Corinne Gideon on her husband's family: "I will never be good enough for them"
Corinne Gideon opens up about family complexity against the backdrop of public turmoil, admitting that some of her husband's family members do not enlist: "Honestly, it bums me out."
The meeting of different worlds is a complex matter, but when the country is stormy over the issue of ultra-Orthodox conscription, public debates seep directly into the living room. Television presenter Corinne Gideon, who is married to Hili Sorotzkin, who comes from an ultra-Orthodox home, recently revealed the tension and conversations that accompany their shared life.
In an episode of the podcast hosted by Nelly Tagar and Liron Weizman, Gideon shared the complexity of her life:
"The complexity is that for my family I am right-wing, and for Hili's family I am left-wing. So I will never be good enough for both families."
The cultural and ideological gap is particularly expressed in discussions surrounding military service. Gideon described the contrast between the family background she grew up in and that of her husband, admitting that this topic creates tense dialogues between them. "I have very, very, very difficult conversations about the draft," she said. "My father received a citation in the Yom Kippur War, both my brothers are combat officers, and I am marrying someone who did not do the army and his family in part does not enlist."
Alongside the disagreement, Gideon identifies gradual changes within the ultra-Orthodox public and among her husband's family members, where some of the young people choose to integrate into military or civil service. "I think there is a trend of change, and many young men in Hili's family are enlisting, and women too," she noted, but on the other hand, she did not whitewash the complex reality that still exists: "There are still those who don't, and Hili has nephews who are draft dodgers. Honestly, it bums me out."
The dialogue that Gideon conducts does not take place in a vacuum. The marriage to Hili Sorotzkin, a member of a well-known and respected ultra-Orthodox family, was accompanied from the beginning by a lively public discourse around their mixed lifestyle. The two married in 2018 in a wedding that combined guests from the media industry and the ultra-Orthodox community, and since then they have been raising their children while constantly trying to combine identities, maintain mutual respect and honor tradition on the one hand, while maintaining a secular and modern lifestyle.
Gideon's constant exposure on social networks and in the media often makes her a focus of public debate on issues of religion and state. Against the backdrop of political turmoil and the growing debates around equality in the burden, Gideon's words reflect the reality of many Israelis who find themselves between a rock and a hard place, trying to maintain family cohesion while dealing with deep processes and ideological gaps in Israeli society.
