Mishpacha asked a professional actor to play two roles: that of an insular chareidi in secular Tel Aviv, and a stern policeman in Bnei Brak. What did he discover?
Hello. My name is Oded Menaster, and I was a chareidi for a day.
I know the streets of Tel Aviv as well as any secular Israeli. But it was painfully unfamiliar to wander the city’s so-familiar streets in a strange and alien costume. Not the costume of a famous actor or superhero. Not even that of a politician, in honor of election season. I would have done fine with any of those. As a professional stage actor, I’m used to that.
Instead, I wandered the streets of Tel Aviv, the capital of liberal Israel, dressed as a chareidi.
I’m not particularly well-versed in all the nuanced subdivisions of the Orthodox community, but the magazine editor who arranged this charade warned me ahead of time that I was going to become a member of the most extreme sect on the spectrum. Someone my fellow Tel Avivians would associate with rock-throwing and cries of “Shabbes” and “Nazis.”
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