"Among scholars of Jewish Studies, the process, history, and literature of exiting one's native religious community is increasingly recognized as a new area within the field which, ironically, has a history stretching back to antiquity. By presenting scholarship from a diverse range of disciplines-including history, sociology, psychology, and gender studies-this volume deepens and broadens readers' understanding of the complexity of the topic of taking leave of the Orthodox community in which one has been raised and establishing a different kind of life that is outside of its borders"--
Among scholars of Jewish Studies, the process, history, and literature of exiting one’s native religious community is increasingly recognized as a new area within the field which, ironically, has a history stretching back to antiquity. By presenting scholarship from a diverse range of disciplines—including history, sociology, psychology, and gender studies—this volume deepens and broadens readers’ understanding of the complexity of the topic of taking leave of the Orthodox community in which one has been raised and establishing a different kind of life that is outside of its borders.
By presenting scholarship from a diverse range of disciplines, including history, sociology, psychology, and gender studies, this volume deepens and broadens readers’ understanding of the complexity of the topic of taking leave of the Orthodox community in which one has been raised and establishing a different kind of life that is outside of its borders.
Arvustused
With much ado about off-the-derech (OTD) or unorthodox figures on television, in recently published memoirs, and featured in the media, On the Margins of Orthodoxy provides a rich resource for anyone interested in the Orthodox Jewish and post-Orthodox Jewish experiencesand everything in between. The book explores the notion of leaving orthodoxy through personal and analytical chapters, using feminist, historical, and sociological approaches to examine a complicated but telling phenomenon in Jewish and modern life. This collection is vital because, to quote editor and contributor Jessica Lang, We are living in an OTD moment! Karen E. H. Skinazi, Professor of Modern Jewish Literature and Culture, Hebrew Union College
This important book is a welcome addition to recent studies and edited volumes addressing those leaving their ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities. The book takes on the OTD (off the derech or path) moment and makes critical contributions by addressing the diversity of what OTD has meant in the past and might mean in the future. Coming at the topic from different disciplinary perspectives this innovative and fascinating book addresses Jewish exiters over time and space, considering gender, media, psychology, and more. The volume will be of great interest to historians, social scientists, and literary scholars in Jewish studies, religious studies, and for a more general public. Dr. Ayala Fader, Professor of Anthropology, Fordham University
This groundbreaking volume is the first of its kind, offering both historical and contemporary perspectives on the process of leaving Orthodoxy. Bringing together complementary contributions from multiple disciplinary points of view, it provides a unique and essential resource for anyone interested in understanding this complex and deeply significant phenomenon. A must-read for scholars, students, and general readers alike. Jessica Roda, author of For Women and Girls Only. Associate Professor, Georgetown University
Introduction: The Paths That Rise to Meet Us
Glenn Dynner, Jessica Lang, Schneur Zalman Newfield, Joshua Shanes
Chapter 1: The Past Keeps Changing: An Occasional Reflection on OTD
Naomi Seidman
Chapter 2: The Second Disenchantment: Three Phases of Exit in Ashkenazic
Jewish History
Glenn Dynner
Chapter 3: Contemporary Chabad-Lubavitch: Observations of a Former Chasid
Joshua Shanes
Chapter 4: OTD and the Continual Act of Becoming Oneself
Jessica Lang
Chapter 5: Role Redefinition: Costs and Opportunities for Formerly Hasidic
Mothers
Miriam Moster
Chapter 6: Empowering Doubt in Treading Old and New Derechs
Yehudis Keller and Estee Hirsch
Chapter 7: The OTD Spectrum: Not On or Off but Somewhere along the Path
Rona Miles and Alla Chavarga
Chapter 8: Reflecting on the Unobservant: Persisting Biases among Orthodox
Leavetakers in Toronto
David Belfon
Chapter 9: Marginality and Off the Derechs Intermarginality: Exploration of
the #itgetsbesser Movement
Alexandra Stankovich
Conclusion: The Future of OTD
Jessica Lang
About the Contributors
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Schneur Zalman Newfield is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Jewish Studies at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and the author of Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (Temple University Press).
Jessica Lang, Professor of English, is the former Dean of the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College and the inaugural Dean of Arts and Sciences at Fordham University. Her research focuses on the Jewish American experience and on Holocaust Literature. She co-edited the volume Off the Derech: Leaving Orthodox Judaism and authored the monograph Textual Silence: Unreadability and the Holocaust (Rutgers University Press, 2017), which focuses on understanding the experience of reading and trauma. She has published on the interaction of reading and identity in Jewish, American, and Holocaust texts.
Glenn Dynner, Ph.D., holds the Jay Berkowitz Chair in Jewish History at the University of Virginia. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and author of Men of Silk: The Hasidic Conquest of Polish Jewish Society (Oxford University Press, 2006); Yankels Tavern: Jews, Liquor & Life in the Kingdom of Poland (Oxford University Press, 2014); and The Light of Learning: Hasidism in Poland on the Eve of the Holocaust (Oxford University Press, 2024). He is also Co-Editor of the journal Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies.
Joshua Shanes is the Emanuel Ringelblum Professor of Jewish History at the University of California, Davis. He has published widely on modern Jewish history, religion, politics, and antisemitism in both academic and popular journals. His second manuscript, A History of Jewish Orthodoxy, will appear with Rutgers University Press in 2026.
