Judge orders custody switch, citing concerns that the mother's influence might jeopardize the children's religious upbringing.
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Special Report
Ex-Hasidic Mother Loses Custody of Children
By Shulem Deen
May 20, 2013 / 91 comments
Judge orders custody switch, citing concerns that the mother's influence might jeopardize the children's religious upbringing.
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Opinion
Making Families a Priority
By Leah V.
April 25, 2013 / 28 comments
Battling the ultra-Orthodox community's efforts to separate OTD parents from their children.
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Reflections
A Raizel by Any Other Name
By Shulem Deen
April 10, 2013 / 11 comments
“Sean?!” my mother asked. “That’s what you go by now?” Her disdain was obvious, but I needed a moniker that jibed with the ethnically neutral persona I now sought.
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First Person
After the Double Life
By Frieda Vizel
April 7, 2013 / 4 comments
It's hard to be a single ex-Chasidic girl, especially when your "gater" isn't well honed. Frieda Vizel finds out firsthand.
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First Person
My Hirsute Pursuit
February 28, 2013 / 8 comments
I posted an ad on Craigslist as a joke of some sort: I was looking for men with facial hair. The responses made me feel as if I had woken up the entire Hasidic community.
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Theatre
“My Name is Asher Lev”: The Pain and Passion of a Young Hasidic Artist
February 26, 2013 / 5 comments
Asher Lev, a gifted young Hasidic artist — "a prodigy in payos" — is an unusual child. He is aware of only two things: an un-pretty, painful world and a burning need to draw.
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Special Report
Ex-Hasidic Mother Loses Custody of Children
Opinion
Making Families a Priority
Battling the ultra-Orthodox community's efforts to separate OTD parents from their children.
Read more »
Reflections
A Raizel by Any Other Name
“Sean?!” my mother asked. “That’s what you go by now?” Her disdain was obvious, but I needed a moniker that jibed with the ethnically neutral persona I now sought.
Read more »
First Person
After the Double Life
It's hard to be a single ex-Chasidic girl, especially when your "gater" isn't well honed. Frieda Vizel finds out firsthand.
Read more »
First Person
My Hirsute Pursuit
I posted an ad on Craigslist as a joke of some sort: I was looking for men with facial hair. The responses made me feel as if I had woken up the entire Hasidic community.
Read more »
Theatre
“My Name is Asher Lev”: The Pain and Passion of a Young Hasidic Artist
Asher Lev, a gifted young Hasidic artist — "a prodigy in payos" — is an unusual child. He is aware of only two things: an un-pretty, painful world and a burning need to draw.
Read more »
Reflections
A Freshly Fallen Snow
It dawned on me that the Torah does not obligate you to be an asshole. There is no mitzvah to smack your wife or scream at your kids. It's only a chumra maybe.
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Reflections
Turning Away
I have broken many fasts, but never Yom Kippur. Now I have an exam the day after Yom Kippur, and I need that extra day of study. And to study I need food.
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Opinion
The Frum Pedophile
Sexual repression in the frum world will lead some to follow aberrant impulses. It is time we talked about it.
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Fiction
The Dealer
He treated his work like any profession, and was rewarded for it. “Rief de Ukraynisher” was the answer every Hasid gave when asked for a weed connection. And Vadim would deliver, Monday through Friday--even Friday night after dark on occasion.
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Humor
And it Was Evening and it Was Morning. And His Pecker Hurt
And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when the Lord gave to him a cleaver, some whiskey, a bandage, and a poorly drawn anatomical map.
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Opinion
The Weberman Trial, or: The Wolf Who Cried Bias
The Satmar community sees itself as the victim in the Weberman case. Which brings to mind the saying in the Talmud: “They commit the act of Zimri and demand the reward of Pinchas.”
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First Person
First Blush of Sin
“Once you start, there is no turning back,” they said to me. And now I am a bundle of nerves, not sure if I am ready for this. I tuck away a rebellious curl peeking out from under my wig, then close my eyes...
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First Person
Men in Black
“Hubby’s home,” I type swiftly, my fingers dancing across the soft keys. I turn off the phone and let it fall to the side of my pillow just as he walks in. He suspects nothing.
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First Person
From Hasid to Headbanger
Obituary
Shulamith Firestone: OTD Feminist and Writer, Dead at 67
For Shulamith Firestone, the Orthodox life was as crushing as the world outside of it.
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Reflections
Crossing Marcy
To those who ask this non-Jewish writer: "Why the interest in all-things-Hasidic?", she responds: "Why not?"
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Fiction
Seedy Business
The thought of someone dying of cancer because of my masturbatory habits made me uneasy. Whoever it was, that poor person had no idea what hit him.
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First Person
Brother’s Keeper
A young man feels helpless to save a brother from a frighteningly familiar path.
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Reflections
Odd One Out
Last Thursday night, at the annual Footsteps Celebrates event, I was the odd one out just when I should've fit right in.
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Book Review
Between Paris and Williamsburg: “I Am Forbidden,” by Anouk Markovits
Suppressed desire, menstrual obsession, and fear of death, coexist in the same book as deep joy and brilliant light.
Read more »
From the Archives
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Here Comes the Messiah: Act Two
By A.M. Yehuda
I have been in front of the Rebbe twice before, standing for hours in a line that shuffled forward, his eyes, in that moment, searing my soul. But this time it is different.
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From Hasid to Headbanger
By Eli Mandel
How I overcame my fear of tattooed metalheads and braved the mosh pit.
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I Love You, Brother
I watch you twist and turn and I feel knotted up inside. I see you blink back tears, and my own eyes sting. I smile when you smile. Because I care and I love you. Do you care too?
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Jihad
By Baal Devarim
Chasidim debate whether a heretic must die.
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The Expert
By Jesse Miller
A yeshiva bochur, frustrated with his stagnant life, consults with a “specialist,” who narrows down the problem.
FreiFem: The Unpious Double X
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Goodbyes
Mar 21, 2011 / 3 Comments
I wondered whether I was still tough, still capable of being alone, of ignoring grime and discomfort. And so I was determined to prove it.
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Be a River
May 11, 2011 / No Comments
In the first few years after I left the frum community, it felt as if my story defined me so totally I didn’t know how to filter it. Now, I try to avoid mentioning it.
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Fauxhawked Ghosts
Apr 22, 2011 / 2 Comments
It’s been seven years since my last shift at the Grinch. I think my urge to go in now, every time I pass, is driven by an impossible hope that I might find myself there, still twenty two years old and, fretting about my new life.
ELSEWHERE ON THE WEB…
By Shulem Deen
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From Salon.com: How one little Panasonic radio tore apart my marriage -- and my faith.
From The Brooklyn Ink
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Article on Jacob Gluck of Hasidic Williamsburg Tour and Unpious contributor Yakov Yosef.
From The Village Voice
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Profile of Brooklyn's Shomrim patrol groups, featuring Luzer Twersky. To read some of Luzer's essays, click here.
From NPR: All Things Considered
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An interview with Samuel Katz about his journey into the secular world. To read some of Samuel's essays, click here.
