Amish Mafia
| Amish Mafia | |
|---|---|
John, Alvin, Lebanon Levi, and Jolin (L-R)
|
|
| Genre | Reality |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 35 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
|
| Running time | 42 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Hot Snakes Media |
| Release | |
| Original network | Discovery Channel |
| Picture format |
480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
| Original release | December 12, 2012 – March 31, 2015 |
| External links | |
| Website | www |
| Production website |
www |
Amish Mafia is an American reality television series that debuted on December 12, 2012, on the Discovery Channel. The series follows "Lebanon Levi", along with three of his assistants, who are purported to be a "mafia" in an Amish community. Although portrayed by Discovery Channel as documentary reality television, the authenticity of the series has been questioned by scholars, local newspapers and law-enforcement. There have also been accusations of the series being bigoted toward and defaming the Amish people.
The series follows members of the "Amish Mafia" in their efforts to keep the peace within the Amish community in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and protect it from outsiders (usually referred to as the "English"), as they deal with internal struggles for power as to who will lead the Mafia.
The veracity of the events depicted on the series has been widely questioned, with The New York Times noting that "An early credit warns of 'select re-enactments', and since we're never later told whether we're watching staged scenes, it's fairly safe to assume that everything is staged." Additionally, "A closing credit clarifies that 're-creations are based on eyewitness accounts, testimonials and the legend of the Amish Mafia'." It is not publicly known which scenes are based on accounts and testimonials and which are based on legend.
The series has been strongly criticized by scholars of the Amish. Donald Kraybill, an Elizabethtown College professor and prominent researcher of and author about the Anabaptist lifestyle, commented about Levi allegedly being an unbaptized Amish: "Baptism is essential in the Amish faith: Either you're in or you're out." Also, Kraybill and others observed that genuine Amish people wouldn't appear on camera, as their faith forbids it. Such criticisms include: "To call these shows documentaries is a fraudulent lie," and "[the show] is just sort of an example of the foolishness and stupidity and lies—misrepresentations I should say—that are promoted [about the Amish] in television...These production crews should be ashamed of trying to say that represents Amish life."
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Wikipedia