Becoming Un-Orthodox: Stories of Ex-Hasidic Jews

by Lynn Davidman

Overview

Leaving a religion is not merely a matter of losing or rejecting faith. For many, it involves dramatic changes of everyday routines and personal habits.

Davidman bases her analysis on in-depth conversations with forty ex-Hasidic individuals. From these conversations emerge accounts of the great fear, angst, and sense of danger that come of leaving a highly bounded enclave community. Many of those interviewed spoke of feeling marginal in their own communities; of strain in their homes due to death, divorce, or their parents' profound religious differences; experienced sexual, physical, or verbal abuse; or expressed an acute awareness of gender inequality, the dissimilar lives of their secular relatives, and forbidden television shows, movies, websites, and books.

Becoming Un-Orthodox draws much-needed attention to the vital role of the body and bodily behavior in religious practices. It is through physical rituals and routines that the members of a religion, particularly a highly conservative one, constantly create, perform, and reinforce the culture of the religion. Because of the many observances and daily rituals required by their faith, Hasidic defectors are an exemplary case study for exploring the centrality of the body in shaping, maintaining, and shedding religions.

This book provides both a moving narrative of the struggles of Hasidic defectors and a compelling call for greater collective understanding of the complex significance of the body in society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199380503
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/01/2014
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	1,063,470
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Lynn Davidman is the Beren Distinguished Professor of Modern Jewish Studies and Professor of Sociology at the University of Kansas. She is the author of Tradition in a Rootless World, which won a National Jewish Book Award, Motherloss, and Feminist Perspectives in Jewish Studies, co-edited with Shelly Tenenbaum. Her research has appeared in such journals as Sociology of Religion and Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. She serves on the advisory board of the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University and is a member of the editorial board for Qualitative Sociology.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction - Haredi Life: The Metanarrative and Religious Bodily Practices
Chapter 2 - Tears in the Sacred Canopy
Chapter 3 - First Transgressions
Chapter 4 - Passing
Chapter 5 - Stepping
Conclusion - You Can't Turn Off Your Past
Notes
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

10/20/2014
Through conversations with 40 “defectors” from different types of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Judaism, Davidman (Tradition in a Rootless World) provides a fascinating view of the conflicts, both internal and external, faced by those who leave tightly cohesive and socially restrictive Jewish groups. Davidman argues that the shift away from the Haredi worldview takes place not predominantly through the acceptance or rejection of articles of faith, but through a shift in how the person views and practices the physical ritual acts through which the Jewish worldview is transmitted and made tangible. The book includes a clear introduction explaining the methodology of the interviews, as well as terms potentially confusing to those not familiar with the sociology of religion, such as “tears in the sacred canopy” (an extension of the image connoting worldview, developed by sociologist Peter Berger). This solid book, an important contribution to the body of work on shifts in religious identity and affiliation, also illuminates the force and importance of ritual in Jewish life. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"An important contribution."—Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion

"A fascinating view of the conflicts, both internal and external, faced by those who leave tightly cohesive and socially restrictive Jewish groups This solid book, an important contribution to the body of work on shifts in religious identity and affiliation, also illuminates the force and importance of ritual in Jewish life."—Publishers Weekly

"Lynn Davidman offers us a window into the hearts and minds of young Jews who have left the world of ultra-Orthodoxy. Offering a range of reasons for their departure, they describe both their love and frustration with pious communities, as well as with the constrictions and, at times, lovelessness, and even abuse they experienced in their families. An excellent study of an important and growing phenomenon."
—Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College

"This is the best-written and most insightful study yet of those who abandon Orthodoxy, breaking with the religious worlds in which they were raised. Award-winning sociologist Lynn Davidman highlights the role played by rituals of the body in the whole process of becoming un-Orthodox. Her broad lens and rich comparative insights elevate this study into a major contribution to the study of religion."
—Jonathan D. Sarna, President, Association for Jewish Studies; Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, and Chair, Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program, Brandeis University

"This is a beautifully-written and important book. It is not only a masterful contribution to scholarship on contemporary Judaism, but the rare and moving story of those who have turned away from Orthodox Judaism, losing the only identities and communities they have ever known and endeavoring to reinvent and reconstruct them."
—Robert Wuthnow, Andlinger Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion, Princeton University

"A learned, imaginative study of defectors from Orthodox Jewish communities; Davidman's analysis of identity narratives and the process of transformation is original and provocative."
—Joyce Antler, Samuel Lane Professor of American Jewish History and Culture, Brandeis University

"...[The] discussions of theory, methodology, and interview questions are enlightening. This is a resource for those interested in religious change or American Judaism." —CHOICE

"Becoming Un-Orthodox is clear and readable, eschewing the jargon so prevalent in contemporary anthropological studies that touch upon identity transformation."— Yoel Finkelman, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews

From the Publisher