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TV Series Srugim...an Israeli series about young modern Orthodox in Jerusalem

Jim Zurer

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This may not be for everyone but we were completely entranced watching the three seasons of Srugim.....available in the US on Amazon Prime. I am hard pressed to express how much we liked the show...the writing, the characters and the situation. I am now having a hard time watching "regular" television after binging this show.

Here is a link to an excellent review posted in Slate several years ago...

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/television/2014/06/israeli_tv_series_srugim_reviewed.html

I recommend everyone to give it a try....
 
We started watching it before we left. We are in Jerusalem now, not far from where it was filmed. It helped me understand a few things in preparation for the trip. One is what our neighborhood would look like. The other is to understand the religious Jewish customs (somewhat) and see how people live. It makes me feel more comfortable here. I have been reading books and watching other TV series but Srugim is such a personal view of life, that it gave me more understanding.

We are still in series 1 and we watch only one episode in an evening because there is so much to take in. Then we talk about it. I am sure I saw some of the characters on the street today, or maybe just people like them.

@Jim Zurer , thank you so much for recommending this show!
 
We are on season 3 now. It is interesting for me to take note of places mentioned. In season 3 there are two orthodox Jewish characters who live in Ashdod. I looked up the town and it is on the coast south of Tel Aviv. From Wikipedia:

“The first documented urban settlement at Ashdod dates to the Canaanite culture of the 17th century BCE,[2] making the city one of the oldest in the world. Ashdod is mentioned 13 times in the Bible. During its pre-1956 history the city was settled by Philistines, Israelites, Greek colonists coming in the wake of Alexander's conquests, Romans and Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, and Ottoman Turks.[3]”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashdod

Photos on google maps show Ashdod as a dense, modern city with rows of white high rise apartments.

Another location that I was interested in is the springs in the countryside featured in season 2 where Avri goes before his marriage. I am not positive but I think it might be Sataf, outside of Jerusalem. We did not get there on this trip.
http://www.kkl-jnf.org/tourism-and-recreation/forests-and-parks/sataf-site.aspx
 
In season 3 one of the characters lives on a goat farm in the Negev, the desert in the southern half of Israel. The farm is near Mitzpe Ramon, a town I was just reading about. There is supposed to be a lot of hiking near there.

We have only 2 episodes left and are sad to see the end. The story and characters suck you into their lives. The show is subtitled and it is very talky.

In some ways it is like a Jane Austen story. Romance without touching or sex, people dress in a modest manner, they are religious and refer to the bible, the goal in life is to marry and have children. It is like a murder mystery but you are not figuring out who killed someone, but who someone will marry. You get hooked into the story.
 
Screenshot of Amir going to the farm, but we can’t figure out what the sign says. I couldn’t get a less blurry shot.

4B4A2DCD-A09F-4F3A-9280-347E1F544884.jpeg
 
It’s written “Nahal HaRoa”, which is the name of a desert wadi in the area. A farm adjacent to it also has the same name - HaRoa - which means “the sheperdess”. There is a sad story behind the naming of the wadi by this name - a young sheperdess was murdered there in 1952.
I’m not familiar with the series, so can’t help with that.
 
This area is on my list for our next trip.

The southern outskirts of the town Mitzpe Ramon are located on the northern perimeter of the Ramon Crater - and the observation points there offer one of the most impressive panoramas in the country.
 

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