Off the derech : leaving Orthodox Judaism / edited by Ezra Cappell and Jessica Lang.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Cappell, Ezra, editor.

Lang, Jessica, editor.

Series:

SUNY series in contemporary Jewish literature and culture.

SUNY series in contemporary Jewish literature and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Judaism and secularism.

Judaism and culture.

Jewish way of life.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (454 pages).

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2020]

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Introduction

Part I: Stories

My Father, Myself

That Long and Winding Road

On Sentimentality for Starters

The Tao of Physics, the Rambam, and Our Intellectual Dishonesty

So How Do You Now Do Jewish?

Politics, Israel and What Happened to OTD Nonconformity?

You've Got a Story . . . Own It

So Here's Why You Really Went OTD

The Law of Return

Tuesdays with Facebook

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Wednesday, July 30, 2015

Tuesday, August 5, 2015

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Tuesday, September 16, 2015

EREV YOM KIPPUR-Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Tuesday, November 11, 2015

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Tuesday, October 28, 2015

Black Hat, Combat Helmet, Thinking Cap: A Mostly Philosophical Memoir

Leaving as an Intellectual Decision

Leaving as a Transformative Experience

Leaving as Adding a Worldview

Leaving as Doing Different Things

Leaving as a Change of Social Identity

Conclusion

Notes

How I Lost My Innocence

The Trickster Bride

A Stranger among Familiar Faces: Navigating Complicated Familial Relationships When Leaving the Hasidic Community

Uncovered: An Interview with Leah Lax

Excerpts from Uncovered: How I Left Hasidic Life and Finally Came Home (Chapter 18)

18.

Conversation that never happened, with the Group- Greek Chorus with a Yiddish Accent: in which I finally talk back

Part II: Analysis

Between Us: Intimacy in Women's Off-the-Derech Memoirs

Bibliography

The Embodied Process of Haredi Defection

Narratives of Religious Exit: Loss of Faith

The Worlds of Haredi Jews.

Experimenting with Transgressive Acts

Changing Comportment, Dress, and Appearance

Eating Forbidden Foods

Entering Taboo Spaces

Passing

One Taboo Space with Multiple Violations

Stepping Out

The Right to Education: Israeli OTD People and Their Struggle for a Fair Chance

Introduction: Why Specifically Israel?

Haredim

The Haredi Society in Israel and Its Characteristics

The State's Conduct in Light of Lack of Teaching Core Subjects in the Haredi Educational System

Launch of Programs to Integrate Haredim into the Israeli Society

Results of the Haredi-Integration Programs

OTD People

Those Who Leave the Haredi Society in Israel and Their Characteristics

The Extent of the OTD Community

Challenges and Trends of Going OTD

Discrimination against the OTD Community and the Battle against It

Discrimination against the OTD Community

The State's Responsibility

The Founding of the Out for Change Association and Filing the Core Subjects Lawsuit

The Association's Achievements

In Lieu of a Conclusion

References

In Terms of OTD

Setting the Path in OTD Terms

Orienting OTD: Offness, Pathness and the Mechanics of Walking

Sensing Space Off the Derech

The Multiple Worlds of OTDees

The Identity Politics of OTD: Sameness, Difference, Negation

An OTD Analytic: Future Multiplicities and Directions for Work

Notes from the Field: Footsteps' Evolution and Approach to Supporting Individuals Leaving the Ultra-Orthodox Community

Footsteps' Founding, History, &amp

Evolution

Footsteps' Founding Vision, Mission, and Core Values

A Note on Terminology

Demographics

Footsteps' Program Model

Community Engagement

Support Services

Partnership and Collaboration

Exploring the Model

Central Tensions at Footsteps.

Tension between Secular and Jewish Identities

Tension between Moving Forward and Staying Connected to the Past

What's Next: Moving towards Advocacy

Educational Attainments among Disaffiliates from Ultra-Orthodoxy

Exiters in Context

Contemporary Disaffiliates' Educational Attainments

Explaining Disaffiliates' Academic Attainments

Acknowledgments

Representation, Recognition and Institutionalization of a New Community: Reflection on the Mediatization of Former Ultra-Orthodox Jews

Mass Media as a Medium for Shaping Knowledge and Potential Compassionate Feeling

One Social Reality as a Collective Representation or the Centrality of Suffering

The After Release: "Whether you say something good or say something bad, just say something"

Filmography

Documentary

The Social Practices and Linguistic Spaces of Shababniks in Brooklyn

The Translocality of Fieldwork: Nechama's Bakery in Mea She'arim

The Superdiversity and Complexity of the (Formerly) Frum Velt

Methodology

Encountering Shababniks

Shababnik: The Term

Being a Misfit and the Trajectory of Leaving

America: The Reinvention of the Self and Creation of a New Shababnik Community

The Shababniks' Linguistic Repertoire

Leisure Time, the Psytrance Tribe, and Psytrance "Spirituality"

Liquidity of the Self and the Diversification of Diversity

The OTD Struggle: Telling a More Compelling Story

The Ultra-Orthodox Script

Ultra-Orthodox Narratives

Leaving Ultra-Orthodoxy: Scriptless and Doomed

Re-writing the Narrative

Narrative as Therapy

Off the Derech and into the Wild: Navigating Jewish American Identity

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII.

VIII

IX

X

Contributors

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781438477268

1438477260