BBC on Chasidim Who Leave
The BBC has discovered that some Chasidim (and members of other ultra-Orthodox groups) have been leaving the community to join the secular world. And they, like so many others, choose to focus on the difficulties and challenges one faces in taking such a step. Well, I’m kinda sick of it, to be honest. Yes, it’s tough. Losing access to one’s children is a particular challenge that, in my opinion, goes far beyond any other singular challenge that comes from leaving.
But can the media stop making it out to be such a tragic and grief-laden process?
“They are like aliens,” says Irit Paneth of the organisation Hillel, which offers practical help to former Haredim.
They often do not know how to open a bank account, use the internet, find work and rent an apartment, she explains, or how to operate socially in the secular world.
As if your average Chasid really doesn’t know how to open a checking account. Well, I’ve seen Chasidim with checking accounts and being pretty savvy with them, too. So there.
Printable Version
Good point, but then again that’s what makes articles interesting. I remember thinking about that when I read a review of the book Barack & Michelle, (a book about the first couples marriage) all the years that their marriage seems to have gone well is over looked and every incident of minimal trouble is exaggerated. But hey, that’s what sells.
What’s more concerning in this case is that they go for the challenges they (the outside journalists) would expect Hasidim to have based on how ‘they’ perceive Hasidic life, the secluded, disconnected and still-stuck-in-pre-war-Europe like community. Which not only is not entirely true, it fails to understand the true fabric of Hasidic communities which is a way to live in the modern world and still be secluded and never threatened by all that’s around. Leaving that world creates a strong existential and social crisis much more than a bank account opening dilemma.
But hopefully that’s what this blog is for.
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Exactly, yonadab. It’s extremely difficult for outsiders to understand the Hasidic lifestyle. In novels, films and articles, they almost invariably get it wrong. HR, I like that you’re calling them on it.
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So I definitely agree with that the media is inclined to portray it as a sob story, but they are validated by the fact that it IS traumatic and bewildering to find itself cut out and cut off from the only world you’ve ever known. That said, there are no words to describe the joy and wonder that is a Chasid discovering the new world. All those first times; who else gets to experience what most people experience as children and take for granted, in their fully conscious adulthood? It’s been both an overwhelming and thrilling experience, equally exciting and devastating, but I like to think I focus on the positive these days.
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I hate to say this, but I think the vast majority of Hasidim who do leave are those who were not the good students in Yeshiva and yes, many of them didn’t know how to operate a check book.
Most of enlightened Chasidim, and I know a few of them are the cream-of-the-crop of Chasidic society. The most intelligent and educated but they are not leaving simply because they are smart enough to foresee the almost impossibility of making it out there, and that nothing will pay off loosing your loved ones.
Of notable exception are the two H’s above who perhaps were talente, intelligent and decent at home but still chose to leave and I hope they can one day share with everybody their experiences and if they honestly believe leaving is something they would recommend.
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“there are no words to describe the joy and wonder that is a Chasid discovering the new world. All those first times…”
HR, I can relate to that in the reversed case, with a convert discovering the Jewish world, like when he’s taught that on the first night on Passover, he is to fall asleep without first doing the full version of Krishma. Oh, the joy he had been deprived off all those years!
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