[Commlist] CFP: Special Issue- streaming the Ultra-Orthodox Jew: new visibilities in transnational contexts

Please see a CFP for a special issue of /Jewish Film and New Media: An 
International Journal/ 
<https://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/journals/detail/jewish-film-new-media>on 
New visibilities of Ultra-Orthodox Jews on streaming platforms. *//*

Edited by Yael Friedman and Sophia Wood.

One of the evident transformations that were brought about by the rise 
of streaming platforms in the past decade is the sheer volume and 
diversity of television and film content from around the world showcased 
to global mainstream audiences.    Within this landscape, the number of 
TV series and films that portray Jewish communities and themes seem to 
be flourishing, so much so that a recent headline of the popular 
entertainment magazine /Vanity Fair/ proclaimed “When Did TV Get So 
Jewish?”[1].   Indeed, recent productions range from comedies such as 
/The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel/ (Amy Sherman-Palladino, 2017 -) /Crazy 
Ex-Girlfriend/ (Rachel Bloom, 2015-2019) and /The Awakening of Motti 
Wolkenbruch/ (Michael Steiner, 2018), to dramas such as /Transparent/ 
(Jill Soloway,2014-2019) and /Hunters/ (David Weil, 2020), as well as 
titles featuring the Israeli security services including /The Spy/ 
(Gideon Raff, 2019), /Mossad 101/ (Izhar Harlec, Uri Levron and Daniel 
Syrkin, 2015-2018), /The Angle/ (Ariel Vormen, 2018) /Fauda/ (Lior Raz 
and Avi Issascharoff, 2015-2020), /The Red Sea Diving Resort/ (Gideon 
Raff, 2019). These examples seem to share a global appeal that speak to 
different audiences around the world.

While Jewish characters and themes are by no means a novelty on the 
American screen – both on television and in cinemas - this new wave of 
programmes is interesting not only for its global appeal but also as it 
includes a focus on the previously less visible experience of 
Ultra-orthodox Jews. The most prominent examples are the 
Yiddish-speaking Netflix original mini-series /Unorthodox/ (Schrader, 
2020), about the escape of a young Haredi women from the confinements of 
her Brooklyn-based Satmar Hasidic community, and the Israeli drama 
series /Shtisel/ (Ori Elon and Yehonatan Indursky, 2013- 2015)  that 
follows the daily life of a bereaved family in the Ultra-Orthodox area 
of Jerusalem, which was bought by Netflix in 2018, several years after 
it was first aired on Israeli television.

The unexpected global success of both these ‘niche-themed’ series, about 
minority closed religious communities, invites critical attention.[2] 
Their modes of representation and patterns of reception are worthy of 
examination especially at times where discourses of hate and extremism 
appear to be on the rise, including expressions of antisemitism, and 
debates around assimilation and pluralism are rehearsed in familiar and 
mutated ways across Europe and the US.

We invite proposals for papers that would discuss these new 
representations of *Haredi communities* from diverse critical 
perspectives, and within the context of transnationality and transmedia, 
with a focus on screen representations. Topics can include, but are not 
limited to, studies of production contexts; reception, viewership and 
fandom of new Jewish-Orthodox content; comparative textual analysis 
across media; notions of alterity, otherness and exclusion; the rise of 
religiosity and perceptions of fundamentalism; Jewish identity and 
intersectionality.

Abstracts of 350-500 words should be emailed to (yael.friedman /at/ port.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(yael.friedman /at/ port.ac.uk)>and (Sophia.wood /at/ port.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(Sophia.wood /at/ port.ac.uk)>by 30 August 2020.

Notification of acceptance: 30 September 2020. First draft of full 
article: 15 May 2021.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1]Lisa Liebman “When Did Television Get so Jewish?” Vanity Fair, 16 
March 
2020,.<https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/03/plot-against-america-hunters-unorthodox-jewish-tv>https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/03/plot-against-america-hunters-unorthodox-jewish-tv__

(rederived 29.4.2020)

[2] For example, in the week commencing the 6^th of April 2020, 
Unorthodox was rated by Netflix as no. 10 of their Top 10 Watched title 
List in the UK.


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