The ‘reality’ of leaving the fold

Italian-Americans in New Jersey? Been there. The Kardashians? Done that. Reality TV’s next big thing, two producers are hoping, could be a show about Jews who have ditched the strictures of the Hassidic world for the freewheeling streets of New York City.

Noah Scheinmann and Brad Rothschild were searching for an unfamiliar American subculture that viewers would find “engaging, interesting and would make for a good concept,” Scheinmann told The Times of Israel this week. That was when the two heard of a group of New Yorkers in their 20s who had left their families and communities as they abandoned an insular religious lifestyle for a secular one.

Scheinmann, executive producer of No Regrets Entertainment, and his partner Rothschild don’t have a network for their show yet — they’re working on it — but they have a name: “Unchosen Ones.” And they have a small cast they found partly with the help of Footsteps, an organization that describes its mission as helping those who wish to break out of the “ultra-religious environments in which they were raised.”

The cast, Scheinmann said, “is very diverse, and very specific in that they’re not looking to get the word out there to be negative.”

“They’re literally in my backyard in New York,” Scheinmann said. “Their struggle is the heart of the show.”

Three characters have already signed on — Shauli Grossman, 24; Pearl Reich, 30; and Luzer Twersky, 26. All three grew up in Hassidic communities, and left everything behind when they decided to break out. The producers are currently looking for a fourth, preferably someone who is in the process of leaving the Hassidic world right now. They would like to find someone who has not completed his or her exit from the community, Scheinmann said, but is going through the first steps now — “to see them put on their first pair of jeans and to see them go to their first job interview.”

“We don’t want to do a show about religion,” he said — rather, it will be a “story about people.” An element of depth is meant to be part of the draw: “Not every show has to be about a 23-year-old partying at the beach.”

The program aims to appeal, Scheinmann said, to a “25-year-old in the Midwest who is going through a similar problem but, at the same time, to a 30-year-old who never knew this world existed.”

Both producers studied at Jewish schools but, Scheinmann said, his knowledge of the Hassidic world is limited. Through the lens of the characters and their interactions with their families, the producers hope to offer the audience a glimpse inside. The focus of the show will be on the continuation of the characters’ lives as they evolve in the secular world, following them through divorce, job searches, creating a first resume and encountering pop culture.

The producers have not “yet” spoken to representatives of the Hassidic community.

“Some of our cast are not fully ostracized,” Scheinmann said. “There will be moments of hopefully seeing some of their past and how it relates to their present.”