A new book has come out on the topic of the OTD Phenomenon, called Degrees of Separation, Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism:
Zalman Newfield’s book is called Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism. Using this link, you can read the first chapter of the book for free.
by Natan Stern
Can we all agree that Elul—at least in the litvish/ashkinazi iteration—is a mindfuck?
I am one of those people who has no malice or anger towards the frum community. But I have little doubt that Elul scarred me. On paper Elul may sound like a good idea – we can all use a time to reflect on our life path and acknowledge the wrongs we may have committed against our fellow man – but that is not how Elul plays out in real life for your average yeshiva bocher.
Josh is in his thirties, lives together with his non-Jewish girlfriend, and works in IT.
I met Josh on www.reddit.com/r/exJew/, an excellent resource for people who left the Jewish faith.
Hi Josh, what can you tell us about your religious upbringing?
I grew up on the east coast of Canada, so there wasn’t a real Orthodox shul around. For whatever reason, my mother was hell-bent on us having a Jewish identity. She was the main driver behind us going to shul, going to Hebrew school after regular school, and so on. She didn’t grow up religious but my dad did and had left it. They’d come to my school (I was the only Jew there) and do presentations about the holidays and what not. Anyway, I went to a not very religious summer camp (shout out to Camp Kadimah), had a bar mitzvah, and the whole deal. We also randomly went kosher one summer.
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