Does Netflix's 'Beauty Queen of Jerusalem' live up to the hype?

(JNS) - When Michael Aloni's agent told him about "The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem," he was a bit confused. "Since when is there a beauty pageant in Jerusalem?" Aloni recalled asking at the time, at an event last week at Temple Emanu-El's Streicker Center in New York City.

He'd just finished filming the third season of "Shtisel" and had shaved off his beard. He said he read the best-selling novel by Sarit Yishai Levi, on which the show is based, in less than two days and cried while reading it.

"There was such an intense shift of everything 'Shtisel' stands for and what Akiva is - and then shift...