Off the Derech: Leaving Orthodox Judaism

454 Pages·2020·2.843 MB·English

by  Ezra Cappell and Jessica Lang

Off the Derech
SUNY series in Contemporary Jewish Literature and Culture
Ezra Cappell, editor
Dan Shiffman, College Bound:
The Pursuit of Education in Jewish American Literature, 1896–1944
Eric J. Sundquist, editor, Writing in Witness:
A Holocaust Reader
Noam Pines, The Infrahuman: Animality in Modern Jewish Literature
Oded Nir, Signatures of Struggle:
The Figuration of Collectivity in Israeli Fiction
Zohar Weiman-Kelman, Queer Expectations:
A Genealogy of Jewish Women’s Poetry
Richard J. Fein, translator, The Full Pomegranate:
Poems of Avrom Sutzkever
Victoria Aarons and Holli Levitsky, editors,
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Holocaust Literatures: Reading and Teaching
Ruthie Abeliovich, Possessed Voices:
Aural Remains from Modernist Hebrew Theater
Jennifer Cazenave, An Archive of the Catastrophe:
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Ezra Cappell and Jessica Lang, editors,
Off the Derech: Leaving Orthodox Judaism
Off the Derech
Leaving Orthodox Judaism
Edited by
Ezra Cappell and Jessica Lang
Cover art: Tobi Kahn, Ylai
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2020 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic,
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without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ezra Cappell and Jessica Lang, editors.
Title: Off the Derech: Leaving Orthodox Judaism / Cappell, Ezra and
Lang, Jessica, editors.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2020] | Series:
SUNY series in Contemporary Jewish Literature and Culture | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: ISBN 9781438477251 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438477268
(ebook) | ISBN 9781438477244 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Further information is available at the Library of Congress.
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Contents
Introduction ix
Jessica Lang
Part I: Stories
My Father, Myself 3
Naomi Seidman
That Long and Winding Road 25
Joshua Halberstam
The Law of Return 41
Morris Dickstein
Tuesdays with Facebook 51
Shulem Deen
Black Hat, Combat Helmet, Thinking Cap: A Mostly
Philosophical Memoir 75
Mark Zelcer
How I Lost My Innocence 95
Frieda Vizel
The Trickster Bride 107
Leah Vincent
vi | CONTENTS
A Stranger among Familiar Faces: Navigating Complicated
Familial Relationships When Leaving the Hasidic Community 123
Frimet Goldberger
Uncovered: An Interview with Leah Lax 139
Jessica Lang and Ezra Cappell
Excerpts from Uncovered: How I Left Hasidic Life and Finally
Came Home (Chapter 18) 153
Leah Lax
Part II: Analysis
Between Us: Intimacy in Women’s Off-the-Derech Memoirs 177
Jessica Lang
The Embodied Process of Haredi Defection 197
Lynn Davidman
The Right to Education: Israeli OTD People and Their Struggle
for a Fair Chance 217
Moshe Shenfeld
In Terms of OTD 249
Shira Schwartz
Notes from the Field: Footsteps’ Evolution and Approach to
Supporting Individuals Leaving the Ultra-Orthodox Community 275
Rachel Berger, Tsivia Finman, and Lani Santo
Educational Attainments among Disaffiliates from
Ultra-Orthodoxy 295
Miriam R. Moster
Representation, Recognition and Institutionalization of a
New Community: Reflection on the Mediatization of Former
Ultra-Orthodox Jews 315
Jessica Roda
CONTENTS | vii
The Social Practices and Linguistic Spaces of Shababniks in
Brooklyn 335
Gabi Abramac
The OTD Struggle: Telling a More Compelling Story 361
Naftuli Moster
Off the Derech and into the Wild: Navigating Jewish American
Identity 379
Ezra Cappell
Contributors 411
Index 419

Introduction
Jessica Lang
The term “Off the Derech” has a complex meaning and history.
Derech, Hebrew for “path” or “way,” bears a religious connotation:
those on the path, those who follow the derech, ascribe to a rabbinic
authority, both ancient and modern, which determines a way of com-
munal and private life that leaves the individual with relatively little
autonomy. The Hebrew word halacha, which means Jewish law, is
derived from root halach, “to go.” Taken together, committing to the
legal and moral system put forward by Jewish halacha, Jewish law, as
interpreted by certain scholars and rabbis, means that one lives by a
specific code, one follows the ways (derech) and customs that are not
only deemed necessary for belonging within certain communities but
also understood as carrying with them the ultimate authority of what
it means to lead a good and morally upstanding life.
The term off-the-derech originated from within ultra-Orthodox
communities as a way of describing members of these communities who
determined to leave it. It is a word, then, with subversive origins that
carries with it a sense of stigma and difference. But, as is the case with
a number of pejorative words and phrases, in an act of transgression
that in some ways mirrors their original departures, many of those
who self-identify as OTD, or off-the-derech, effectively re-claim it as
a term that is less derisive and marginalizing and more descriptive,
offering—as it does—a specific orientation. Then again, there are
those who reject the label, viewing it as unnecessarily critical and
derogatory. A number of the contributors to this volume address and
ix