In recent years, many formerly ultra-Orthodox Jews have documented leaving their communities in published stories, films, and memoirs. This movement is often identified as ‘off the
derech’ (OTD), or off the path, with the idea that the ‘path’ is paved by Jewish law, rituals, and practices found within their birth communities. This volume tells the powerful stories of people abandoning their religious communities and embarking on uncertain journeys toward new lives and identities within mainstream society.
Off the Derech is divided into two parts: stories and analysis. The first includes original selections from contemporary American and global authors writing about their OTD experiences. The second features chapters by scholars representing such diverse fields as literature, history, sociology, psychology, anthropology, religion, and gender studies. The interdisciplinary lenses provide a range of methodologies by which readers can better understand this significant phenomenon within contemporary Jewish society.
Table of Content
Introduction
Jessica Lang
Part I: Stories
My Father, Myself
Naomi Seidman
That Long and Winding Road
Joshua Halberstam
The Law of Return
Morris Dickstein
Tuesdays with Facebook
Shulem Deen
Black Hat, Combat Helmet, Thinking Cap: A Mostly Philosophical Memoir
Mark Zelcer
How I Lost My Innocence
Frieda Vizel
The Trickster Bride
Leah Vincent
A Stranger among Familiar Faces: Navigating Complicated Familial Relationships When Leaving the Hasidic Community
Frimet Goldberger
Uncovered: An Interview with Leah Lax
Jessica Lang and Ezra Cappell
Excerpts from
Uncovered: How I Left Hasidic Life and Finally Came Home (Chapter 18)
Leah Lax
Part II: Analysis
Between Us: Intimacy in Women’s Off-the-Derech Memoirs
Jessica Lang
The Embodied Process of
Haredi Defection
Lynn Davidman
The Right to Education: Israeli OTD People and Their Struggle for a Fair Chance
Moshe Shenfeld
In Terms of OTD
Shira Schwartz
Notes from the Field: Footsteps’ Evolution and Approach to Supporting Individuals Leaving the Ultra-Orthodox Community
Rachel Berger, Tsivia Finman, and Lani Santo
Educational Attainments among Disaffiliates from Ultra-Orthodoxy
Miriam R. Moster
Representation, Recognition and Institutionalization of a New Community: Reflection on the Mediatization of Former Ultra-Orthodox Jews
Jessica Roda
The Social Practices and Linguistic Spaces of Shababniks in Brooklyn
Gabi Abramac
The OTD Struggle: Telling a More Compelling Story
Naftuli Moster
Off the Derech and into the Wild: Navigating Jewish American Identity
Ezra Cappell
Contributors
Index
About the author
Ezra Cappell is Professor of Jewish Studies and English at the College of Charleston. He is the author of
American Talmud: The Cultural Work of Jewish American Fiction, also published by SUNY Press.
Jessica Lang is Professor of English and Director of the Wasserman Jewish Studies Center at Baruch College, City University of New York. She is the author of
Textual Silence: Unreadability and the Holocaust.
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