Shulem Deen is a former Skverer Hasid, and the author of “All Who Go Do Not Return” a memoir about growing up in and then leaving the Hasidic Jewish world. His work has appeared in the New Republic, Salon, Haaretz, Tablet, and elsewhere. He serves as a board member at Footsteps, a New York City-based organization that offers assistance and support to those who
have left the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. He lives in Brooklyn.
Shulem Deen
By Shulem Deen
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Opinion Why Faigy Mayer’s Death Should Haunt All Jews
(JTA) — In September 2013, I gathered with a group of friends to share feelings and reflections on the suicide death of one our friends, Deb Tambor, who had been struggling with a variety of issues related to leaving the insular Hasidic Jewish world. Next to me sat Faigy Mayer, a friend and fellow ex-Hasid….
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Opinion Can an Ex-Hasid Fit In Without Ever Hearing Nirvana or Watching Cartoons?
Here’s one of the things rarely admitted to, or even talked about, by those of us who’ve left the Haredi world. We are often plagued with what might seem to some a trifling concern: “fitting in.” After the decision to leave has been made, the first pair of jeans purchased, the new social circle formed,…
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News Lessons of Crime and Punishment in New Square Yeshiva
A young father in the insular Skverer sect, Shulem Deen took the one job available to him: teacher. In an exclusive excerpt from his forthcoming memoir, “All Who Go Do Not Return,” which chronicles his painful journey from 18-year-old newlywed to being expelled from New Square as a heretic, he recounts how the need to…
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Opinion Men Pushing Baby Strollers? Only Goys Do That!
Now that Hasidic men are barred from pushing strollers, will they turn to other modes of baby transportation? / Illustration by Anya Ulinich Baseball. Men’s briefs. Dogs. Hipster eyeglasses. Motorcycles. Neckties. English. Math. Men’s shoes any color besides black. Button-down shirts that flap left-over-right. Fixing your own car. Modern Hebrew. That’s a partial list of…
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Opinion Who Says Hasidim Have ‘Dead Eyes’?
Hasidim walk through Williamsburg / All photos courtesy of Mo Gelber Pro tip for anyone considering a tour of Hasidic Williamsburg: It’s not that big a deal. You do not need to wear a hat, broad-brimmed or otherwise. You may visit during the week, and you may visit on weekends. You may bring along with…
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The Schmooze The Secret Genius of Hasidic Fashion
“The genius of the Satmar rebbe,” Williamsburg-based artist Michael Levin says of the late Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, the post-Holocaust leader of Williamsburg’s Satmar Hasidic community, “was to say that if you wear a shtreimel and long peyes, everyone will be freaked out and hate you and stay away from you. But in the end, they’ll…
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The Schmooze Williamsburg Bike Wars Provide Family Drama
The other day, just as I was coming up from the subway at Manhattan’s Herald Square, a Hasidic man in full attire — long coat and broad-brimmed hat, in 95 degree heat — rode right past me on a blue CitiBike. I kicked myself for not having a camera at the ready; it was a…
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Opinion Did Rabbi’s Forged Letter Boost Anti-Draft Rally?
Was the weekend rally in New York against Israel’s plans to draft ultra-Orthodox Jews boosted by a prominent rabbi’s forged endorsement? According to a writer on the Hasidic Yiddish forum KaveShtiebel.com, a letter in support of the Satmar-led demonstration by Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, one of the foremost leaders of the Lithuanian Haredi sector, was forged….
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