Akiva Weingarten was born in New York in 1984, the oldest of a family of 11 children. At 18, he moved to Israel where he lived for 10 years. Akiva got his first Smicha (rabbinical ordination) from a Chassidish Yeshiva in Monsey, NY at the age of 17 and was ordained again 8 years later […]
I was born into a Jewish family which was very involved with Jewish and synagogue life, long before we all became Orthodox. Our family belonged to a synagogue affiliated with the centrist Conservative movement of Judaism (religiously in between the more liberal Reform and more strict Orthodox movements) in Rockville, Connecticut, a suburb of Hartford. […]
This new On My Own Derech website with 11 stories of people leaving orthodox Judaism was created by an awesome young lady called Chai Landau, as part of her senior thesis project: On My Own Derech | Leaving Ultra Orthodox Judaism Behind No Description
From http://plus61j.net.au/plus61j-voices/losing-religion-growing-invisibility-women: By: Sharon Berger (March 16, 2018) I HAD MY GREATEST revelation about Judaism while studying Arabic in Cairo. I was in the middle of my master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies at St Antony’s College, Oxford. Part of the course requirement was spending the summer learning a language. So a few classmates and I […]
Freethought Radio: Book of Separation Is Vice President Mike Pence delusional when he thinks Jesus is talking to him? Is a Georgia senator’s proposed law (in response to FFRF victories) to allow public school teachers to pray with students constitutional?
Secular Jihadists for a Muslim Enlightenment: EP39: Escape from Hasidic Judaism Ari Hershkowitz grew up in an insular Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn, and was featured in the award-winning Netflix documentary “One of Us.” He spoke to us about the toxicity of religious indoctrination, the horrific abuse he suffered as a child, his descent into […]
“a person’s faith, or lack thereof, is often so important that it affects physical, as well as spiritual, well-being.” The Health Effects of Leaving Religion How a loss of faith can manifest itself in the mind and body Ray has been a psychologist for more than 30 years and founded Recovering From Religion, an organization […]
By Etty Ausch, starring in the Netflix Documentary One Of Us: How I Left My Hasidic Jewish Community & Found My Sexuality Before my engagement, I never heard of the word “sex.” Just before I was married off, I attended bridal classes where I learned the basic mechanics of sex. I felt confused and terrified, […]