One of Us

This documentary was life changing for me. It made me realize how lucky I am to be free of a world that made me so sad.

And how easy I had it compared to others who left religion.

Seeing the violence inflicted on Etty made me sick to my stomach.

Seeing the community be willing to give her kids to a man who beat them because better they be battered religiously than be secular made me sick.

Seeing the blacked out faces of little girls made me nauseous.

Hearing how she was stalked and assaulted and how the community spied on her and ruined her life made me hatefully angry.

Honestly, I can't believe we allow this in the US. We shouldn't.

All religious communities need sunlight like this, this movie is a wake up call and worth seeing by everyone, but especially members of the community who need to clean up what is happening.

"One of Us" is a documentary about some folks who have become disenchanted with the Hessidic Jewish community...a group in which blind obedience is expected. For example, one lady was horribly abused by her Hessidic husband...but the community has banded together to fight her in her attempt to retain custody of her kids. Another was raped at a Hessidic camp as a child...and left because the community refused to take any action and the pedophile is still apparently in this position! Another discontended man is shown...a man who had to literally walk away from his wife and kids because he was not willing to blindly follow the group's every requirement...such as not reading books, using the internet or having anything else to do with the outside world. The way the community work together to suppress these folks and disempower them is frightening...especially since local government (New York City) seems unwilling to deal with the physical and sexual abuse and the abuse of custody laws. Overall, a very sad and depressing documentary that should be seen...as it shows a side of America that seems, well, un-American.

This documentary made me furious! And incredibly sad that in this day and age the men of this religion are so protected and the women are just incubators.

Disturbing and harrowing, especially the complete failure to address child sexual abuse.

Hasidic Judaism is an unknown topic to a lot of people so it was pretty informative for me. We see how ridiculously backwards these guys' lives are in one of the most modern cities in the world.

It's an interesting documentary about 3 brave people who decided to walk away from the Hasidic Jewish community and talk about how they are struggling with the "outside" life.

Firstly, this documentary had excellent music in it... I grew up in a Pentecostal Christian Church which is kind of the equivalent of Hasidism. I know EXACTLY what these people are going through and their stories need to be told. This documentary captures the lack of humanity when an insulated community isolates people who break their rules.