Formerly Ultra-Orthodox Millennials Get Special ‘Off The Derech’ Moishe House
The inaugural residents at the new Moishe House in Crown Heights. Image by Courtesy of Moishe House
By Ari Feldman August 10, 2017
Two not-for-profits, Moishe House and Footsteps, are teaming up to create a center for formerly ultra-Orthodox millennial Jews.
Moishe House is known widely for subsidizing co-living spaces for residents who use the spaces as hubs for the local twentysomething Jewish community. The residents of the new Moishe House Crown Heights are all Jews who are “off the derech” —- how people who have left the “path” of ultra-Orthodox Judaism often refer to themselves.
“For a while, our members – the majority of whom come from Brooklyn – have been asking us for a space where they can connect informally with others who get where they are coming from,” said Lani Santo, the executive director of Footsteps. Footsteps helps people of all ages transition out of Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox communities if they wish to leave, and helps support communities of “off the derech” Jews.
The four inaugural residents of Moishe House Crown Heights are all Footsteps members raised in ultra-Orthodox communities in the New York area.
Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
