Hey heads ups. Judaism is an ethno-religious group, which means that if you are an ethnic Jew, whether or not you practice the religion is irrelevant to being a Jew. I assume you meant a former Jew by religion but I just wanted to let people know, because people don’t often know about this.
I want to join. I enjoyed every second of that video. I wondered, what effects ghettos through history could have had. Here is one modern example. I wouldn't have believed it if i didn't see it.
I am an israeli atheist and i live 30 minutes from bnei brak and had no idea how far these guys have gone.... ...or have far they were left behind. Depends on your point of view :p
Wowwww so glad this came!!! jewish fundamentalism is almost NEVER talked about. Talking about the problems with the ultra-orthodox is not anti-semitic at all; secular israelis complain about them all the time.
I'm an ex Ultra-Orthodox Jew and I WISH there'd be more coverage. I'd be happy to answer any questions people have about Judaism. I'm also happy to reveal all the horrible, hidden secrets of the insular world of Orthodox Jewry, but it seems that most North Americans are either uninterested or simply ignorant of Judaism. Which is unfortunate, since they don't realize the real-world problems that are caused by Jewish Orthodoxy. And I agree with you: it is NOT anti-semitic to point out problems caused by a particular group. That's like saying I'm Islamophobic if I point out the horrific practice of female-genital mutilation in certain groups of Muslims. It's unreasonable. Ex Jews also can have an extremely hard time leaving. I myself am still not fully out for a variety of reasons, the simplest one being that I have almost no contacts outside of the small community I grew up in. Judaism builds this false facade of security, but actually doesn't educate the children on how to function in the REAL WORLD. It's truly unfortunate.
@@danielt.4330 "Ex Jews also can have an extremely hard time leaving" I found this was quite well illustrated in the Netflix documentary 'One of us'. Not sure what kind of success it met however.
@@danielt.4330 I am not an ex ULTRA-Orthodox Jew but I spend most of my childhood in an Orthodox Jewish community so I can understand many of the Ultra-Orthodox practices. However, it still shocks me to see some of the extreme conventions. I actually live a few kilometers away from Bnei Barak and it's hard to imagine how different my life is from theirs. Honestly, I do believe that these communities have a problem. I'm totally fine with consenting adults coming together to live that sort of life. However, many of their children do not get to choose a secular life for themselves due to societal pressure and a lack of education. This is where the problem lies. Too many of these Ultra-Orthodox Jews contribute little to nothing for society. They don't go to the army, many don't get jobs, many get welfare checks every month. This is completely unfair for the other Israeli tax-payers.
I havent addressed judaism directly but i view it as an umbrella term. there are lots of jewish cults, lots of christian cults, and lots of islamic cults. i would like to drill down and address specific jewish groups instead of labeling the entire category a cult. id be willing to address jewish groups, though.
@Joe Edwards That isn't correct. Atheism is a simple denial of any religious beliefs, it does not inform anything else in a person. Religion, however, corrupts the good into doing ill. It convinces them to do terrible things thinking they're doing good. Atheism is a liberation from any religious trappings. What one's morals are after that, it's up to them.
@Joe Edwards Mixing Darwinism and eugenics is the height of ignorance. if you want to throw Bible quotes around be prepared: there's some horrible things in that hollowed book of yours that no rational person would defend. "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination." Chapter 18 verse 22; Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, Ephesians 6:5. Sure there's plenty good quotes, but if the book was as holy as your ilk professes, then it would ALL be good, not just a few little good things you cherry pick. You can be kind and good, and atheist, and your kindness will be done out of pureness, because it won't be done out of any reward in a mythical afterlife.
@@miguelbranquinho7235 All religions are social constructs based on a moral code - therefore they (aim to) constrain or direct their adherents' behaviour. The question is at what point do you place the border between "acceptable" level of behaviour control and "unacceptable". At that point, the religion turns into a cult, but that border isn't easy to define... and is frankly totally subjective. That's why the BITE model is useful - it provides a scale for that, however imperfect.
@@dlevi67 Good reply. But can you think of a religion (even an imaginary one) that has no simmiliarities with a cult? What is the difference, between the two, when one comes down to it?
I grew up in a version of this community, and I can ASSURE you that the only thing that saves amir's family from getting even more repression from sticking with 3 atheists in bnei brak is the fact that they don't have internet access.... if they did his siblings would never be allowed to marry someone more "religious" for at least 1-2 generations. And don't think that only this version of Judaism is "extreme", even the more conservative ones normally follow laws that are made inside insular groups like that one, the most respected rabbis are in fact from very extremists sects, and virtually no one questions them. Those people still haunt me even now, after almost 5 years of leaving the Orthodox life, it is unbelievably harsh..
@@jman5675 Thank you. Think in this way, all the kosher food you have eaten came from where? who was the possek that they followed in order to regulate the kosher food industry? While conservative Jews do have a far more secular life, they still have to rely on the more extremists ones when the matters arise, actually, they are in fact the ones who donate enough to supply all of their needs (since most of them don't work anyway..). We probably had an entirely different upbringing, but their hold is more strict than you might perceive, even if you don't get the direct impact.
The part that got me the most was how women do jobs and take care of the house while the men just sit around and study religion all day long. At least with traditional misogyny you can PRETEND there's some sort of equality with the split work, the whole "complmentarianism" bullshit, but this city just came right out and said, "Naaah, you can do all the work. I've got a penis, I'm too special for boring old WORK." That's some next level misogyny.
You see that a lot in American Christianity. Women stay at home. Homeschooling. I honestly feel a bit sad thinking I ever used to wanted to be the proverbs 31 woman.
U need to understand that for the orthodox studying and practicing religion is so highly regarded and is treated as a huge service for the community and the jews, so it means that men are considered doing gods work and doing something super important. They are not considered lazy.
@@star3catcherSEQUEL thats like saying that studying all day in the university is lazy. Studying is still some effort and it takes dedication and care and time. That being said - studying in the university IS meaningful (most of the time) while the yeshiva religious study does nothing and is a waste of time, compared to what the women do, which does everything and is meaningful.
I am a secular Israeli, and there is some comments that I would like to make. First, you have only heard biased opinions. They are, of course, legitimate and made in good faith (pardon), but you could easily see why a trans person growing up in those circles might come to adopt a certain stance. I do wish that you would ask more Israelis outside of Bney Brak about their opinions. Second, the use of the word atheist is simply not part of Hebrew. When my secular friends and I talk about our stance even within ourselves that is the terminology we use. Why would we use the word atheists? We would be translating a word we already have in our own language. It's not of limits, but it does attract attention. If I said to a person in Bney Brak I do not believe in God, he would not be surprised at all. Bney Brak is adjacent to Tel Aviv. In fact, you'll be surprised to learn how many go under the cover of night to partake in prostitution, including (not a rare phenomena at all) trans prostitution. There is definitely a strong code, but even within the community they know that many of them are non believers that keep it as a secret because that community is their whole life. All I'm saying is, the idea is far from foreign to them. Third, I have many religious friends from many different kinds (and Judaism has plenty.) While we have our disagreements, they never shunned me from conversation. So long as your Jewish you're a part of the camp, and as Amir said they don't do anything at all to try and convert you (though they do have some annoying practices like prayer booths all over the country, should you choose to put tfillin and pray. Only males, of course.) God either take you that way or doesn't, but you're not illegitimate and it doesn't matter what your opinion is (your opinion on religious matters doesn't count at all, though.) In that at least they are tolerant towards the existence of other approaches. You non-jews have souls of life stock though, so don't even try (to be fair, if you read history from their perspective you would see why they want to limit interactions with other religions to a minimum.) Fourth, it is wrong to say the women work while the man study the holy writs. Truth is, money mostly comes from the government by taxing atheists. That is one of the biggest issues in Israeli democracy, and while atheists vote in accordance with their opinions, Orthodox vote in accordance with what their rabbis tell them to vote. This unity makes them a formidable political force that makes them the trump card in nearly every elections, and it allows them to keep getting lots of funds and pass or insist on not changing existing rules which are strictly anti secular (that is the reason we can't get public transportation on the Sabbath.) However, their community is all about taking care of each other which is admirable in its way. They dispense among themselves all necessities, from food for needing families to baby strollers to school books to washing machines. One thing you cannot take from this community is that whatever happens, they will give each other support at all costs. The last thing I would say is, things are changing very rapidly within the community. The average Israeli family has 3 children and the average ultra orthodox family has about 7 (bringing children is a mitzva,) yet their community only rises by a small faction over time. This is due to many ultra orthodox leaving religion, a problem the community prefers not to address. Even within the community, voices like the feminist ultra-orthodox change the discourse and despite their best wishes, even they are changing. I personally have a female ultra orthodox friend whom I respect immensely, and who studied philosophy after already having been a certified lawyer when I met her (she now has a double doctoral degree.) She says that she indeed suffer from discrimination in her community, but not to the extant of violence but mostly prejudice, and that she thoroughly believes that she is making a path that other ultra orthodox women will follow. She also says that she still believes the ultra orthodox interpenetration of the old testament with all her heart. That's all I had to say. Are they a cult? Perhaps so. Are they annoying? Hell yes. However, I would say there is much more than meets the eye and that they do have things that command them. Though I wish they would stop try to legislate the way I should live my life I'm still happy to be living in a varied society where they and I can co-exist peacefully, and I'll be mighty sad if their culture ceases to exist as a part of my community. For the most part their approach is don't bother us and we won't bother you, and while they do employ heavy pressures on people wishing to leave that community it still happens regularly and almost always without physical damage (though with very real emotional trauma.) All I can say is, if they are a cult they're not the worst, and if any cult embraced ultra orthodox values I do believe the world would be a better place as they're way more Amish than Mansons or Krishnas.
Is someone that grew up ultraorthodox and left the community you hit the nail on the head, and we should all try to be respectful of other peoples beliefs and communities. The only issue I have is those that are directly anti Israel but yet take financial aid money from the government & don’t serve in the military. They should not be actively working to go against the country. Otherwise live and let live Am Yisrael Chai 🇮🇱
Lets hope more leave the ultra orthodox communties. We need more Jews in the world so high birth rates are great but the Haredi don't contribute to Israeli society
If you have to explain all this, you probably feel inferior compared to them, because no Haredi man marries a secular woman unless he is from a screwed-up family...
This was beautifully done. I have been asked several times by peers why I love learning about religions and cults as an atheist. I ask them why they watch Criminal Minds if they are not serial killers....point being, I am fascinated and I firm believe knowledge is power. I drink this stuff in and love knowing others can feel supported and not alone when questioning their faith. Drew, you have stepped up your game on content with this!
Cults are amazingly well covered by Belief It Or Not, Hbomberguy and Some More News. I mean, with the latter 2, you may have to look a bit more, cause they cover various topics, but it's worth it, duh.
I'm an atheist/secular Jew. I don't believe in God or refrain from bacon and cheeseburgers but I celebrate the holidays and keep some (very little but still) traditions. I watch your videos because I am an avid atheist and non-believer, but I can't (even if I wanted to) leave Judaism. The fact that I was born a Jew will be with me for life, because it's turned (over the past ~150 years) into more than a religion. It's an ethnicity. A nationality. A people. Judaism is like the opposite of Overwatch. In ow, you have a great game with horrible toxic community, and with Judaism, you get a pretty gruesome base (I didn't do my Bar Mitzvah because of that) but the sense of unity in the community is amazing and always makes me so happy. Thanks for reading this to get my perspective.
Wow this nostalgia is way too overwhelming 😂. Seriously I actually saw my Chumash teacher in this video lmao. Okay hi, basically I am the imposter of this community and I'm a teen. I came across this video a year ago and I can't even emphasize how evil I felt. Turns out being an evil critical thinking is actually kinda fun aaaand now I'm Agnostic. I'm watching this again and I honestly feel kind of left out because you guys are saying EVERYTHING I keep saying and thinking about my own community. My family is considered pretty rebellious for actually granting me the internet and I'm really happy for that but even before I obtained this monstrosity, that is my phone, from a really young age I've always just naturally been really critical of religion and tradition in general. I've been expelled twice for being openly queer and "rebellious" (aka a female with opinions) and socially rejected from most institutions for this reason but seeing these videos make me feel way less alone (kinda left out tho 😂) and I'm really grateful you guys made this. One day I hope to make videos similar to this, study cult behavior, make a documentary and eventually fight for change.
Am Israeli. When you said "Israeli Cult" I knew it's gonna be those guys Edit: I compared them many times to the BITE model and yet I still doubted my judgment of cult. Especially when they are around 8% of Israelis and my uncle being one of them. Secular people here see them as mere kooks and not a cult. So at least somebody outside of Israel agrees with me. Also I also had the same annoyance as Amir with Telltale's reform friend being how he judges the entirety of Judaism. (Reform is a name of a sect, not an adjective)
I’m actually super happy with how they represented ultra Orthodox Judaism (the religion I was raised in) thank you for getting me out of this religion!!
You can always just be regular orthodox and live a Judaic life as your heritage, which for centuries was just simply called Jewish. The black hats are an abnormality created from the extremes of the galuth in eastern Europe. Just as reform and especially atheist Jews is an abnormality from living in other peoples homes for over millennia. Our civilization was centered around the Temple and until the Temple is built, Jews will remain fractured galuth minded people. But as extreme as the 'Ultras' are and i would never be that, there is really nothing more extreme than an atheist Jew. Our land and our heritage is a decree from G'd and nothing can change that.
Bnei Brak as a city is as accessible as any other (a major bus line goes right through it), albeit one with a charedi population; there are though other communities which are designed to be insulated, like Meah Shearim in Jerusalem or even more, Kiryat Sefer or Telz-Stone which are gated towns. The issue is how the people who live there police themselves.
LONG RANT/VENT AHEAD THANK YOU FOR THIS! My family is mostly conservative and modern orthodox Jews, but we have some Chasidim. Like Amir, I was so frustrated by TellTale's coverage of whether or not Judaism is a cult, because while not all of it is, the Chasidim are. It was his video that made me realize that, too, because he'd say "they don't do this," and alarm bells in my head would scream "Yes they do! Wait, why did I never see how creepy this is? How was this always normal to me???" And the talk about your actions affecting family members is real across the Jewish community as a whole. There is SUCH an emphasis on community, tradition, and family. The main reason I won't come out as lesbian is because, though my parents are conservative Jews, it would almost definitely damage their relations with the rest of the family and hurt their friendships. It's not a matter of how I, the only person this should actually matter to, is treated -- everyone is interconnected and no one is truly their own person. So many of the stereotypes about Judaism are true, but ONLY within the community. Jewish people do *not* judge what non-Jews believe, how they act, or any aspect of their life. There's very much a "live and let live" vibe since there's no push to convert; why uphold them to standards they NEVER agreed to? But within the community? We're all bound by the covenant, and even non-halachic things (like the different types of hats/kippot) must be followed... unless, of course, you *want* to shame your ancestors by spitting on their traditions! Despite being told so much about how gossip (Lashon Ha'Rah) is wrong, there is such a ridiculous superiority complex of people trying to out-holy one another. Even if it's not a religious issue, there's this understanding that, well, if they were more devout they would know how to handle the issue properly/would make better choices. I sincerely believe that this community is why I have social anciety disorder - I was primed to believe that every minor mistake will be examined under a microscope and used to judge my overall character, because it WILL be.
I'm seeing a lot of comments defending GMS from claims of antisemitism, and no comments accusing him of antisemitism. Oddity aside it's a good video and I'm looking forward to part 2.
Lol yeah, I was kind of confused about that too. Honestly this doesn't come across as even remotely anti-Semitic, and it didn't even occur to me until I saw the comments.
Far from antisemitic, this is a topic that secular and conservative Jews everywhere need to hear about and talk about a lot more often. It is already talked about a lot in Israel but not nearly enough.
I'm a Jewish atheist and was religiously Jewish until last November, and a lot of this stuff surprised me, even though I went to an orthadox synagogue.
Hi, I've never met a Jewish Atheist before and I'm curious as to how you celebrate Jewish holidays as an Atheist? I know Judaism is a culture as well as a religion, but all the Jewish holidays are religious, and Jewish culture tends to be tied into religion as well. I'm just curious how a Jewish Atheist would go about keeping their culture if they do not believe in Judaism? (Or perhaps you just dropped Jewish culture once you became an Atheist, lol)
@@CerberusComplex well judaism is an ethno-centric religion... basically a bunch of middle-easterners sucking their own collective cock and calling themselves "the chosen people"(of the god they adopted from the canaanites, and then shaped in their own image).....so i would guess it's very ingrained in their society the celebration of themselves as if they were somehow special.
@@CerberusComplex israel has a lot of athiests and non-religious people and they celebrate, although more in a flattering way than a religious observence, some even obsereve the sabbath, although not as strictly as religious people
@@CerberusComplex I'm a Jewish Atheist. I still celebrate the holidays, but I try and do it as secular as possible. When I celebrate holidays I also look at the biblical stories as myth similar as to how I would if I were Greek and reading about Greek mythology, or an Indian Atheist reading the Ramayana. I try to frame as much as I can in historical or story-telling frames and remove as much god-speak as I can. It's an evolving process, but I always point out to my Atheist friends who were raised Christian, that's it's not to dissimilar to how they celebrate Christmas.
I've been waiting for something like this. There is not enough coverage of jewish fundamentalism in the media. (I'm assuming it's fundamentalism, I haven't watched the video yet.)
... I personally consider them Anti-Jews, or Mirror-Jews. Why? Because any group of jews who behaved with such social entitlement would be wiped out. These are the kind of jews that outside of Contemporary Israel would have converted to whatever's in vogue. Those who're not.. leave them. A Lot. Probably why the Information control is so extreme.. The Behavior control.. Same. To make sure the Community doesn't bleed members as much.
@@fanOmry I'm not really sure what you're driving at but there are jews like this in the US who don't become vogue. There are insular communities in williamsburg New York who are as cultish as this. Everything in this video can be said about those jews. Maybe in future videos Drew will touch on the "jewish mafia" sort of enforce the rules. I would very much like to see it talked about.
@@Praxis4RageBaiting Yeah. Contemporary America.. little difference in that regard. Go 200 years ago. More. Would the Jewish Community be abit insular? Yes. But not more than those around them. And most important.. They still worked outside the Community. They did *not* study *Just* Torah. Even at the Ghettos, there was still interaction. Back ti modern America.. They may dess like in this video.. But they are hard workers and not spend their lives studying. I.E just studying. There's a difference between A Cult and A Culture. Example. In new York, there's a strong Haredi Community. They *looklike* these guys. And you will certainly feel the social norms being far more constraining than comfortable.. But It's not quite there. Bney Brak- And Organicly formed Echochamber- A Cult.. and even that, is actually without several specific criteria. But stil enough. New York- all the echochamber properties.. but lesser. People have a bit more freedom. Only they still worry about bleeding out kids.
as a reform jew, my only reaction to this cult is a huge yikes. everybody in my temple has always encouraged me to question any holy text i’ve been given and was super supportive when i came out as non-binary, so it’s hard to see people who are the same religion as me and are so brainwashed. this is low key terrifying to me. being taught to argue with G-d also means i finally have a worthy opponent
Yeah, from what my reformed friends have told me, ultra orthodox is extremely different. I mean, some reformed Jews support my channel, whereas these folks aren’t even allowed on the internet. That speaks for itself.
@@GeneticallyModifiedSkeptic Why would I, as an ultra-Orthodox, support the content of an atheist who speaks English in Israel and publishes himself only because he is not allowed to say a word about Orthodox Catholics...
Lol reform judieism is fake judieism, like there's no laws that your not allowed to do ,reform jews keep nothing they eat what they want they don't keep any shabbes,so what the hell do you run away from?
Bnei Brak is not even close to the "most closed off" Haredi Jewish community. I've been there many times. Try visiting Kiryas Joel in upstate New York!
it's judaism without the public relations campaigns the judaism we are shown has. it's the same with islam and christianity. all 3 religions are a disgusting anachronism.
@@joshuacrommie6249 denouncing hate and disgusting anachronisms makes me be filled with hate? am i also hateful to denounce rape, pedophilia, racism and genocide?
@@antoniostojanovski9008 denouncing hate and disgusting anachronisms makes me hateful? "Who cares if something is old" do you have reading comprehension issues? that's not a rhetorical question. i never said they were awful because they were old....the sun is older and it's excellent. do you know what an anachronism is? "It still fits in today's world." it DOESNT. that's why it's an anachronism! "People this day need spirituality as people did back then" what exactly is "spirituality"? and why would we reject MORALS and replace them with immoral "spirituality" like that taught by the abrahamic religions?
Hi. Im an israeli secular guy. From rishon le zion. I rather type in english so others can understand. Im super curious about what you went through. Do u mind sharing how come you were an orthodox and stumbled upon such videos? Why were u watching those? What were your innitial thoughts about such videos?
Honkler Aretas Religion is a belief system. Acceptance/belief in, or frantic, furious, fanatical and passionate denial of a deity, is a belief and path in life. Baseball is no more than a silly sport.
@Veritas Nocet Et Foedari Jews don't have a religion, we have a heritage based on the ten commandments that G'd gave us as objective morality. Something that is not the opinion of just another man, and a country to follow them in so we would not be influenced by other peoples who were pagan and had many gods and morality was subjective depending what god they followed. Take the G'd of Israel out of the picture and good and evil is confused and nothing is sacred and nothing is taboo and anything goes. Many atheist do have a religion of sorts and its usually leftist humanism and political correctness which is a confusion good and evil and truth.
As a former orthodox Jew I can tell you even in more religiøse circles these guys are considered crazy. It's a shame because really they are purposefully sheltered. If we could only let them know the rest of the world. The truth has nothing to be afraid of.
Judaism encourages learning and asking questions. ua-cam.com/video/Q92za7jthF4/v-deo.html Why don't you believe in G-d? Judaism is amazing and there is proof for its truth: Rational Approach to the Divine origin of the Torah ua-cam.com/video/PEg_Oys4NkA/v-deo.html Raitonal Approach to the Divine origin of the Oral Torah ua-cam.com/video/V4OzkVQte6g/v-deo.html Scientific Proof of the Torah ua-cam.com/video/oTnduqzS3hY/v-deo.html Codes inside the Torah ua-cam.com/video/LdEQZ0jABl4/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/ta1kFID6_3c/v-deo.html Archealogy ua-cam.com/video/lm9ATLhkujY/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/xhHV2scE0-k/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/RSLLl3QOkrY/v-deo.html
Nice work overall, but there's something i NEED to get out of my chest. I'm only few minutes in, and im having a bad tlme sympathizing with the performance of co-host Armin. It might as well be that i'm not at all familiarised with "atheist activism" (dont get me wrong, i am an atheist myself)| but he just seems to go off his way to constantly make remarks that highlight the supposed divisiveness/irrationality of the lifestyle of the cult. I find it offputting mainly cause it shows more of an eagerness to make a point than to geniunely explore this community's behavioral, cognitive and emotional frameworks. It seems to disrupt the narrative flow at least. Otherwise, thanks for the glimpse! I see a lot of ex-ultra orthodox commenters here very satisfied with the representation of this community. Congratulations qnd keep up the good work!
I was looking for a comment like this because I feel the same way. To me his behavior comes across as close minded - I'd rather have an objective experience about the cult.
I agree. And I posted this going through a phase of being very very insecure of my ideas, feeling incapable of defending them. I'm glad you found my comment helpful to express how you feel or felt with this content. In retrospectiva, i think that the main issue with the behaviour you perceive as close-minded might be that, in its iteration, in its repetition, it comes across as insecure. Furthermore, it even may come across as manipulative, in the same sense that someone who insists on asking you the same question over and over when you already told them No. I'm not saying any of the content is false, it is very rich and maybe even bold in its apparent disposition to dialogue and immersion. But it just dismisses a lot of the potential and the immersion of the dialogue trying to constantly re-assert its pre conceived notion of "atheist objectivness" (im inferring this is the subtext). It is not wrong in itself, it is narratively off-puting, distracting. For someone like me, it doesn't do much. But i recongize i might not be its target audience, and i ignore the past experiences of the people involved in this production. Maybe they find this kind of atheist defense and re-affirmation helpful in ways that i can't see, that i'm oblivious, since i was born in a kind of atheist family environment. Catholicism is very rooted in my community, but the kind of people i was raised by, bonded with, were very critical of the rigidity of its conservative morals. Greetings!
Yeah, really put me off how he seemed like he really wanted to see people get pissed off and had a hard time understanding what the impact could be for Amir, just wanting to get good video. Kinda annoying honestly
This feels like a documentary you'd see on Netflix. Y'all are so talented keep it up! Thank you for all the work you put in to making a great video. Hopefully you can be a catalyst for this type of format!
You and other atheist youtubers saved me from religion too. Your work is more important than you might think. Thank you so much, awesome documentary as well! Keep it up
love this video. I'm an Israeli atheist in a very secular family and I completely agree that orthodox Judaism is a cult. I studied in an Orthodox Jewish elementary school(it was a cheap and very good school back then) and the amount of brainwashing is really crazy. every morning we wound pray for about half an hour, you HAD to always be with a kippah on (like an actual school law. if you forgot your kippah at home they have a box full of them). there were no male teachers, only female. I didn't question god back then but I imagine that if I did, there would be consequences. we were told stuff like "all the dinosaur bones and fossils are fake and are made of plastic"(actual quote from a teacher). I'm really glad I got out of there...
These are the conversations worth having and putting out to people. Thanks for doing this important work! It's beautiful to see people connect as humans without cultural or religious bias.
Interesting! I've only watched you and other people who either critizise Islam or Christianity, but I've not heard so much of Judaism... I guess this is reason why. Gives even bigger view for how religions controls. Some may have exceptions but this was very exceptional trip you had and very well put through.
I suppose the reason is that our Jewish cults are less far reaching. You mjst keep in mind that this is a specific town which is known to be the centre of Jewish fundamentalism. The Israeli media covers it all the time, and there is very high awareness to this cult in Israel.
@@SomethingLegit1 not enough, if u ask me. With 16 mandates thiese ppl become a bigger and bigger crowd and have, imo, a bit too much say in secular colture and in state laws.
@@adarwinterdror7245 Indeed they do. But in a democracy, everybody gets a vote in, even the sheep. Everybody hates the charedim, Netanyahu sold our country to them. They are the only ones who don't mind allowing him to pass laws that will keep him safe from persecution, because they themselves see no value in the rule of law.
I have spent time in Bnei Brak and lived in Israel for a bit. A couple of things should be noted. One, these people are insane. Two, they are not representative of Israeli culture and I hope future videos will demonstrate that. Three, you were allowed in the city and to dress and do as you please. There are no state laws against that. The rules only apply to those who take it upon themselves, albeit with little choice due to its cult status. Unlike, for example, in many Muslim cultures, there is no danger to one's self from leaving the religion. That said, these people are backwards lunatics. And it isn't just in Israel. There are communities right here in Brooklyn, NY in America that are equally as bad. This has nothing to do with Israel itself. This is entirely about insular Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in general. This could have been filmed in half a dozen areas in New York City with identical results.
I am FAR more interested in what she had to say than the other 2 for the reason that the men constantly refer to the constraints of the religion in the strongest terms ("worst, strongest, absolute, insane, etc") as where the girl while being an atheist seems to accept the fact that it is her choice and does not present her atheism as a result of extreme persuasion or suppression. The 2 men however constantly are looking for any reason to be alarmed, persecuted, shocked, insulting or reactive. Otherwise, an amazing educational video. Thanks so much!
WOW! When I heard Amir say that it was a bigger deal to say that he is an atheist then trans and not straight, my jaw literally dropped. I'm trans and had the opposite experience coming from a Ukrainian Catholic family in Alberta.
I had to keep pausing the video to run to my mother and tell her all about what I was hearing! Such strict control over every action in the culture, she said it sounds like North Korea. I had NO IDEA about jewish cults. I cant help but feel so nervous for the sweet person acting as your guide, I hope appearing in this video doesnt bring their family any trouble. I live in a town with large hutterite and mennonite communities, and I always wonder what they think of us and what their strict religion says about us 'secularists'. despite their love of shopping, they dont talk to cashiers very much. I know, because I saw them every day at my job, and I can count on one hand the number of them who chatted with me in the last 3 years. It always made me self-conscious :/
The amount of control gave me chills. I weren't raised by a super strict religion. My parents were even less. But the amount of control that had were enough to send me to a therapist office, have panick atacks, and leave people around me, even super religious ones, scared to adress the subject and trigger me to an anxiety spike. I can't even imagine how is to be raised in a comunity like that. The pressure about all this, is... Wow.
The guy pushing for the other guest to reveal their disbelief to their family at the beginning rubbed me the wrong way. I agree that it would be interesting to see their reaction, but it's definitely not worth the repercussions.
As a Jew myself, I struggle with being a believer and being atheist/agnostic. I see both sides of all of this and can argue for both. I lived in Aish for two months and baal teshuvahs love the Chasidic thought, but whenever you aren’t a ‘brainwashed’ believer, it’s hard to think that thought. I can say so much but I love all of your content!
Speaking as someone brought up a Christian but now an atheist... no one ever believes they are brainwashed. One only realizes it once once washes one's hands of the cultist mentality (which took me years to do). Then it becomes painfully obvious. I still remember arguing stupid things with atheists to "defend" the Christian myths I was taught growing up. That said, one shouldn't view atheism as pure virtue or pure reason either. Atheism is not a belief system. It's simply a disbelief in deities. Atheists can still can argue and fight with one another. (Put an atheist capitalist and atheist communist in the same room and watch the fireworks). All atheism does is liberate the mind from one particular cult to accept truth it previously denied. The mind though can then still trap itself in another cult if not careful. IMO it is best to listen to all views (including practicing Jews, Christians and Muslims). Just extract what you see as a good and leave the rest. You are the one that must live and be happy with your beliefs not anyone else.
Spreading positive Atheism around the world. I'm doing my part. I wish i could do more. Just hang in there guys. The future is becoming more and more Secular. 👍
Orthodox Jewish families reproduce the most, Israel is set to become more zealous in coming decades. Western Europe and North America may being going through a secularization phase, but we also have UO Jews, Amish fundamentalists, and rurally isolated Mormons outreproducing secularists.
@@chrisray9653: Yeah, they're hanging in there. But you said yourself that they have to isolate themselves as not to let their children's ears hear any outside information.
@@247tubefan Nope the future is religious, religiousness is 40% genetic and religious people have much more children than non-religious ones. Also stress in a population is a proxy for religion, stress is caused by harsh living conditions, wars, famines, poverty etc. etc. etc. If more stress is to occur in a population, religiousness will increase. I am an agnostic and I can see that even in my own country people that are religious are having bigger families than non-religious ones.
Fun fact: Here in Israel, the areas with the highest infected rates are those with the most religious populations. Bnei Brak is the single highest Covid infected place in Israel. More secular areas seem to be much less infected.
Drew, just an idea for the next cult tier list - explore Russian Christian Orthodox Church. I’m from Russia and it is so wildly spread here, it would make an interesting piece of content because of how insane rituals can get (worshiping the remains of the holy saints, icons of holy saints from the past, numerous rules to follow and dates to celebrates, exhausting pilgrimages to the Russian Orthodox Churches in order to get special forgiveness and healing and more)
What is insane with pilgrimage? Atheist Westerners visit İndian gurus for meditation. It is quite similar. Russian Orhodox Church is still a failure though, they bless an army that shells their own parishes in Donbass. He may visit Siberian cults though, the Yekaterinburgsky guy who claims to be Jesus reincarnated.
You barely moved 50 yards in this video, and I learned more about the cult side of Judaism here than in all other vids on the topic added together. Great Job, guys!
Thanks for exploring these cults. As someone who grew up in a similar jewish cult myself I'm grateful that you are showing how extreme and discriminative they can be
Just gonna be honest. I'm not a fan of this formate or your co-host. I do love the cinematography and the content. However, this felt more like a hit piece then a look and analysis of this lifestyle. I am going to continue to watch and I love your work I hope I haven't come off mean. Thank you for your continued work in having open lines of communication between athiests and theists.
Of course. I fully agree and I ment only to voice my thoughts on this video. I don't think it was his intentions at all and I apologise if I came off like that
as a secular Israeli Jew, i love this video! it is important to know that most Israelis don't like these people and even government officials and news reporters speak negatively about them. it is not antisemitic to show the extremism of these people and Judaism as a culture is very self critical because that is how you grow. that is why we Israelis criticize so much! 😁
Yeah, people are insane here. Lefties hate these people to an extreme degree. They spread insane lies about them too. Some criticisms are just, but many aren’t.
Very interesting video! Even though I live in Israel I had never really thought of Jewish fundamentalism as being a cult before but once It's pointed out it gets pretty obvious. Another interesting thing is that even in less religious areas like for example ultra orthodox sections of Jerusalem where you could get more exposure to secular people, you see a lot of people who only have an old flip phone and no internet access. There is a pretty common phrase that can be seen on stickers or written with a sharpie inside buses that go through those areas that goes something like: "Happy life, only without internet and movies!" and that shows how much information control there is even outside of (relatively) isolated cities like Bnei Brak. Next time I'm on the bus driving through an ultra orthodox area in Jerusalem it would be interesting to see if there are any wifi networks in the area at all.
Amir is so amazing!!! honestly, not only are they smart, but they're so handsome too!!! i got a crush on them for sure😅🥰 wonderful documentary, you guys are amazing and I hope there's more in the future!!!
Aww, thank you so much! I feel like using his pronouns was just base-level respect. I asked how he wanted that addressed in the edited video, and he was cool to leave in whatever we shot. We thought it would be nice to show an example of Amir’s courage and politeness to leave it in. Hopefully it also sets an example of what a non-issue it is to use preferred pronouns and treat trans people like anyone else.
Also, the person that was with you was rude at every turn. I’m not sure if it’s the anti semitism that usually follows Islam, but man it was hard to watch at times. All my criticism of your cohost aside, I appreciate how educated you are and I appreciate the sensitivity you always approach things with
I think when you're brought up in a fundamentally strict religious household and society, you try to retreat back with radical rebellion against it. Sometimes you're blind to its positives too and can't look past the people's religious ideals. I've met some former muslims who are radical than western alt right groups for islam.
Yeah I found him to be a bit aggressive and rude. For him it was not about education on the cult and the way it works. I feel like his goal was to put everything down and point out how stupid it is. Yes, we know it is stupid and sad, but to judge and put the cult member down is not the point of this video. Nor is it the reason I came here for this content.
27:27 ‘you’ve broken free from your chains but now you’re held in everyone else’s’ is a perfect way to explain what being trans is like. can’t imagine what it must be like for amir in a chasidic environment, i hope they’re ok
As a 20 years old girl that live in this town- Bnei Brak , She told the truth about what is happening here, except for the matter of the food stores, people do not eat in the street because it is written in the Talmud "Whoever eats in the market is considered a dog" it is not honorable, it is important for me to say that there are also modern Orthodox here, for example I have a smartphone (this Something that is absolutely forbidden here, there are some friends that know about it but don't report it) and I also study at a seminary (Orthodox girls' school)
hi, i’m starting to stray away from my jewish faith, and even when i was religious i always saw that problems and pain that ultra orthodoxy caused , thank you for bringing this to light
As an atheist from Israel , I can confirm that bnei brak is fucked. Luckily for me I live in one of the most atheist and non extremest city in Israel . So I got it good. Also I love your videos. You are One of the best UA-camr out there .
So women keep things running there while the men just basically read and pray or something, and when the women die, instead of being mourned or honored, they get an article telling they had it coming. Wow. That's one hell of a place.
I am so excited that you guys did this. Even though it's strictly from the perspective of atheism, it is SO much more interesting, deep digging and nuanced than anything I've seen come out on the topic of Israel-Palestine, from main stream swedish (I live in Sweden) or, for that matter, international journalism in a loooooong time. Thank you!
I can see right away that they are struggling to understand Judaism. Their mental model of religion is optimized for Christianity or Islam, whereas Judaism as practiced by charedi has unique characteristics.
2:31 IN India this role was/is for a particular caste called Brahman they just study and pray in temples and rest of the community is supposed to feed him and his family.
I'm a former Jew who has driven through that neighborhood, and as a woman, there is no freaking way I would have gotten out of the car. But this is a great video on the Jewish fundamentalism.
Extremely informative and interesting without resorting to sensationalism or hyperbole. This kind of even handed "just-the-facts" presentation is much more credible than any anti... approach. You don't need to debunk absurdities, just accurately present them and they will do all your work for you. Thanks. I look forward to more. (BTW: I was fundamentalist Baptist missionary for 30 years. Now secular humanist.)
My mother works for an Orthodox Jewish school here in the states. She’s not Jewish, and she’s also not a man, so she gets treated horribly. Rabbis have legitimately gone up to my father at a teacher appreciation dinner and thanked HIM for ALLOWING her to work there. Because men owning their wives is just the norm to this group. Her main reason for working there is that the kids are deathly afraid to touch her. Not out of respect for her boundaries, but out of a genuine belief that women are unclean. That said, she has had to deal with accusations of… brushing hands with a kid. I genuinely hope she finds another means of employment.
Ultra Orthodox Jews definitely don't view women as "unclean". In fact, they view them as pure, which is very confusing since they still treat them like shit. But women are not filth in any form of Judaism.
@@cossaizy6309 While I can respect peoples desire to identify as what they want. Your statement is not true, biology is biology. "His" chromosomes won't change due to any amount of therapy or desire. I only take issue with points of view like yours in the trans debate that seek to deny reality. Edit: Accidentally misgendered Amir as "his" biology is outwardly identifiable as female. I'm being honest, not trying to make a snarky point with an edit. I read my comment back after posting and realized my mistake.
33:53 As someone who grew up in ultra-Orthodox society and today is very skeptical about the beliefs I grew up on, I wanted to comment on this reaction that is out of place at all. While I can agree that there are many rules and social norms that can be construed as discriminating against women (in my opinion this does not come from a chauvinistic place but from a radical over-caution from sexuality) but by no means misogyny. There is no hatred for women in this society in the simple sense, no ultra-Orthodox man will breathe a sigh of relief when he hears that only women were killed in an accident and not men. I agree that gender segregation in this society is sometimes seems as very excessive, but it comes from fear of sexuality rather than hatred towards women. This does not mean that it justifies the phenomenon, but it is important to get the right proportion. I agree that explaining tragedies for all sorts of spiritual reasons is annoying ,If you have rational thinking. But whoever hangs this ad does not come from the mainstream but rather from the opposition to the mainstream ultra-Orthodox. In the ad, he writes against the customary Women's dress among the mainstream ultra-Orthodox society, when the horrific accident constitutes 'proof from God' of the correctness of his words. The ultra-Orthodox man is often portrayed as a tyrannical chauvinist. The average ultra-Orthodox man is very far from this definition. The ultra-Orthodox men (especially the Ashkenazis) tend to be nerdy, and do not always have the last word at home. Men who beat are very rare in this society and are denounced by this society.
I grew up in Jerusalem as a secular jew and there was a non Kosher pizza place close to my school. One time I bought a slice of pizza with bacon for an ultra-orthodox man. He stood at the corner of the street and waited for me to buy is for him. (He gave me money for the pizza and waited at the end of the street so no one would see him enter a non-Kosher place) I also know that in some ultra orthodox pre-schools they give the children smart phones in the "entrence exam" and they won't get into the school if they look like they know how to use it (because that means one of the parents has a smart phone)
Judaism is amazing and there is proof for its truth Rational Approach to the Divine origin of the Torah ua-cam.com/video/PEg_Oys4NkA/v-deo.html Raitonal Approach to the Divine origin of the Oral Torah ua-cam.com/video/V4OzkVQte6g/v-deo.html Scientific Proof of the Torah ua-cam.com/video/oTnduqzS3hY/v-deo.html Codes inside the Torah ua-cam.com/video/LdEQZ0jABl4/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/ta1kFID6_3c/v-deo.html Archealogy ua-cam.com/video/lm9ATLhkujY/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/xhHV2scE0-k/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/RSLLl3QOkrY/v-deo.html
I also want to point out that I was raised as an Ultra-Orthodox Jew and 25 years ago my girlfriend (now wife) was expelled from the Orthodox school she attended because she was seen by a classmate of hers holding my hand and that girl told the administration. No other school would accept her after that and she had to finish the year in a school in another state for "bad" kids. When she returned to NY for eleventh grade, she thankfully went to an extremely modern school with a superb secular (as well as religious) education. She's still somewhat religious but somehow manages to live with this atheist. My kids attend Jewish private schools which doesn't thrill me but it's a concession I made before we got married if she was willing to be married to a heathen. Believe it or not, it actually works very well. Rare I presume.
A former jew, a former muslim and a former christian, hugging, laughing, sharing, supporting. So beautiful. Three cheers for this trinity.
I totally agree. Sad thing is, those three religions are supposed to unify people, not divide. ♡
sounds either like the start of a joke or a commercial:
jews, christians, and muslims agree: fundamentalism sucks.
@@royclark7192 Unify within their own cult... They were never meant to accept differences.
@@brahms63 I'm finding that some Atheist, not all, are acting cultish as well.
Hey heads ups. Judaism is an ethno-religious group, which means that if you are an ethnic Jew, whether or not you practice the religion is irrelevant to being a Jew. I assume you meant a former Jew by religion but I just wanted to let people know, because people don’t often know about this.
This is a documentary that is of a level hardly seen on youtube,thanks!
Third
Great content
It's so in depth. I mean they've understood an entire culture in almost 30 minutes. They must do this with a Muslim group.
I want to join. I enjoyed every second of that video.
I wondered, what effects ghettos through history could have had.
Here is one modern example. I wouldn't have believed it if i didn't see it.
I am an israeli atheist and i live 30 minutes from bnei brak and had no idea how far these guys have gone....
...or have far they were left behind.
Depends on your point of view :p
It seems like something Louis Theraux would make. I say that as a compliment.
Wowwww so glad this came!!! jewish fundamentalism is almost NEVER talked about. Talking about the problems with the ultra-orthodox is not anti-semitic at all; secular israelis complain about them all the time.
I'm an ex Ultra-Orthodox Jew and I WISH there'd be more coverage. I'd be happy to answer any questions people have about Judaism. I'm also happy to reveal all the horrible, hidden secrets of the insular world of Orthodox Jewry, but it seems that most North Americans are either uninterested or simply ignorant of Judaism. Which is unfortunate, since they don't realize the real-world problems that are caused by Jewish Orthodoxy. And I agree with you: it is NOT anti-semitic to point out problems caused by a particular group. That's like saying I'm Islamophobic if I point out the horrific practice of female-genital mutilation in certain groups of Muslims. It's unreasonable.
Ex Jews also can have an extremely hard time leaving. I myself am still not fully out for a variety of reasons, the simplest one being that I have almost no contacts outside of the small community I grew up in. Judaism builds this false facade of security, but actually doesn't educate the children on how to function in the REAL WORLD. It's truly unfortunate.
What are some of the worst things you've seen in the system, looking back now that you've left?
@@danielt.4330
"Ex Jews also can have an extremely hard time leaving"
I found this was quite well illustrated in the Netflix documentary 'One of us'. Not sure what kind of success it met however.
it is talked about in Israeli media
@@danielt.4330 I am not an ex ULTRA-Orthodox Jew but I spend most of my childhood in an Orthodox Jewish community so I can understand many of the Ultra-Orthodox practices. However, it still shocks me to see some of the extreme conventions. I actually live a few kilometers away from Bnei Barak and it's hard to imagine how different my life is from theirs. Honestly, I do believe that these communities have a problem. I'm totally fine with consenting adults coming together to live that sort of life. However, many of their children do not get to choose a secular life for themselves due to societal pressure and a lack of education. This is where the problem lies. Too many of these Ultra-Orthodox Jews contribute little to nothing for society. They don't go to the army, many don't get jobs, many get welfare checks every month. This is completely unfair for the other Israeli tax-payers.
I havent addressed judaism directly but i view it as an umbrella term. there are lots of jewish cults, lots of christian cults, and lots of islamic cults. i would like to drill down and address specific jewish groups instead of labeling the entire category a cult. id be willing to address jewish groups, though.
pSst, pSSt. All religions are a cult, in some way. It just depends on the amount of people they have.
@Joe Edwards That isn't correct. Atheism is a simple denial of any religious beliefs, it does not inform anything else in a person. Religion, however, corrupts the good into doing ill. It convinces them to do terrible things thinking they're doing good. Atheism is a liberation from any religious trappings. What one's morals are after that, it's up to them.
@Joe Edwards Mixing Darwinism and eugenics is the height of ignorance. if you want to throw Bible quotes around be prepared: there's some horrible things in that hollowed book of yours that no rational person would defend. "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination." Chapter 18 verse 22; Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, Ephesians 6:5. Sure there's plenty good quotes, but if the book was as holy as your ilk professes, then it would ALL be good, not just a few little good things you cherry pick. You can be kind and good, and atheist, and your kindness will be done out of pureness, because it won't be done out of any reward in a mythical afterlife.
@@miguelbranquinho7235 All religions are social constructs based on a moral code - therefore they (aim to) constrain or direct their adherents' behaviour. The question is at what point do you place the border between "acceptable" level of behaviour control and "unacceptable". At that point, the religion turns into a cult, but that border isn't easy to define... and is frankly totally subjective. That's why the BITE model is useful - it provides a scale for that, however imperfect.
@@dlevi67 Good reply. But can you think of a religion (even an imaginary one) that has no simmiliarities with a cult? What is the difference, between the two, when one comes down to it?
I'm Jewish and I live in Israel and I love your videos! Keep on making amazing and educational contents
*GENETICALLY MODIFIED SKEPTIC IS NOT ANTI-SEMITIC*
Nope. Just anti cult mentality.
I_Am_Dragoon but he is not against Jews
He is very much not.
Secular Israelies agree with him.
Though most probably to a lesser degree..
Except for the fact that all religions are cults, some just have more members than others.
Most Jews don't like Ultra Orthodox Jews. Just like how most Christians don't like fundamentalists.
I grew up in a version of this community, and I can ASSURE you that the only thing that saves amir's family from getting even more repression from sticking with 3 atheists in bnei brak is the fact that they don't have internet access.... if they did his siblings would never be allowed to marry someone more "religious" for at least 1-2 generations.
And don't think that only this version of Judaism is "extreme", even the more conservative ones normally follow laws that are made inside insular groups like that one, the most respected rabbis are in fact from very extremists sects, and virtually no one questions them.
Those people still haunt me even now, after almost 5 years of leaving the Orthodox life, it is unbelievably harsh..
I grew up in the conservative movement so it is difficult for me to understand what you went through, but you definitely have my sympathy.
@@jman5675 Thank you.
Think in this way, all the kosher food you have eaten came from where? who was the possek that they followed in order to regulate the kosher food industry?
While conservative Jews do have a far more secular life, they still have to rely on the more extremists ones when the matters arise, actually, they are in fact the ones who donate enough to supply all of their needs (since most of them don't work anyway..).
We probably had an entirely different upbringing, but their hold is more strict than you might perceive, even if you don't get the direct impact.
Not if he did Teshuvah for lashon harah. Id reccomend you do it too.
@@walleras If by Lashon Harah you mean stating facts I will gladly do so as much as possible
Dupla Face They are lies. I know folks that live in Bnei Barach. It is a good community.
The part that got me the most was how women do jobs and take care of the house while the men just sit around and study religion all day long. At least with traditional misogyny you can PRETEND there's some sort of equality with the split work, the whole "complmentarianism" bullshit, but this city just came right out and said, "Naaah, you can do all the work. I've got a penis, I'm too special for boring old WORK." That's some next level misogyny.
You see that a lot in American Christianity. Women stay at home. Homeschooling. I honestly feel a bit sad thinking I ever used to wanted to be the proverbs 31 woman.
U need to understand that for the orthodox studying and practicing religion is so highly regarded and is treated as a huge service for the community and the jews, so it means that men are considered doing gods work and doing something super important. They are not considered lazy.
Sounds like polygamy with the poly part.
@@adarwinterdror7245 I don't care what they "consider." In their fantasy headland it's important, but in reality, it does nothing and is lazy.
@@star3catcherSEQUEL thats like saying that studying all day in the university is lazy. Studying is still some effort and it takes dedication and care and time.
That being said - studying in the university IS meaningful (most of the time) while the yeshiva religious study does nothing and is a waste of time, compared to what the women do, which does everything and is meaningful.
I am a secular Israeli, and there is some comments that I would like to make.
First, you have only heard biased opinions. They are, of course, legitimate and made in good faith (pardon), but you could easily see why a trans person growing up in those circles might come to adopt a certain stance. I do wish that you would ask more Israelis outside of Bney Brak about their opinions.
Second, the use of the word atheist is simply not part of Hebrew. When my secular friends and I talk about our stance even within ourselves that is the terminology we use. Why would we use the word atheists? We would be translating a word we already have in our own language. It's not of limits, but it does attract attention. If I said to a person in Bney Brak I do not believe in God, he would not be surprised at all. Bney Brak is adjacent to Tel Aviv. In fact, you'll be surprised to learn how many go under the cover of night to partake in prostitution, including (not a rare phenomena at all) trans prostitution. There is definitely a strong code, but even within the community they know that many of them are non believers that keep it as a secret because that community is their whole life. All I'm saying is, the idea is far from foreign to them.
Third, I have many religious friends from many different kinds (and Judaism has plenty.) While we have our disagreements, they never shunned me from conversation. So long as your Jewish you're a part of the camp, and as Amir said they don't do anything at all to try and convert you (though they do have some annoying practices like prayer booths all over the country, should you choose to put tfillin and pray. Only males, of course.) God either take you that way or doesn't, but you're not illegitimate and it doesn't matter what your opinion is (your opinion on religious matters doesn't count at all, though.) In that at least they are tolerant towards the existence of other approaches. You non-jews have souls of life stock though, so don't even try (to be fair, if you read history from their perspective you would see why they want to limit interactions with other religions to a minimum.)
Fourth, it is wrong to say the women work while the man study the holy writs. Truth is, money mostly comes from the government by taxing atheists. That is one of the biggest issues in Israeli democracy, and while atheists vote in accordance with their opinions, Orthodox vote in accordance with what their rabbis tell them to vote. This unity makes them a formidable political force that makes them the trump card in nearly every elections, and it allows them to keep getting lots of funds and pass or insist on not changing existing rules which are strictly anti secular (that is the reason we can't get public transportation on the Sabbath.)
However, their community is all about taking care of each other which is admirable in its way. They dispense among themselves all necessities, from food for needing families to baby strollers to school books to washing machines. One thing you cannot take from this community is that whatever happens, they will give each other support at all costs.
The last thing I would say is, things are changing very rapidly within the community. The average Israeli family has 3 children and the average ultra orthodox family has about 7 (bringing children is a mitzva,) yet their community only rises by a small faction over time. This is due to many ultra orthodox leaving religion, a problem the community prefers not to address. Even within the community, voices like the feminist ultra-orthodox change the discourse and despite their best wishes, even they are changing. I personally have a female ultra orthodox friend whom I respect immensely, and who studied philosophy after already having been a certified lawyer when I met her (she now has a double doctoral degree.) She says that she indeed suffer from discrimination in her community, but not to the extant of violence but mostly prejudice, and that she thoroughly believes that she is making a path that other ultra orthodox women will follow. She also says that she still believes the ultra orthodox interpenetration of the old testament with all her heart.
That's all I had to say. Are they a cult? Perhaps so. Are they annoying? Hell yes. However, I would say there is much more than meets the eye and that they do have things that command them. Though I wish they would stop try to legislate the way I should live my life I'm still happy to be living in a varied society where they and I can co-exist peacefully, and I'll be mighty sad if their culture ceases to exist as a part of my community. For the most part their approach is don't bother us and we won't bother you, and while they do employ heavy pressures on people wishing to leave that community it still happens regularly and almost always without physical damage (though with very real emotional trauma.) All I can say is, if they are a cult they're not the worst, and if any cult embraced ultra orthodox values I do believe the world would be a better place as they're way more Amish than Mansons or Krishnas.
ori porat wow you expressed most of what I was feeling about this video but couldn’t figure out how to say
Thank you for clarifying
Is someone that grew up ultraorthodox and left the community you hit the nail on the head, and we should all try to be respectful of other peoples beliefs and communities. The only issue I have is those that are directly anti Israel but yet take financial aid money from the government & don’t serve in the military. They should not be actively working to go against the country. Otherwise live and let live
Am Yisrael Chai 🇮🇱
Lets hope more leave the ultra orthodox communties. We need more Jews in the world so high birth rates are great but the Haredi don't contribute to Israeli society
If you have to explain all this, you probably feel inferior compared to them, because no Haredi man marries a secular woman unless he is from a screwed-up family...
Amir is really marvelous! So nice to show everyone around and explain the details!
This was beautifully done. I have been asked several times by peers why I love learning about religions and cults as an atheist. I ask them why they watch Criminal Minds if they are not serial killers....point being, I am fascinated and I firm believe knowledge is power. I drink this stuff in and love knowing others can feel supported and not alone when questioning their faith.
Drew, you have stepped up your game on content with this!
Cults are amazingly well covered by Belief It Or Not, Hbomberguy and Some More News.
I mean, with the latter 2, you may have to look a bit more, cause they cover various topics,
but it's worth it, duh.
lmao YT sees "Jew" and "cult" together with "atheist" and just goes nahhhhhh
Still got 2 ads though...
I had an add for an app to learn the Hebrew language.
I got ads for Hebrew school 😂
I didn't even know there was such a thing 😂😂😂😂
Watched both
Hey, the channel needs all the Ad revenue it can get
Anym still monetized
Whew
I LIVE for this high quality content. Drew, the work your team is putting together is amazing. You've made and immense impact on the world.
I'm an atheist/secular Jew. I don't believe in God or refrain from bacon and cheeseburgers but I celebrate the holidays and keep some (very little but still) traditions. I watch your videos because I am an avid atheist and non-believer, but I can't (even if I wanted to) leave Judaism. The fact that I was born a Jew will be with me for life, because it's turned (over the past ~150 years) into more than a religion. It's an ethnicity. A nationality. A people. Judaism is like the opposite of Overwatch. In ow, you have a great game with horrible toxic community, and with Judaism, you get a pretty gruesome base (I didn't do my Bar Mitzvah because of that) but the sense of unity in the community is amazing and always makes me so happy. Thanks for reading this to get my perspective.
As another secular Jew I strongly believe we have it the best of any group in the world. With summer camp and free vacation on birth right Israel
Wow this nostalgia is way too overwhelming 😂. Seriously I actually saw my Chumash teacher in this video lmao.
Okay hi, basically I am the imposter of this community and I'm a teen. I came across this video a year ago and I can't even emphasize how evil I felt. Turns out being an evil critical thinking is actually kinda fun aaaand now I'm Agnostic. I'm watching this again and I honestly feel kind of left out because you guys are saying EVERYTHING I keep saying and thinking about my own community. My family is considered pretty rebellious for actually granting me the internet and I'm really happy for that but even before I obtained this monstrosity, that is my phone, from a really young age I've always just naturally been really critical of religion and tradition in general.
I've been expelled twice for being openly queer and "rebellious" (aka a female with opinions) and socially rejected from most institutions for this reason but seeing these videos make me feel way less alone (kinda left out tho 😂) and I'm really grateful you guys made this. One day I hope to make videos similar to this, study cult behavior, make a documentary and eventually fight for change.
Gonna say, even just 30 seconds in, I am super impressed by the production quality! Nice work!
Am Israeli. When you said "Israeli Cult" I knew it's gonna be those guys
Edit: I compared them many times to the BITE model and yet I still doubted my judgment of cult. Especially when they are around 8% of Israelis and my uncle being one of them. Secular people here see them as mere kooks and not a cult. So at least somebody outside of Israel agrees with me.
Also I also had the same annoyance as Amir with Telltale's reform friend being how he judges the entirety of Judaism. (Reform is a name of a sect, not an adjective)
I’m actually super happy with how they represented ultra Orthodox Judaism (the religion I was raised in) thank you for getting me out of this religion!!
What convinced you to get out?
You can always just be regular orthodox and live a Judaic life as your heritage, which for centuries was just simply called Jewish. The black hats are an abnormality created from the extremes of the galuth in eastern Europe. Just as reform and especially atheist Jews is an abnormality from living in other peoples homes for over millennia. Our civilization was centered around the Temple and until the Temple is built, Jews will remain fractured galuth minded people. But as extreme as the 'Ultras' are and i would never be that, there is really nothing more extreme than an atheist Jew. Our land and our heritage is a decree from G'd and nothing can change that.
You should watch the Rational Approach to the Divine origin of the Torah by Rabbi Lawrence Keleman I think you would like it
Plony Almony I have. It’s anything but rational
Plony Almony great name by the way :)
Bnei Brak as a city is as accessible as any other (a major bus line goes right through it), albeit one with a charedi population; there are though other communities which are designed to be insulated, like Meah Shearim in Jerusalem or even more, Kiryat Sefer or Telz-Stone which are gated towns. The issue is how the people who live there police themselves.
It’s literally across the street from Tel Aviv, petah tikvah and other cities. Not isolated at all. A lot of buses run through there.
LONG RANT/VENT AHEAD
THANK YOU FOR THIS! My family is mostly conservative and modern orthodox Jews, but we have some Chasidim. Like Amir, I was so frustrated by TellTale's coverage of whether or not Judaism is a cult, because while not all of it is, the Chasidim are. It was his video that made me realize that, too, because he'd say "they don't do this," and alarm bells in my head would scream "Yes they do! Wait, why did I never see how creepy this is? How was this always normal to me???"
And the talk about your actions affecting family members is real across the Jewish community as a whole. There is SUCH an emphasis on community, tradition, and family. The main reason I won't come out as lesbian is because, though my parents are conservative Jews, it would almost definitely damage their relations with the rest of the family and hurt their friendships. It's not a matter of how I, the only person this should actually matter to, is treated -- everyone is interconnected and no one is truly their own person.
So many of the stereotypes about Judaism are true, but ONLY within the community. Jewish people do *not* judge what non-Jews believe, how they act, or any aspect of their life. There's very much a "live and let live" vibe since there's no push to convert; why uphold them to standards they NEVER agreed to? But within the community? We're all bound by the covenant, and even non-halachic things (like the different types of hats/kippot) must be followed... unless, of course, you *want* to shame your ancestors by spitting on their traditions! Despite being told so much about how gossip (Lashon Ha'Rah) is wrong, there is such a ridiculous superiority complex of people trying to out-holy one another. Even if it's not a religious issue, there's this understanding that, well, if they were more devout they would know how to handle the issue properly/would make better choices. I sincerely believe that this community is why I have social anciety disorder - I was primed to believe that every minor mistake will be examined under a microscope and used to judge my overall character, because it WILL be.
Love your username😂
I'm seeing a lot of comments defending GMS from claims of antisemitism, and no comments accusing him of antisemitism.
Oddity aside it's a good video and I'm looking forward to part 2.
Lol I noticed that too. Glad you liked it!
Give it 2 days
Lol yeah, I was kind of confused about that too. Honestly this doesn't come across as even remotely anti-Semitic, and it didn't even occur to me until I saw the comments.
Far from antisemitic, this is a topic that secular and conservative Jews everywhere need to hear about and talk about a lot more often. It is already talked about a lot in Israel but not nearly enough.
One week and still nothing has happened.
That must annoy you.
I'm a Jewish atheist and was religiously Jewish until last November, and a lot of this stuff surprised me, even though I went to an orthadox synagogue.
Hi, I've never met a Jewish Atheist before and I'm curious as to how you celebrate Jewish holidays as an Atheist? I know Judaism is a culture as well as a religion, but all the Jewish holidays are religious, and Jewish culture tends to be tied into religion as well. I'm just curious how a Jewish Atheist would go about keeping their culture if they do not believe in Judaism? (Or perhaps you just dropped Jewish culture once you became an Atheist, lol)
@@CerberusComplex
well judaism is an ethno-centric religion...
basically a bunch of middle-easterners sucking their own collective cock and calling themselves "the chosen people"(of the god they adopted from the canaanites, and then shaped in their own image).....so i would guess it's very ingrained in their society the celebration of themselves as if they were somehow special.
@@CerberusComplex israel has a lot of athiests and non-religious people and they celebrate, although more in a flattering way than a religious observence, some even obsereve the sabbath, although not as strictly as religious people
Yay, another Jewish atheist!!!
@@CerberusComplex I'm a Jewish Atheist. I still celebrate the holidays, but I try and do it as secular as possible. When I celebrate holidays I also look at the biblical stories as myth similar as to how I would if I were Greek and reading about Greek mythology, or an Indian Atheist reading the Ramayana. I try to frame as much as I can in historical or story-telling frames and remove as much god-speak as I can. It's an evolving process, but I always point out to my Atheist friends who were raised Christian, that's it's not to dissimilar to how they celebrate Christmas.
I've been waiting for something like this. There is not enough coverage of jewish fundamentalism in the media. (I'm assuming it's fundamentalism, I haven't watched the video yet.)
They're nutty insular cults really.
@@danholo
too far
...
I personally consider them Anti-Jews, or Mirror-Jews.
Why? Because any group of jews who behaved with such social entitlement would be wiped out.
These are the kind of jews that outside of Contemporary Israel would have converted to whatever's in vogue.
Those who're not.. leave them. A Lot. Probably why the Information control is so extreme..
The Behavior control.. Same. To make sure the Community doesn't bleed members as much.
@@fanOmry I'm not really sure what you're driving at but there are jews like this in the US who don't become vogue.
There are insular communities in williamsburg New York who are as cultish as this. Everything in this video can be said about those jews.
Maybe in future videos Drew will touch on the "jewish mafia" sort of enforce the rules. I would very much like to see it talked about.
@@Praxis4RageBaiting
Yeah. Contemporary America.. little difference in that regard.
Go 200 years ago. More.
Would the Jewish Community be abit insular? Yes.
But not more than those around them.
And most important..
They still worked outside the Community.
They did *not* study *Just* Torah.
Even at the Ghettos, there was still interaction.
Back ti modern America..
They may dess like in this video..
But they are hard workers and not spend their lives studying. I.E just studying.
There's a difference between A Cult and A Culture.
Example.
In new York, there's a strong Haredi Community.
They *looklike* these guys.
And you will certainly feel the social norms being far more constraining than comfortable..
But It's not quite there.
Bney Brak- And Organicly formed Echochamber- A Cult.. and even that, is actually without several specific criteria. But stil enough.
New York- all the echochamber properties.. but lesser.
People have a bit more freedom. Only they still worry about bleeding out kids.
as a reform jew, my only reaction to this cult is a huge yikes. everybody in my temple has always encouraged me to question any holy text i’ve been given and was super supportive when i came out as non-binary, so it’s hard to see people who are the same religion as me and are so brainwashed. this is low key terrifying to me.
being taught to argue with G-d also means i finally have a worthy opponent
Yeah, from what my reformed friends have told me, ultra orthodox is extremely different. I mean, some reformed Jews support my channel, whereas these folks aren’t even allowed on the internet. That speaks for itself.
@@GeneticallyModifiedSkeptic
Why would I, as an ultra-Orthodox, support the content of an atheist who speaks English in Israel and publishes himself only because he is not allowed to say a word about Orthodox Catholics...
Lol reform judieism is fake judieism, like there's no laws that your not allowed to do ,reform jews keep nothing they eat what they want they don't keep any shabbes,so what the hell do you run away from?
Bnei Brak is not even close to the "most closed off" Haredi Jewish community. I've been there many times. Try visiting Kiryas Joel in upstate New York!
It’s not upstate.
Fr if you think thats upstate youre trippin
People act like anything above NYC is upstate lmao
I love the fact that he pressented a fairly contraversial opinion and yet all of the comments are where is the line of upstate vs. Not upstate
Try new square in monsey
Thanks mate, I am Israeli, and it is hard for me to explain to foreign friends what is Ultra Orthodox Judaism is. Good job.
it's judaism without the public relations campaigns the judaism we are shown has.
it's the same with islam and christianity.
all 3 religions are a disgusting anachronism.
@@sabin97 You are filled with hate
@@joshuacrommie6249
denouncing hate and disgusting anachronisms makes me be filled with hate?
am i also hateful to denounce rape, pedophilia, racism and genocide?
@@sabin97 You are being hateful.Who cares if something is old.It still fits in today's world.People this day need spirituality as people did back then
@@antoniostojanovski9008
denouncing hate and disgusting anachronisms makes me hateful?
"Who cares if something is old"
do you have reading comprehension issues?
that's not a rhetorical question. i never said they were awful because they were old....the sun is older and it's excellent.
do you know what an anachronism is?
"It still fits in today's world."
it DOESNT.
that's why it's an anachronism!
"People this day need spirituality as people did back then"
what exactly is "spirituality"?
and why would we reject MORALS and replace them with immoral "spirituality" like that taught by the abrahamic religions?
Thank you for making this video! I was raised ultra orthodox but left because i watched videos like yours!! Thank you 🙏🏻
Hi. Im an israeli secular guy. From rishon le zion.
I rather type in english so others can understand.
Im super curious about what you went through. Do u mind sharing how come you were an orthodox and stumbled upon such videos?
Why were u watching those?
What were your innitial thoughts about such videos?
Yeshaya Zweig Cool! I was raised secular and became an orthodox jew. We're complementary buddies :-)
Atheism is a religion in itself. IMHO Atheists are blind fools no less than religious fanatics.
Honkler Aretas Religion is a belief system. Acceptance/belief in, or frantic, furious, fanatical and passionate denial of a deity, is a belief and path in life. Baseball is no more than a silly sport.
@Veritas Nocet Et Foedari Jews don't have a religion, we have a heritage based on the ten commandments that G'd gave us as objective morality. Something that is not the opinion of just another man, and a country to follow them in so we would not be influenced by other peoples who were pagan and had many gods and morality was subjective depending what god they followed. Take the G'd of Israel out of the picture and good and evil is confused and nothing is sacred and nothing is taboo and anything goes. Many atheist do have a religion of sorts and its usually leftist humanism and political correctness which is a confusion good and evil and truth.
As a former orthodox Jew I can tell you even in more religiøse circles these guys are considered crazy. It's a shame because really they are purposefully sheltered. If we could only let them know the rest of the world. The truth has nothing to be afraid of.
Judaism encourages learning and asking questions.
ua-cam.com/video/Q92za7jthF4/v-deo.html
Why don't you believe in G-d? Judaism is amazing and there is proof for its truth:
Rational Approach to the Divine origin of the Torah
ua-cam.com/video/PEg_Oys4NkA/v-deo.html
Raitonal Approach to the Divine origin of the Oral Torah
ua-cam.com/video/V4OzkVQte6g/v-deo.html
Scientific Proof of the Torah
ua-cam.com/video/oTnduqzS3hY/v-deo.html
Codes inside the Torah
ua-cam.com/video/LdEQZ0jABl4/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/ta1kFID6_3c/v-deo.html
Archealogy
ua-cam.com/video/lm9ATLhkujY/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/xhHV2scE0-k/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/RSLLl3QOkrY/v-deo.html
Nice work overall, but there's something i NEED to get out of my chest. I'm only few minutes in, and im having a bad tlme sympathizing with the performance of co-host Armin. It might as well be that i'm not at all familiarised with "atheist activism" (dont get me wrong, i am an atheist myself)| but he just seems to go off his way to constantly make remarks that highlight the supposed divisiveness/irrationality of the lifestyle of the cult. I find it offputting mainly cause it shows more of an eagerness to make a point than to geniunely explore this community's behavioral, cognitive and emotional frameworks. It seems to disrupt the narrative flow at least.
Otherwise, thanks for the glimpse! I see a lot of ex-ultra orthodox commenters here very satisfied with the representation of this community. Congratulations qnd keep up the good work!
I was looking for a comment like this because I feel the same way. To me his behavior comes across as close minded - I'd rather have an objective experience about the cult.
I agree. And I posted this going through a phase of being very very insecure of my ideas, feeling incapable of defending them. I'm glad you found my comment helpful to express how you feel or felt with this content.
In retrospectiva, i think that the main issue with the behaviour you perceive as close-minded might be that, in its iteration, in its repetition, it comes across as insecure. Furthermore, it even may come across as manipulative, in the same sense that someone who insists on asking you the same question over and over when you already told them No.
I'm not saying any of the content is false, it is very rich and maybe even bold in its apparent disposition to dialogue and immersion. But it just dismisses a lot of the potential and the immersion of the dialogue trying to constantly re-assert its pre conceived notion of "atheist objectivness" (im inferring this is the subtext). It is not wrong in itself, it is narratively off-puting, distracting. For someone like me, it doesn't do much.
But i recongize i might not be its target audience, and i ignore the past experiences of the people involved in this production. Maybe they find this kind of atheist defense and re-affirmation helpful in ways that i can't see, that i'm oblivious, since i was born in a kind of atheist family environment. Catholicism is very rooted in my community, but the kind of people i was raised by, bonded with, were very critical of the rigidity of its conservative morals.
Greetings!
I agree. He seems to come in to the situation with predisposed ideas and is constantly trying to disrupt the comunity to see their reaction.
Yeah, really put me off how he seemed like he really wanted to see people get pissed off and had a hard time understanding what the impact could be for Amir, just wanting to get good video. Kinda annoying honestly
I thought the same exact thing.
This feels like a documentary you'd see on Netflix. Y'all are so talented keep it up! Thank you for all the work you put in to making a great video. Hopefully you can be a catalyst for this type of format!
Wow, absolutely fascinating. Thanks so much for putting together such an amazing team and trip! One of the quickest 40 mins ever...
You and other atheist youtubers saved me from religion too. Your work is more important than you might think. Thank you so much, awesome documentary as well! Keep it up
I'm happy to say that this the first time I've seen a video about jews where the whole comment sectiomn wasn't anti-semitic. Well done GMS viewers!!!
love this video. I'm an Israeli atheist in a very secular family and I completely agree that orthodox Judaism is a cult. I studied in an Orthodox Jewish elementary school(it was a cheap and very good school back then) and the amount of brainwashing is really crazy. every morning we wound pray for about half an hour, you HAD to always be with a kippah on (like an actual school law. if you forgot your kippah at home they have a box full of them). there were no male teachers, only female. I didn't question god back then but I imagine that if I did, there would be consequences. we were told stuff like "all the dinosaur bones and fossils are fake and are made of plastic"(actual quote from a teacher).
I'm really glad I got out of there...
These are the conversations worth having and putting out to people. Thanks for doing this important work! It's beautiful to see people connect as humans without cultural or religious bias.
I've allways liked the channel but this format is something new and totally worth all the work you guys must have done for it!
Interesting! I've only watched you and other people who either critizise Islam or Christianity, but I've not heard so much of Judaism... I guess this is reason why. Gives even bigger view for how religions controls. Some may have exceptions but this was very exceptional trip you had and very well put through.
I suppose the reason is that our Jewish cults are less far reaching. You mjst keep in mind that this is a specific town which is known to be the centre of Jewish fundamentalism.
The Israeli media covers it all the time, and there is very high awareness to this cult in Israel.
@@SomethingLegit1 not enough, if u ask me. With 16 mandates thiese ppl become a bigger and bigger crowd and have, imo, a bit too much say in secular colture and in state laws.
@@adarwinterdror7245
Indeed they do. But in a democracy, everybody gets a vote in, even the sheep.
Everybody hates the charedim, Netanyahu sold our country to them. They are the only ones who don't mind allowing him to pass laws that will keep him safe from persecution, because they themselves see no value in the rule of law.
Hey I’m from Tel Aviv . Great video
תלביבניקים מפונקים שותים אספרסו בזמן שאנחנו פה בדרום חוטפים טילים..
Norel farjun לפחות אתה מוצא זמן לגלוש ביוטיוב בין טיל לטיל
חח אני מבני ברק...
@@norelfarjun3554 גם בצפון פגעו טילים ה2006 זה קןרה לכולם.
גם אחשב יש תילים ב 2019
I have spent time in Bnei Brak and lived in Israel for a bit. A couple of things should be noted. One, these people are insane. Two, they are not representative of Israeli culture and I hope future videos will demonstrate that. Three, you were allowed in the city and to dress and do as you please. There are no state laws against that. The rules only apply to those who take it upon themselves, albeit with little choice due to its cult status. Unlike, for example, in many Muslim cultures, there is no danger to one's self from leaving the religion. That said, these people are backwards lunatics. And it isn't just in Israel. There are communities right here in Brooklyn, NY in America that are equally as bad. This has nothing to do with Israel itself. This is entirely about insular Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in general. This could have been filmed in half a dozen areas in New York City with identical results.
The amount of effort that went into this and part 2 is incredible. Well done everyone!!
Could you please add subtitles?
Sometimes background noise drowns out the conversation
YES! more content like this please, sir. Highly informative and fascinating. Good job! :)
Those 40 minutes flew by! Such interesting stuff I had no idea about O_O
This should go viral.
I am FAR more interested in what she had to say than the other 2 for the reason that the men constantly refer to the constraints of the religion in the strongest terms ("worst, strongest, absolute, insane, etc") as where the girl while being an atheist seems to accept the fact that it is her choice and does not present her atheism as a result of extreme persuasion or suppression. The 2 men however constantly are looking for any reason to be alarmed, persecuted, shocked, insulting or reactive. Otherwise, an amazing educational video. Thanks so much!
Certainly, but he's not a Woman. :)
@@Horus-Lupercal I also think Armin misgendered Amir at the 21-22 min mark :(
WOW! When I heard Amir say that it was a bigger deal to say that he is an atheist then trans and not straight, my jaw literally dropped. I'm trans and had the opposite experience coming from a Ukrainian Catholic family in Alberta.
Ukrainian Catholics in Ukraine would be more against to your atheism instead 😮 they are very proud of their schools and parishes.
I was born here, this is accurate.
I had to keep pausing the video to run to my mother and tell her all about what I was hearing! Such strict control over every action in the culture, she said it sounds like North Korea. I had NO IDEA about jewish cults. I cant help but feel so nervous for the sweet person acting as your guide, I hope appearing in this video doesnt bring their family any trouble.
I live in a town with large hutterite and mennonite communities, and I always wonder what they think of us and what their strict religion says about us 'secularists'. despite their love of shopping, they dont talk to cashiers very much. I know, because I saw them every day at my job, and I can count on one hand the number of them who chatted with me in the last 3 years. It always made me self-conscious :/
Mennonites and Hutterites are not that strict
Most jews aren't like this
Don't worry most Jews aren't like this. Israel is very different from north korea
I'd imagine you'll see a lot of Shapiro in the next few days..
Shapiro is not ultra-orthodox
and he actually associates with tons of non-jewish people on a daily basis...
He's modern orthodox totally different thing
The amount of control gave me chills. I weren't raised by a super strict religion. My parents were even less. But the amount of control that had were enough to send me to a therapist office, have panick atacks, and leave people around me, even super religious ones, scared to adress the subject and trigger me to an anxiety spike. I can't even imagine how is to be raised in a comunity like that. The pressure about all this, is... Wow.
The guy pushing for the other guest to reveal their disbelief to their family at the beginning rubbed me the wrong way. I agree that it would be interesting to see their reaction, but it's definitely not worth the repercussions.
As a Jew myself, I struggle with being a believer and being atheist/agnostic. I see both sides of all of this and can argue for both. I lived in Aish for two months and baal teshuvahs love the Chasidic thought, but whenever you aren’t a ‘brainwashed’ believer, it’s hard to think that thought. I can say so much but I love all of your content!
Speaking as someone brought up a Christian but now an atheist... no one ever believes they are brainwashed. One only realizes it once once washes one's hands of the cultist mentality (which took me years to do). Then it becomes painfully obvious. I still remember arguing stupid things with atheists to "defend" the Christian myths I was taught growing up.
That said, one shouldn't view atheism as pure virtue or pure reason either. Atheism is not a belief system. It's simply a disbelief in deities. Atheists can still can argue and fight with one another. (Put an atheist capitalist and atheist communist in the same room and watch the fireworks).
All atheism does is liberate the mind from one particular cult to accept truth it previously denied. The mind though can then still trap itself in another cult if not careful. IMO it is best to listen to all views (including practicing Jews, Christians and Muslims). Just extract what you see as a good and leave the rest. You are the one that must live and be happy with your beliefs not anyone else.
Spreading positive Atheism around the world. I'm doing my part. I wish i could do more. Just hang in there guys. The future is becoming more and more Secular. 👍
Orthodox Jewish families reproduce the most, Israel is set to become more zealous in coming decades. Western Europe and North America may being going through a secularization phase, but we also have UO Jews, Amish fundamentalists, and rurally isolated Mormons outreproducing secularists.
@Trolltician: Tomato/Tamato dude. It petty much is tho. Close enough anyways to have the same effect. What's your point?
@@chrisray9653: Yeah, they're hanging in there. But you said yourself that they have to isolate themselves as not to let their children's ears hear any outside information.
@@247tubefan Nope the future is religious, religiousness is 40% genetic and religious people have much more children than non-religious ones. Also stress in a population is a proxy for religion, stress is caused by harsh living conditions, wars, famines, poverty etc. etc. etc. If more stress is to occur in a population, religiousness will increase. I am an agnostic and I can see that even in my own country people that are religious are having bigger families than non-religious ones.
God exist
Just thanos snapped him
And Demonetized, RIP😢
There's a yellow mark on the timeline for me so it must've changed.
Battle Cat I was kidding, anytime someone posts something on Jews or Israel it gets demonetized.
@@GIJoker1173 pretty sad actually
I got an advert. And watched the entire thing so he gets his monies.
Rosie Banks yeah I got some too, man if this was an American Atheist video it would see no add revenue at all😂
Fun fact: Here in Israel, the areas with the highest infected rates are those with the most religious populations. Bnei Brak is the single highest Covid infected place in Israel. More secular areas seem to be much less infected.
Drew, just an idea for the next cult tier list - explore Russian Christian Orthodox Church. I’m from Russia and it is so wildly spread here, it would make an interesting piece of content because of how insane rituals can get (worshiping the remains of the holy saints, icons of holy saints from the past, numerous rules to follow and dates to celebrates, exhausting pilgrimages to the Russian Orthodox Churches in order to get special forgiveness and healing and more)
What is insane with pilgrimage? Atheist Westerners visit İndian gurus for meditation. It is quite similar. Russian Orhodox Church is still a failure though, they bless an army that shells their own parishes in Donbass.
He may visit Siberian cults though, the Yekaterinburgsky guy who claims to be Jesus reincarnated.
Amir seems to be a very strong and sensitive person!
You barely moved 50 yards in this video, and I learned more about the cult side of Judaism here than in all other vids on the topic added together.
Great Job, guys!
Thanks for exploring these cults. As someone who grew up in a similar jewish cult myself I'm grateful that you are showing how extreme and discriminative they can be
Cheers to that! I'm an atheist from israel and I recently discovered your channel, so far it's awesome. Keep up the good work!
What a fantastic example of going into a community, with whom you have disagreements, without antagonizing them. Thanks for sharing.
Sure…
Armin sees charity boxes there, and with no evidence says it doesn’t go to charity. You might not see the antagonization, but it’s there.
Just gonna be honest. I'm not a fan of this formate or your co-host. I do love the cinematography and the content. However, this felt more like a hit piece then a look and analysis of this lifestyle. I am going to continue to watch and I love your work I hope I haven't come off mean.
Thank you for your continued work in having open lines of communication between athiests and theists.
Of course. I fully agree and I ment only to voice my thoughts on this video. I don't think it was his intentions at all and I apologise if I came off like that
I was raised by an atheist, who was raised by an atheist. I am raising my children as freethinking atheists. I am proud of my family in this respect.
as a secular Israeli Jew, i love this video! it is important to know that most Israelis don't like these people and even government officials and news reporters speak negatively about them. it is not antisemitic to show the extremism of these people and Judaism as a culture is very self critical because that is how you grow. that is why we Israelis criticize so much! 😁
Yeah, people are insane here. Lefties hate these people to an extreme degree. They spread insane lies about them too. Some criticisms are just, but many aren’t.
Very interesting video! Even though I live in Israel I had never really thought of Jewish fundamentalism as being a cult before but once It's pointed out it gets pretty obvious. Another interesting thing is that even in less religious areas like for example ultra orthodox sections of Jerusalem where you could get more exposure to secular people, you see a lot of people who only have an old flip phone and no internet access. There is a pretty common phrase that can be seen on stickers or written with a sharpie inside buses that go through those areas that goes something like: "Happy life, only without internet and movies!" and that shows how much information control there is even outside of (relatively) isolated cities like Bnei Brak. Next time I'm on the bus driving through an ultra orthodox area in Jerusalem it would be interesting to see if there are any wifi networks in the area at all.
3:02 hey just want to say that I'm from Israel and that there's a lot of fans out here, most of the population is not ultra-orthodox
Amir is so amazing!!! honestly, not only are they smart, but they're so handsome too!!! i got a crush on them for sure😅🥰 wonderful documentary, you guys are amazing and I hope there's more in the future!!!
Y'all were super respectful about the pronoun correction. Thank you so much. Your video was so well done, subbed, bell hit.
Aww, thank you so much! I feel like using his pronouns was just base-level respect. I asked how he wanted that addressed in the edited video, and he was cool to leave in whatever we shot. We thought it would be nice to show an example of Amir’s courage and politeness to leave it in. Hopefully it also sets an example of what a non-issue it is to use preferred pronouns and treat trans people like anyone else.
Great doco; very nicely made. I really want your subs to shoot up, particularly after the work put into this project.
as an athiest jew myself, it is SO hard to explain to christians that I am CULTURALLY jewish but not religious
escape form Iran is probably about an Iranian jew fleeing persecution
Also, the person that was with you was rude at every turn. I’m not sure if it’s the anti semitism that usually follows Islam, but man it was hard to watch at times.
All my criticism of your cohost aside, I appreciate how educated you are and I appreciate the sensitivity you always approach things with
Is the former Muslim guy trying to be funny or is he not too bright?
That's a serious question.
I think when you're brought up in a fundamentally strict religious household and society, you try to retreat back with radical rebellion against it. Sometimes you're blind to its positives too and can't look past the people's religious ideals. I've met some former muslims who are radical than western alt right groups for islam.
@@komal146 And they know why.
Yeah I found him to be a bit aggressive and rude. For him it was not about education on the cult and the way it works. I feel like his goal was to put everything down and point out how stupid it is. Yes, we know it is stupid and sad, but to judge and put the cult member down is not the point of this video. Nor is it the reason I came here for this content.
alexandra I mean the person leading them around Israel with the glasses was also raised in a very strict cult but she’s not terrible and insufferable
No you’re right! He was very judgmental and biased.
27:27 ‘you’ve broken free from your chains but now you’re held in everyone else’s’ is a perfect way to explain what being trans is like.
can’t imagine what it must be like for amir in a chasidic environment, i hope they’re ok
As a 20 years old girl that live in this town- Bnei Brak , She told the truth about what is happening here, except for the matter of the food stores, people do not eat in the street because it is written in the Talmud "Whoever eats in the market is considered a dog" it is not honorable, it is important for me to say that there are also modern Orthodox here, for example I have a smartphone (this Something that is absolutely forbidden here, there are some friends that know about it but don't report it) and I also study at a seminary (Orthodox girls' school)
I'm actually a jew (ethnicity) and from Israel and I learned almost as much as Drew on this video.
hi, i’m starting to stray away from my jewish faith, and even when i was religious i always saw that problems and pain that ultra orthodoxy caused , thank you for bringing this to light
As an atheist from Israel , I can confirm that bnei brak is fucked.
Luckily for me I live in one of the most atheist and non extremest city in Israel .
So I got it good.
Also I love your videos.
You are One of the best UA-camr out there .
Where is that?
@@Chronically_ChiII eilat
@@radiumpaint eilat is literally israeli vegas, my friends and i called it Sin city
The Radium Hello! Orthodox jew from Israel here :-) nice to meet you lol
@@radiumpaint wait really? Eilat is on the religious scale pretty much like every other city no?
So women keep things running there while the men just basically read and pray or something, and when the women die, instead of being mourned or honored, they get an article telling they had it coming. Wow. That's one hell of a place.
I am so excited that you guys did this. Even though it's strictly from the perspective of atheism, it is SO much more interesting, deep digging and nuanced than anything I've seen come out on the topic of Israel-Palestine, from main stream swedish (I live in Sweden) or, for that matter, international journalism in a loooooong time. Thank you!
I can see right away that they are struggling to understand Judaism. Their mental model of religion is optimized for Christianity or Islam, whereas Judaism as practiced by charedi has unique characteristics.
2:31 IN India this role was/is for a particular caste called Brahman they just study and pray in temples and rest of the community is supposed to feed him and his family.
Brahmins ancestors are Jew's..
Cunning and selfish... 😈😈
@@sudipshettynoojjis7851 You are being anti-Semitic
@@antoniostojanovski9008 ...I am fighting against anti humans... Zionists...
No we don't call them penguins, we call them Endermen 😂
הבן־דוד שלי ישראלי וגר בירושלים, והוא אומר פּנגווינים.
Fact Sheet
If that’s a Minecraft reference then YEEEESSSSSS
I'd give this a million likes if I could. Keep it up!
I'm a former Jew who has driven through that neighborhood, and as a woman, there is no freaking way I would have gotten out of the car. But this is a great video on the Jewish fundamentalism.
From this stupid comment, I’d have to assume you’re from Tel Aviv or chul. What a stupid thing to say.
Extremely informative and interesting without resorting to sensationalism or hyperbole. This kind of even handed "just-the-facts" presentation is much more credible than any anti... approach. You don't need to debunk absurdities, just accurately present them and they will do all your work for you. Thanks. I look forward to more.
(BTW: I was fundamentalist Baptist missionary for 30 years. Now secular humanist.)
My mother works for an Orthodox Jewish school here in the states. She’s not Jewish, and she’s also not a man, so she gets treated horribly. Rabbis have legitimately gone up to my father at a teacher appreciation dinner and thanked HIM for ALLOWING her to work there. Because men owning their wives is just the norm to this group. Her main reason for working there is that the kids are deathly afraid to touch her. Not out of respect for her boundaries, but out of a genuine belief that women are unclean. That said, she has had to deal with accusations of… brushing hands with a kid. I genuinely hope she finds another means of employment.
Cannot they find an Orthodox Jewish lady to work there? What position your mother holds in that school?
Ultra Orthodox Jews definitely don't view women as "unclean". In fact, they view them as pure, which is very confusing since they still treat them like shit. But women are not filth in any form of Judaism.
7:20 for those who are confused at the beginning of the video about Amir the tour guide's pronoun.
Who cares about her pronoun...
@@Narconecrotix his* pronoun
@@mrfarina1474 makes me think how confusing it is for amir because hebrew is a very gendered language like most semitic languages
She physically bore a child.
Males cannot do that.
@@cossaizy6309 While I can respect peoples desire to identify as what they want. Your statement is not true, biology is biology. "His" chromosomes won't change due to any amount of therapy or desire. I only take issue with points of view like yours in the trans debate that seek to deny reality.
Edit: Accidentally misgendered Amir as "his" biology is outwardly identifiable as female. I'm being honest, not trying to make a snarky point with an edit. I read my comment back after posting and realized my mistake.
this was incredibly informative. keep up the good work.
33:53 As someone who grew up in ultra-Orthodox society and today is very skeptical about the beliefs I grew up on, I wanted to comment on this reaction that is out of place at all.
While I can agree that there are many rules and social norms that can be construed as discriminating against women (in my opinion this does not come from a chauvinistic place but from a radical over-caution from sexuality) but by no means misogyny. There is no hatred for women in this society in the simple sense, no ultra-Orthodox man will breathe a sigh of relief when he hears that only women were killed in an accident and not men. I agree that gender segregation in this society is sometimes seems as very excessive, but it comes from fear of sexuality rather than hatred towards women. This does not mean that it justifies the phenomenon, but it is important to get the right proportion. I agree that explaining tragedies for all sorts of spiritual reasons is annoying ,If you have rational thinking. But whoever hangs this ad does not come from the mainstream but rather from the opposition to the mainstream ultra-Orthodox. In the ad, he writes against the customary Women's dress among the mainstream ultra-Orthodox society, when the horrific accident constitutes 'proof from God' of the correctness of his words.
The ultra-Orthodox man is often portrayed as a tyrannical chauvinist. The average ultra-Orthodox man is very far from this definition. The ultra-Orthodox men (especially the Ashkenazis) tend to be nerdy, and do not always have the last word at home. Men who beat are very rare in this society and are denounced by this society.
I grew up in Jerusalem as a secular jew and there was a non Kosher pizza place close to my school. One time I bought a slice of pizza with bacon for an ultra-orthodox man. He stood at the corner of the street and waited for me to buy is for him. (He gave me money for the pizza and waited at the end of the street so no one would see him enter a non-Kosher place)
I also know that in some ultra orthodox pre-schools they give the children smart phones in the "entrence exam" and they won't get into the school if they look like they know how to use it (because that means one of the parents has a smart phone)
Judaism is amazing and there is proof for its truth
Rational Approach to the Divine origin of the Torah
ua-cam.com/video/PEg_Oys4NkA/v-deo.html
Raitonal Approach to the Divine origin of the Oral Torah
ua-cam.com/video/V4OzkVQte6g/v-deo.html
Scientific Proof of the Torah
ua-cam.com/video/oTnduqzS3hY/v-deo.html
Codes inside the Torah
ua-cam.com/video/LdEQZ0jABl4/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/ta1kFID6_3c/v-deo.html
Archealogy
ua-cam.com/video/lm9ATLhkujY/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/xhHV2scE0-k/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/RSLLl3QOkrY/v-deo.html
40 min documentary and only part one. Wow.
*Shane Dawson has entered the chat*
This is incredibly eye opening! I've never been exposed to anything like this.
Your Tour guide is awesome. I would love to see him/her just going around reading things from this different cult-ure
Amir, their guide, uses he/him pronouns.
@@sapphicsylvia1590lol
Just a comment sending love to Amir for lending very valuable insight. Thank you.
Thank you, Drew, Armin, and especially Amir for showing us a new perspective!
It would be cool if you could feature Amir in more videos in the future. They are great!
An important thing to mention is that Bnei Brack is not an average city in Israel and most Israelis won’t care if you are atheist
צודק מאה אחוז אחי
@@guyshnek6336 מה קורה
I can't believe u were in israel and I didn't get to see u! Lots of love and respect ❣️
This is so fascinating, can't wait for part 2!
I also want to point out that I was raised as an Ultra-Orthodox Jew and 25 years ago my girlfriend (now wife) was expelled from the Orthodox school she attended because she was seen by a classmate of hers holding my hand and that girl told the administration. No other school would accept her after that and she had to finish the year in a school in another state for "bad" kids. When she returned to NY for eleventh grade, she thankfully went to an extremely modern school with a superb secular (as well as religious) education. She's still somewhat religious but somehow manages to live with this atheist. My kids attend Jewish private schools which doesn't thrill me but it's a concession I made before we got married if she was willing to be married to a heathen. Believe it or not, it actually works very well. Rare I presume.