Although the common usage of words and phrases like lockdown and social distancing are a relatively recent phenomenon, there are many parts of the modern world that don't need the excuse of a pandemic to socially distance themselves from broader society. Unorthodox is a new four-part drama series on Netflix and it's based on the memoir of the same name by Deborah Feldman, who spoke to Ryan Tubridy on Tuesday. Deborah began by outlining the origins of the Hassidic Jewish community in Williamsburg, New York, where she was born:

"The dress is probably one of the reasons people mistakenly think of this community as a kind of romantic remnant of the past, when in actuality the community is new and was formed as a response to the trauma of the Holocaust."

A group of Holocaust survivors congregated around a rabbi from the Hungarian-Romanian border who told them that the reason they had lost everything was that God was "punishing the Jewish people for assimilation and Zionism and for trying to emancipate themselves". According to this rabbi, there was only one way to prevent another cataclysm:

"To take all of the old rituals and traditions and to reinterpret them in a very fundamental and extreme way so as to appease God."

The Satmar in Williamsburg – as many religions have at various stages throughout history – treat women poorly: once married, their hair is removed and replaced with wigs; menstruation is seen as "impure"; and women are told that their only purpose in life is to have as many children as possible:

"This is why women are married off very, very young, no birth control is allowed and you're expected to bring a child into this world every year or two."

This is the world that Deborah was born into in 1986. Her mother was "imported" into the community from a poor Jewish family in the UK, who promptly left Williamsburg after giving birth to Deborah, who was then reared by her grandparents. And this led to Deborah being different from everybody else in the community because she came from a failed marriage. She was able to take advantage of this in a way by sneaking off to the library and reading the sort of books that were forbidden in her community, the likes of Jane Austen, the Narnia books and Alice in Wonderland.

At 17, Deborah was married to Eli, a man she had only met on two occasions, for half an hour each time. Ryan asked Deborah when she decided that she would have to get away from the community.

"For me personally it was actually this knowledge that I was going to become a mother. That I was going to be bringing an innocent child into this world and forcing this child to grow up the way I had grown up."

It took three years for Deborah to plan and pull off her escape. That was 13 years ago and she is still experiencing the benefits of it.

"Life is filled with very small steps towards freedom that I think are still even taking place in my current life right now, you know, every day new discoveries, new thrills. So I think that never gets old."

You can hear Deborah's full conversation with Ryan here.

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hassidic Roots by Deborah Feldman is published by Simon and Schuster.

Niall Ó Sioradáin