Our news feeds and Shabbos tables are abuzz with talk of ‘One of Us’, the latest Netflix film by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (the creators of Jesus Camp), about the lives of those who leave the Hasidic community and are ostracized. I confess: I will not be watching this documentary. This isn’t out of…
About 10 years ago, right around the time the tectonic plates beneath my structured world began to shift, eventually destroying my entire existence as I knew it, there was a campaign in my hometown of Kiryas Joel and beyond to “save the neshama of a young girl.” The young girl, a toddler at the time,…
Boorey Deutsch can’t keep track of the number of people he knew who died by suicide or overdose this year. Four were close friends. One of them hung himself; one drove the wrong way on the highway and two overdosed. Others he knew in passing. “I knew many of them, unfortunately,” Deutsch said, in the…
Israel Irenstein is trying to explain chemistry. Neatly dressed in a grey suit and closely cropped hair, the 37-year-old dating coach stands before his all-female audience and addresses a young woman in the front row who is perplexed by a recent rejection. It had been a great first date. They laughed, they talked for hours,…
Malkie Schwartz stands in front of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life in Jackson, Mississippi. Turn off Highway I-55 N at Frontage Road in Jackson, Mississippi and you’ll come across a non-descript squat brown building. Inside is a trove of Jewish learning. The Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL) delivers rabbinic services, educational programs and…
Malkie Schwartz stands in front of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life in Jackson, Mississippi. Turn off Highway I-55 N at Frontage Road in Jackson, Mississippi and you’ll come across a non-descript squat brown building. Inside is a trove of Jewish learning. The Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL) delivers rabbinic services, educational programs and…
Frimet (third from right), holds up her Footsteps certificate with the other fellows. I am a Footsteps member and supporter. I am also an observant Jew. To the critics of Footsteps, a not-for-profit organization that helps those seeking to leave their ultra-religious communities, this statement may seem like an oxymoron. Until about a year ago,…
In a crowded meadow in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, a group of 20-somethings swarmed a soccer ball like a bunch of sixth-graders at recess. A few knew how to dribble, but some could barely kick. One tried to tell the goalie that he wasn’t allowed to pick up the ball. Errant passes peppered nearby groups lounging…
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