Off the Derech

Ezra Cappell is Professor of Jewish Studies and English at the College of Charleston. He is the author of American Talmud: The Cultural Work of Jewish American Fiction, also published by SUNY Press. Jessica Lang is Professor of English and Director of the Wasserman Jewish Studies Center at Baruch College, City University of New York. She is the author of Textual Silence: Unreadability and the Holocaust.

• IntroductionJessica LangPart I: Stories My Father, MyselfNaomi SeidmanThat Long and Winding RoadJoshua HalberstamThe Law of ReturnMorris DicksteinTuesdays with FacebookShulem DeenBlack Hat, Combat Helmet, Thinking Cap: A Mostly Philosophical MemoirMark ZelcerHow I Lost My InnocenceFrieda VizelThe Trickster BrideLeah VincentA Stranger among Familiar Faces: Navigating Complicated Familial Relationships When Leaving the Hasidic CommunityFrimet GoldbergerUncovered: An Interview with Leah LaxJessica Lang and Ezra CappellExcerpts from Uncovered: How I Left Hasidic Life and Finally Came Home (Chapter 18)Leah LaxPart II: Analysis Between Us: Intimacy in Women's Off-the-Derech MemoirsJessica LangThe Embodied Process of Haredi DefectionLynn DavidmanThe Right to Education: Israeli OTD People and Their Struggle for a Fair ChanceMoshe ShenfeldIn Terms of OTDShira SchwartzNotes from the Field: Footsteps' Evolution and Approach to Supporting Individuals Leaving the Ultra-Orthodox CommunityRachel Berger, Tsivia Finman, and Lani SantoEducational Attainments among Disaffiliates from Ultra-OrthodoxyMiriam R. MosterRepresentation, Recognition and Institutionalization of a New Community: Reflection on the Mediatization of Former Ultra-Orthodox JewsJessica RodaThe Social Practices and Linguistic Spaces of Shababniks in BrooklynGabi AbramacThe OTD Struggle: Telling a More Compelling StoryNaftuli MosterOff the Derech and into the Wild: Navigating Jewish American IdentityEzra CappellContributorsIndex

"Off the Derech tells an important story of a growing community of disaffiliated members who are living on the margins of their previous worlds and are building new spaces for themselves with new identities." — Nova Religio"An important and eye-opening work for those of us who have been off the derech for ages or who are eyeing an exit ramp. The essays and memoirs reinforce each other beautifully. A true must read." — Gary Shteyngart"This is an impressive collection of personal narratives, conversations, and historical and sociological analysis. Its greatest strengths are the diversity of voices offered and the honesty of the contributors. I found it compelling." — Nora L. Rubel, author of Doubting the Devout: The Ultra-Orthodox in the Jewish American Imagination