The New York magazine feature, "Escape from the Holy Shtetel" chronicles the sad story of an American Jewish Family. The would-be heroine of the tale is Gitty. Gitty escaped from her Satmar town only to have her daughter kidnapped and taken back to the town by her ex-husband. The tale paints a picture of two extremes: a mother whose unfortunate repressive childhood has manifested itself in an adulthood of childish rebelliousness that includes recreational drug use and more comically "spike-heel boots" and a town whose extreme views paint an ugly picture of fundamentalist Judaism. It is truly a sad, sad story.
Update: Women from the "holy shtetel" respond to the New York magazine article's negative tone towards the ultra-orthodox: Hasidic Women Address the Story
