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| Some formerly religious Jews at Mosihe House (The Jewish Week) |
One of the things I talk about often here is the fact that
there are so many Jews that go ‘Off the Derech’ (OTD). This is when a religious Jew decides he no
longer wants to be religious. As noted here many times, there are a variety of
reasons this happens. Sometimes it is an intellectual decision as was the case
with Shulem Deen.
Other times it might be because of a dysfunctional religious family
situation that ‘teaches’ a child that being religious leads to dysfunction.
Still other times it might be because a child was sexually abused and treated miserably
by his or her community that disbelieves them - vilifying them as outcasts who
lied about the ‘respectable’ person they accused of the abuse.
Modern Orthodox (MO) Jews that
go OTD have additional reasons for doing so.
That there may be a large number of MO Jews that go OTD is a problem beyond the
scope of this post - the solutions for which are more complex. Ironically
though, the Modern Orthodox lifestyle may be part of the solution for the Charedi
OTD problem.
One of the more prevalent reasons is that some young people in
the world of the right go OTD is that they just don’t fit the mold that their community
requires of them. In some cases that means not being able to compete at the increasingly oppressive and competitive levels of religious education at
the schools they attend. In other cases it might just be that they cannot live
up to the strictures imposed upon them by the particular sect or group they
belong to. Or a combination of both. Especially since they see what the so-called outside world has to offer them
and can’t quite understand why they are so completely shielded from it. (Obviously this reason does not apply to Modern Orthodox OTDs)
This
problem is most acute in the Chasidic world where their rabbinic leaders go to
great lengths to isolate their people from the outside world. And to a lesser
extent this applies to the more Yeshivishe world too. But the more isolated,
the more it applies. Living in isolation from the rest of the world is the definitive
state of Chasidic lifestyle.
But that technique doesn’t work that well anymore. The internet
and smart-phones have changed everything! Be that as it may, I believe that
this rather large group of OTD young people are the ones that can be convinced
to voluntarily return to religious observance.
The strictures that causes these people to go OTD can be
corrected by offering them an alternative lifestyle that still enables them to
get what they are looking for while remaining observant. The obvious lifestyle I
am referring to is a Modern Orthodox lifestyle. While that would seem like a logical
first step for a Charedi youth affected negatively by the strictures of his own community, that ‘step’ is almost always skipped.
Unfortunately the reason for that is in part because the Chasidic
lifestyle in which they were raised is so unlike modern Orthdodxy - they feel
like aliens from another planet in such an environment. The feeling might be
reciprocal from the MO community to them. It is also true that Chasidim are indoctrinated to believe that being MO is tantamount to not being religious at
all. It is therefore not surprising that modern Orthodoxy has not been considered a realistic option for
them. So they just go completely OTD.
While the secular world is equally not compatible for them,
they have no place else to go. Which is
perhaps why there is so much depression, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and
even suicide among these young OTD people.
They have rejected their former religious community - and have been rejected by them.
Along came an organization called Footsteps that has helped
them make the transition from being Orthodox to being secular – with a goal of
mainstreaming them into the secular world.
This organization may have saved many lives. But they have been
accused of being an anti religious organization that deliberately disabuses their ‘clients’ of any thoughts about returning to religious observance. Leaders of Footsteps
deny that and say that they are not anti religious. They claim to
not deal at all with religious observance at all and could not care less about it one
way or another. They simply want to help people transition into a productive and
positive lifestyle in the secular world that they have now chosen to live in. That the vast majority of their clients choose not to be
observant is irrelevant to Footsteps.
I had in the past lamented why there was no ‘religious ‘Footsteps’
that could convince these young people that there is another way where they
could ‘have it all’. They could be
observant and participate in much of the culture legitimately - without violating
Halacha (unlike what they have been indoctrinated to believe by their former
communities). One such organization was founded by one of my heroes, Allison
Josephs. It is called ‘Makom’ and is designed to do exactly what I just
described: offer an alternative lifestyle that will give them much of what they
desired but were denied in the past.
“We have always appreciated and admired Footsteps. This felt like the perfect opportunity to specifically engage more folks from that community,” (says Moishe House founder and CEO David Cygielman)...
Moishe House, one of the fastest-growing outreach initiatives for Jews in their 20s, announced its newest house last week in the hip Brooklyn neighborhood, but this time with a twist: the house is staffed by four young Jews who recently broke with their ultra-Orthodox pasts.
“Most of our members live in Brooklyn, as well as most of our potential members — we expect that this house will not only serve official Footsteps’ members, but others who have left the ultra-Orthodox community for whom this space might be more resonant,” said Rachel Berger, director of community engagement for Footsteps, a nonprofit that helps Jews who have chosen to leave their chasidic or black-hat communities.
The pluralistic organization, previously geared primarily towards the unaffiliated, now aims to serve the growing “off the derech” community — a self-identified and growing group of Jews who have split with Orthodox pasts.
I could not be more pleased. There are now 104 Houses in 26
countries. Although most of these residences are geared towards expatriate
Lubavitchers they are open to OTD Jews from all kinds of Charedi backgrounds. And
apparently they embrace modernity as
a means to show their ‘clients’ that they can indeed have it all.
How successful are they? I don’t know. But it is interesting
that Chabad now has a Kiruv organization working on their OTDs. One that seems to use to use Modern Orthodoxy as a means toward that end. Will they will they be successful? I don’t know. It will be interesting to see how this develops.
