Posts Tagged ‘ conforming ’

It began to irk me as a young 14 year old, still still early on in “the system,” still idealistic and naive about yeshiva and Lubavitch.  I was the first of my classmates to get one, which made me feel…

A report on the Footsteps organization and the lives of those who leave the ultra-Orthodox world. Article by Orli Santo.
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Let me tell you a little about Yossele. No, no, not the famous one who could sing a mile and even the opera-goyim wanted him to perform for them. This Yossele was a little boy…

Several year ago, still sporting payess and a more-or-less Chasidic appearance, I met a girl in Greenwich village who stopped me on McDougal Street to tell me, “I think Hasidic Jews are so fucking cool. Those curls…

If you are on Main St. in Flushing on a school day at 5 o’clock, you will see us. Running across the crowded Main street as fast as we can, our mid-calf pleated skirts flapping around our knee…

I hate weddings. And vorts and lechaims too.  I would have made some excuse, but the father is a friend of my husband’s and he’s some big macher in shul and so here I am sitting at a…

I usually trudge along with Chasidic women to the J train every morning. Like them, I’m close to the JMZ lines. All of us walk mechanically, like robots, toward the loud, screeching subway train.

“Speaking of loud and screechy,” I…

“Leig nisht dein hant in tash,” my father tells my son. It’s like my own childhood all over again. Hands in pockets were always considered wrong. It was never explained.

It’s Friday night and the three of us walk home…

I lay next to Heshy on the couch, comforted by the warmth of his body. As usual, the bachelor pad that Mendy and Heshy shared was filled with assorted members of the Monsey underworld. Most were ex-Chasidic, whether or not…

We pack up the car and pile in. We drive for an unfortunately short half an hour. When we arrive, their smiles are gaudy and curious. A child takes my coat, revealing my bare forearms. Anger registers on…