferred to a new school where the students didn't know her already.

[Shmarya]

Although she doesn't discuss Bais Yaakov, Feldman makes it reasonably clear in the book that she entered Satmar school in middle school/junior high school.

You didn't even read the book, Shmarya, did you?

Is this your next Rubashkin? You're covering her about as much.

Chill out, dude.

Posted by: SkepticalYid | March 02, 2012 at 04:11 PM

Um, "dude," she says she grew up in a very restrictive environment – but this school and her other pre-Satmar school are very much less restrictive than Satmar.

The problem, "dude," is that the truth did not allow her to tell her tale in a way that she could get published – so she lied, wrote fiction, and sold that fiction as fact.

The really sad thing is that you and so many other people with haredi backgrounds but who are now no longer haredi don't care. Just kick my enemy and you're my friend, right? Sick.

[abandoningeden]

even if they were less restrictive than satmer doesn't mean that it ISN'T "Very restrictive" by any reasonable sense of the word.

did you see her response to some of the things you've been posting about? http://deborahfeldman.tumblr.com/

[maven]

Shmarya, face it, she beat you to it. Your memoirs on leaving a closed Hassidic community will always be the second book after hers. Let it go.

[Shmarya]

Shmarya,
What do you want from her??? How do you know if she was happy or not? Stop acting like a Bolevan and take liberties with her. I don't know her at all BUT your attacks are very offensive to me. Get over her and move on!!!

Posted by: Bruria the Talmudist | March 02, 2012 at 04:06 PM

Do you think her book is "very offensive" to the people she lied about?

Do you think they should "get over" it and "move on"?

Oh, that's right! I forgot! The people she lied about are Satmar or haredi or someone you don't know! And therefore, you don't care!

[Oops]

Her response is only digging her in deeper. She was probably forced to "write" that by S&S (doesn't even read like her own writing), who is doing everything possible to protect themselves from legal action. No wonder she isn't speaking to journalists or doing interviews anymore.

[abandoningeden]

did you read the book shmarya? Just curious, as I'm about half way through and the vast majority of the stuff in there is totally an accurate portrayal of the world I knew as a child (not satmer, but just the orthodox jewish world in general) which I think is why some jews (not you of course) are getting apoplectic about it.

The things you are harping on "she wasn't really miserable every second of her childhood" really? If you look hard enough you can find smiling pictures of me all throughout my childhood too, I didn't take pictures of the suicide attempt or when I was cutting myself, I don't have a picture of the months I spent hardly leaving my bed because I was so miserable, so if you saw pictures of me as a kid where I'm smiling is that "proof" I was happy in general as a child or just proof that I can smile for a camera or was happy at that moment.

[Oops]

Frum Jews might be getting upset about this because it is not flattering to them or the frum community. And some things she points out are accurate. However, the public in general does not like to be lied to. Or the non-haredi public, I should say. For the haredi public in general (and there are always exceptions), being lied to (and for many, lying) is a matter of course.

[abandoningeden]

and actually in the book she doesn't seem to talk about having a miserable childhood so much, she seemed like she didn't fit in but not "miserable"?

[Really?]

This blog is going to shit. Shmarya is becoming paranoid and singularly focused on stupidity that most his readers don't care about. This vendetta against this girl is really damaging his credibility.

[Emanuel]

@ Bruria..."Shmarya,
What do you want from her??? "

Pussy perhaps?

Seriously, have you considered going to the same network that interviewed her and expose her as a fraud? Or a competing network that hates Barbara Walters?

[Emanuel]

@ Bruria..."Shmarya,
What do you want from her???"

Pussy perhaps?

Seriously now, have you considered exposing her as a fraud on the same network she has been peddling her book? How about at a competing station that hates Barbara Walters?

Fox 4 News Dallas will definitely take you on it, they love this kind of controversy.

[celebritiesdiminish-intellect]

piers morgan interviewsBORRINGGG. barbara walters/ Feldman just as BORRINGGGG.from the son in law of reb sholom rubashkin,goings on to agri goings on etc etc, australian relgious jewish paedophlies, and now onto this silly little family who let their PRECIOUS little girl get married at 17, like so many other chasids who inaddition beleive in close cousin marriages and other medeavil family traditions, some how the essense of this site seems DIMINISHED,.Time to refocus and get back on track, where normally failed messiah is far ahead of the pack[of the piers morgans and his ilk].

[SkepticalYid]

Shmarya: this has nothing to do with a haredi background. It is not in any sense an enemy/friend issue. Don't psychoanalyze people online. You're not qualified ;-)

Rather, it's a matter of your verification of the allegations you print. It's decidedly unusual for you to take a stance advocating Haredi accusations without doing deep research to verify them.

You haven't read the book, have you? You still avoid responding to that query.

[Anon]

I read the book over Shabbat.

Having read the book, I'm shocked at Shmarya's treatment of her story.

She's got all the things Shmarya loves:

sexually abused by a cousin, Satmar covering up for a pedophile, the entire Satmar education farce and more...

more like a woman getting married not knowing she had a vagina... a Satmar guy who knew so little about the female body that he had anal sex thinking it was correct, inability to have sex for a year....

Shmarya, for heavens sake, what do you want from this woman.

So everything isn't 100% date-time accurate? So what.

Shmarya, did you read the statement about time and events at the beginning of the book?

The book is an excellent book and you should try to read it.

It's a sad story and I think it shows what's really inside the hearts and minds of Satmar women today.

The criticisms are silly. The book is worth reading.

[FMreader]

The book is poorly written and terribly edited with some good insights. My guess is the author cobbled together stories she had heard from others, some experiences from her own life and her own fantasies to produce this rather pedestrian work, which would account for its myriad inconsistencies. There are so many much more talented folks who have left the frum community and whose stories are compelling enough, without any lies.

[Hal]

Oh my goodness, give it a rest. This is like hanging a college student for attempting to overthrow the government after he wrote a term paper criticizing the mayor of Little Rock for his policy on parking meters.

[Max]

Shmarya,

Obviously you're subjecting her book to so so much scrutiny because it's deserved. But, hypothetically, if there were some other incentive for you to do so, what would it be? If you were forced to come up with some crazy alternative hypothesis.

[Big Mouth]

wo! This is her year's in Adas Yereym; Veen in Williamsburg. We didnt get yet to her years in the Lower East Side, after Adas Yeraim, before Satmar. Both are schools she does not mention for a reason: It undermines the story line of "restrictive" Satmar.

[Big Mouth]

Dude, the bill you are showing is too small for the eye to see. Please enlarge and explain what that is all about.

[Reuvan Nuchem]

Thank you for reporting these articles. I love to hear how the leper lies!

[מרדכי סטמר]

Do you think her book is "very offensive" to the people she lied about?

Do you think they should "get over" it and "move on"? Oh,

that's right! I forgot! The people she lied about are Satmar or haredi or someone you don't know! And therefore, you don't care!

Posted by: Shmarya | March 02, 2012 at 04:44 PM
-------
Shmaryah

Your attitude of
I will burn down the "barn" and hold on to the "cow" isn't any better!

[Proud to be foul mouthed?]

Can someone give stats on

1-what the current percentage of OTD folks are from Hasidic community, and

2-what the current percentage of OTD folks are from Modern Orthodox communities?

Can someone please clarify why the OTD crowd, who grew up Hasidic, too end up foul mouthed, and somewhat unbalanced mentally and socially, and totally ridding themselves of any religious practices, instead of becoming Modern Orthodox, where there are way less foul mouthed dissastisfied and eager to leave individuals?

What makes being around foul mouthed individuals attractive to ex-Hasids?

[Proud to be foul mouthed?]

correction (the word often omitted):

Can someone please clarify why the OTD crowd, who grew up Hasidic, too often end up foul mouthed....

[SkepticalYid]

She wrote a very eloquent and detailed defense of her statements. I posted excerpts of it here. Apparently Shmarya decided to delete it.
Among other points, she states that the chronology in the book starts when she's 11; not at a younger age as Shmarya and others contend. She also states that she started to live with her grandparents at a fairly young age. Her parents had separated but not yet divorced.

[Shmarya]

Posted by: SkepticalYid | March 03, 2012 at 09:12 PM

You're such a fool.

1. I didn't delete your comment.

2. Feldman lied in the book and she lied on her blog and she lied in interviews promoting the book. And she lied before all that on Haisid-Femenist.

3. Her "eloquent" defense is only eloquent if you forget all of those lies that surround the book.

4. Do you care that she lies about her husband? Do you care that she lied about her falily? Do you care that she lied about friends? Do you care that she made up stories and used them to get a book deal? Of course you don't. The lies don't matter to you. And that means all of your supposedly principled opposition to haredi and Satmar is all BS. You hate tham and you want to express hate, and you don't care whether that is done by telling the truth or by lying.

[Anon]

Shmarya, please answer the question that has been asked before, "Have you personally read the book?"

[Shmarya]

Shmarya, please answer the question that has been asked before, "Have you personally read the book?"

Posted by: Anon | March 03, 2012 at 10:17 PM

Please pull your head out of your ass.

I have the book. Feldman lies in the book repeatedly.

And nothing you have written changes that FACT.

[Anon]

Please pull your head out of your ass.

I have the book. Feldman lies in the book repeatedly.

And nothing you have written changes that FACT.

How is it that you always resort to vulgarity.

I didn't ask you if you HAD the book, I asked you if you READ the book.

By your answer, I'll take it that the answer is no.

Notice an entire post without vulgarity.

What made you resort to using it?

[Shmarya]

What made you resort to using it?

Posted by: Anon | March 03, 2012 at 10:30 PM

I deal with idiots poorly.

[Big Mouth]

Skeptical Yid, she starts her story at age eleven beacuase it fits her BS book. It is not by mistake.

The parent were spertaed for many years; starting when DF was 15-16. She spins her way around this issues in her recent post 'explaining' her lies.

[Critical minyan]

I know her, but I'm not her friend. The book was written for a general audience, not ultra-orthodox readers. The criticisms shmarya points out may be factual or chronological errors, but don't take away from the overall veracity of the book. They could easily the editors choices, not the authors. The publisher still supports her. She will get a second book Deal if she doesn't have one already.
If she is smart she will thank shmarya for the extra publicity.

[Mike]

@David:

I agree. The Haredim themselves are not the problem. If the children of the next several generations were educated to be tolerant and open-minded, they could turn out great. The Haredi mindset is what causes all the misery. Which is why lying about their actual mindset while creating something that belongs on an over-glorified Dr.Phil episode only helps people understand the problem less.

Read something like Hush. I haven't read it myself but I hear it's a very moving and accuratememoir of life in one of these communities. By defending what is turning out to be a blatant falsehood makes one guilty of the same corrupt mindset that pervades these communities.

[Shtam a guy]

Here goes all the cesspool talkers doing there usual what a sham group u guys and gals are - a total loser group.

Shmarya at least to his credit, and he has been mentioned in the press a few times did the smart thing here.

Unlike many other issues that I disagree with him on - at least he has the balls to lay it out down pat and call this sick gal a spade. And do it intelligently at that.

Something many of you here have no clue what that is about.

She played it wrong and smeared many - I agree it is a rather good move to call the bullshit and point out what a scam that stupid effort of a book really is about.

[Rochelle]

Hasidic or not, Satmar or not Satmar, Feldman is lying throughout. Her grandfather hardly, if EVER steps foot into Satmar synagogues. The only reason she wound up on Satmar school, is because she got herself kicked out of every other school she previously attended!!
Because she lied, misbehaved and defied authority and rules. Get the facts, the girl is a sham. Read page 23, her first confession to how she's mastered the art of lying.

[Bruria the Talmudist]

"Do you think her book is "very offensive" to the people she lied about?Do you think they should "get over" it and "move on"?"

Shmarya, Shavua Tov,
You ask me what I think? Here is my answer: I think that if she lied, they can sue her for defamation of character and collect lots of money off her book sales.

My question to you, respectfully, is:
Why are you personally going after her??? Reporting truth...You crossed that line a long tome ago. LET IT GO! Or kindly disclose WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM HER? This is not journalism.

[Shmarya]

You ask me what I think? Here is my answer: I think that if she lied, they can sue her for defamation of character and collect lots of money off her book sales.

My question to you, respectfully, is:
Why are you personally going after her??? Reporting truth...You crossed that line a long tome ago. LET IT GO! Or kindly disclose WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM HER? This is not journalism.

Posted by: Bruria the Talmudist | March 04, 2012 at 04:18 AM

Please.

If she lied, they can sue – so therefore I should keep quiet about her lies?

Another product of haredi education speaks.

Idiot.

[Oops]

Does anyone else find it hilarious that Feldman says she has received death threats from her family for writing this book? As far as I understand it, her mother supports her, her father barely grasps that she wrote the book, her elderly grandparents are similarly out of the loop, her uncle posted an albeit nutty but hardly life-threatening letter to her online and her husband who, by all accounts is a wonderful person and father (the real collateral damage here), wants nothing to do with any of this.

[Rebitzman]

Shmarya - you do realize that all you are doing with this attention is selling books for the woman?

[וואס איז דער מער]

I know what can force Shmarya to stop his criticism of Devorah feldman. Imagine she writes another book besmirching Chabad, Shmarya would be her best admirer.

[fatherof6]

its obvvious shmoe is trying to cover his ass.its all back firing,b/c he started up with the REBBE

[Proud to be foul mouthed?]

Oops: Love it! +10

"Does anyone else find it hilarious that Feldman says she has received death threats from her family for writing this book? As far as I understand it, her mother supports her, her father barely grasps that she wrote the book, her elderly grandparents are similarly out of the loop, her uncle posted an albeit nutty but hardly life-threatening letter to her online and her husband who, by all accounts is a wonderful person and father (the real collateral damage here), wants nothing to do with any of this."

[huhuggi]

Ah...but you forgot to check the Achronim on this. There is a wonderful geshamker Bircas Shmuel that farenfers all this shverikeit.

[Bruria the Talmudist]

Now , now Sh'marya!
You are jumping into conclusion Re: me, as well!!! What's happening,dear friend?

For your info:
I am NOT
- an idiot
- nor a product of Charedi schooling.

I am:
- well educated professional who happens
to be a Doctor.
- I am one of your regular readers and am
used to be treatment better then that.

Please check what's up with you.

Best wishes and A Freylicher Adar to you and the readers,

[Shtam a guy]

Hey bruria if you a doctor indeed I'd want to stay 1000 feet away from you even if I am well!

Besides your English sucks. So I bet you are practicing medicine with an elementary graduation certificate.

cheers!

[Gefilte Fish]

Hey, Oops,

Did it ever occur to you that she may have a few more relatives than just the six people you mention?

[Oops]

Obviously she has more relatives than the ones I mention, but so much with this woman seems to be overdramatized that it is hard to take her seriously.

[Bruria the Talmudist]

No need to be mean. As far as staying away. Thanks. You are saving me the trouble...

As for me , I would take care of you no matter what or how you say it.

By the way, English is not my mother tongue. It may not be good enough for you. BUT luckily it was good enough to pass my exams and get my license.

Anyway, stop picking on me. I am not the issue. Patronizing, taking liberties and showing disrespect to women is not right!

[Abracadabra: World Famous Mekubal, Gadol, Baal Moifes & Lamed Vavnik. Brachos Only $36, 3 for $100.]

I have to admit, I would have completely forgotten about this book and the author, just as I forgot about the books "Unchosen" or "Hush", neither of which I bought or read because my reading piles are so high.

But due to all this publicity and scandal, I just bought "Unorthodox". I don't know if I'll read it any time soon, as it's not up there on my book list. But reading all these articles on the lies and everything, I want to know what she wrote in the book so that I'm "in the know".

But my reading pile is way too high. What a shame it would be to put this on top. I would like a computer program that they could plug into your brain - like the one they had in "The Matrix" (the first movie) where they "downloaded" information into a person's brain - like the training manual on how to pilot a helicopter, speak a foreign language, etc. Too bad that's science fiction. It would be nice.

I really don't know yet what I think about all this. Maybe I'll have to read the book first and then decide.

I don't think lying is acceptable, but I do think a few percentage points of lying is inevitible in any memoir.

At the same time, I think that THERE IS SO MUCH WRONG with the Satmar, Chassidish, Yeshivish, and Chareidi communities which needs to be publicized and changed, that it would be a shame to have someone who DID publicize some of it be proven to be a serial liar. That hurts the truth.

Shmarya has always been publicizing lies and distortions. He is doing the same here.

I'm still undecided if the few lies are within the bounds of insignificant, which one can expect from any memoir, or if they are beginning to accumulate to show overwhelming significance, both in severity of the lies and in their quantity.

The jury is still out in my mind. Maybe I'll read the book when I get it in the mail.

I would never have bought the book without the controversy.

It's like the Slifkin Controversy - how many people would have even known that he wrote books if not for the rabbis having banned them and put them into cherem?! I only owned one of his books when the ban was issued. After the ban I went out and bought all the rest! (I wanted to know what all the bruhahah was about.)

[Bruria the Talmudist]

Re; Pearlperry Reich and Deborah Feldman.

The issue at hand is not their personal lives. I don't know them. They get my support and empathy due to the fact that they dare to speak out. It's time for the silenced female population within the Charedi community to have a voice. May be they are "off the Derech" sleeping with anything that moves. I have know idea. What's next, to be burn them in public? The kids were taken away from one of them!
What do you expect her to do??? If it was me I would scream from every roof top. So would any mother.

To me, anyone who tries to make herself a better life and has the guts to do so,,, I say go for it and Hatzlcha to you. Is this right reserved only to R. Sh'muley Jesus Botach??? He is a hundred time worse then them. In the dictionary under the definition of a Media Whore, his picture should be placed. Why the double standard? Would you call him the names or attribute to him the blames these women got?

* My apologies for the harshness, I am just trying to make a point.

[Gefilte Fish]

Obviously she has more relatives than the ones I mention, but so much with this woman seems to be overdramatized that it is hard to take her seriously.

Posted by: Oops | March 04, 2012 at 09:06 PM

Oops, it's hard to take you seriously. Your first comment reeked of over dramatization; thus, you are guilty of exactly what you've accused someone else.

[Anon]

Had she behaved in Beth Jacob of the Lower East Side, and not gotten kicked out, she could have gone the Beth Jacob path all the way and gone to college, as more Beth Jacob girls do today, than not.

Then Satmar takes the reject in, and she mocks them!

Anyone have any class photos of her time at the Beth Jacob of the Lower East Side?

$imon & $chuster did in depth research, obviously, into the info she offered and her omissions (ahem).

All $imon & $chuster has to say is that the book is a personal memoir. (Doesnt neccessarily have to be an accurate picture obviously. Details and facts can be omitted to increase the salaciousness of the book being marketed).

Anything for more dough.

[Mark]

Berurye; I am all the way with your sentiments, and would extend it to men too! The tyranny that is brought down upon male dissenters is in no way less vile.

That said, supporting someone who pays little regard to fact, wilfully misconstrues or fabricates stories, slanders others unduly, not only harms the very cause you are attempting to support, but adds fuel to those who seek to tyrannise, by lending credit to their claims that “we are all bad, vile people”.