Faith in Flux: Voices from the Fringes of Ultra-Orthodox Judaism

A curated bibliography of doubt and criticism by current and former Ultra-Orthodox Jews in the US

May 23, 2023

Crossposted at my Academia.edu page, under the title “21st-century heresy, doubt, and criticism by disaffiliates of ultra-Orthodox Judaism in the US - a selected bibliography” (registration required)

In the past two decades, both on social media and in mainstream media, we have witnessed an explosion of windows into some of the darker parts of the contemporary ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. These include topics such as deficient secular education, the absence of vocational training, sexual abuse, and white collar crime.

This compilation of sources presents a diverse selection, based on what I perceive to be particularly significant. I hope this curated collection provides some valuable insight into this area.

Blogs

A significant portion of the sources come from the golden era of blogging (around 2005 to 2015). At times, critics, although self-identifying as Orthodox, direct their criticisms towards more radical variants of Orthodoxy, as exemplified by R’ Natan Slifkin on his blog Rationalist Judaism.

The researcher Ayala Fader writes: “The connection between secret life-changing doubt and the internet began roughly in 2002–2003, when disillusioned Modern Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews began to blog.”^[1]

Natan Slifkin - Wikipedia - Rationalist Judaism (recently went behind paywall).
Shmarya Rosenberg - Wikipedia - FailedMessiah.com (see especially FailedMessiah.com: Crime, Litigation, etc.)
Not the Godol Hador. Archived at Not the Godol Hador Archive By Month.^[2]
Katle Kanye.^[3]
Shtreimel.^[4]
Unpious, previously “Hasidic Rebel”, for example here.^[5]
Shpitzle Shtrimpkind.^[6]
Mis-Nagid.^[7]
Rabbi Pinky Schmeckelstein.^[8]
Frum Heretic
Gideon Slifkin - two blogs. “Godol Hador” (“GH”). Previous blog: http://godolhador.blogspot.com/
(GH). Pseudonyms: “GH”, “XGH” (meaning, “Ex-GH”). All blogposts no longer available.
The Shaigetz
Sitra Achra. Pseudonym: “Baal Devarim”
DOVBEAR
Ben Avuyah
Orthoprax
Baal Habos
Wolfish Musings
Shira Salamone - ON THE FRINGE—AL TZITZIT
Heshy Fried - Frum Satire. (Many links to other relevant websites: Links - Frum Satire.)
Luke Ford - Luke Ford. See here, for example: Heshy Fried Live In The Hovel! | Luke Ford
Abandoning Eden
Yerachmiel Lopin - FRUM FOLLIES by Yerachmiel Lopin
The Orthoprax Rabbi's Blog
Naftali Zeligman - Letter to My Rabbi ; A List of Some Problematic Issues ; Response to Rabbi Segal

TV

See also the extended list here: Off the derech - Wikipedia > “In Popular Culture”

Mendy: A Question of Faith (2003). “[A] 2003 film about a Hasidic Jewish man who leaves his religiously devout community in Brooklyn to experience secular life in New York City.”
Leaving the Fold (2008). “[A] 2008 documentary film on the lives of young men and women who left the Hasidic world of their youth. The young people featured in the film live in Canada, America, and Israel.”.
Code of Silence (2014 film). “[A] 2014 Australian documentary film of the life of Manny Waks and his Chabad Hasidic family who struggle in the aftermath of Waks' public disclosure of the sexual abuse he endured during his school years”.
One of Us (2017, film documentary). A 2017 documentary feature film that chronicles the lives of three ex-Hasidic Jews from Brooklyn.
Disobedience (2017 film). A 2017 romantic drama film.
Unorthodox (2020, German drama television miniseries on Netflix). Inspired by Deborah Feldman's 2012 autobiography, Unorthodox.
My Unorthodox Life (2022, reality television series by Netflix). Centers on Julia Haart.

Memoirs

Shalom Auslander, Foreskin's Lament (2007)
Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots (2012)
Eishes Chayil (pseudonym), Hush (2012)
Shulem Deen, All Who Go Do Not Return (2015)
Leah Lax, Uncovered: How I Left Hasidic Life and Finally Came Home (2015)
Leah (Jericho) Vincent, Cut Me Loose: Sin and Salvation After My Ultra-Orthodox Girlhood (2015)
Tova Mirvis, The Book of Separation (2017)
Julia Haart, Brazen: My Unorthodox Journey from Long Sleeves to Lingerie (2022)

Novels

Tova Mirvis, The Outside World (2004)
Naomi Alderman, Disobedience (2006)
Anouk Markovits, I Am Forbidden (2013)
Naomi Ragen, Unorthodox Match (2020)
L.S Einat, Immodest (2021)

Some responses

R’ Aharon Lopiansky, “Da Ma Shetashiv”: On Da Ma Shetashiv

Secondary literature (academic and popular)

See also here: Off the derech - Wikipedia > “Further Reading”

Hella Winston, Unchosen: The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels (2006)
Ayala Fader, “The Jewish Blogosphere and the Heretical Counterpublic”, chapter 2 in Hidden Heretics: Jewish Doubt in the Digital Age (2020).
Ayala Fader, “The counterpublic of the J(ewish) Blogosphere: gendered language and the mediation of religious doubt among ultra-Orthodox Jews”
Ezra Cappell & Jessica Lang (ed.), Off the Derech: Leaving Orthodox Judaism (2020)
Double Lifers - Jewish Review of Books
AURÉLIE MAYEMBO, Confessions of a Hasidic rebel | The Times of Israel
online diaries blogging and the hasidic life »

^[1] Fader, “The Jewish Blogosphere and the Heretical Counterpublic”, p. 32. I’d like to thank S. Hodes for help in obtaining this article. Re the some retrospectives on the heyday of “Jblogging”, see The Muqata: J-blogosphere Anthropologist - The Roarin' 60s ; Search for Emes: A Wake for XGH.

^[2] On this blog, see Fader, “The Jewish Blogosphere”, p. 38.

^[3] See Fader, “The Jewish Blogosphere”, pp. 42-44.

^[4] See Fader, “The Jewish Blogosphere”, pp. 44-49.

^[5] See Fader, “The Jewish Blogosphere”, pp. 44-49.

^[6] See Fader, “The Jewish Blogosphere”, pp. 49-52.

^[7] See Fader, “The Jewish Blogosphere”, pp. 52-55.

^[8] This author’s blog posts are parodies of Yeshivish lectures. See my recent article, “From the Shtetl to the Chatbot: Some contemporary sources of Yeshivish content, in light of ChatGPT-4”, where I discuss this blog, among others.