Includes bibliographical references and index.

Print version record.

Cover -- becoming un-orthodox: stories of ex-hasidic jews -- copyright -- dediaction -- a note on terminology -- contents

Acknowledgments chapter one: the life worldsof hasidic jews -- hasidic life: the metanarrative and religious bodily practices

Overview of orthodoxy hasidic families -- narratives and embodiment -- chapter two: tears in the sacred canopy

Exposure to the secular world ehud -- sam -- abby -- secular relatives -- leah -- rutie -- non-normative families -- leah

Sarah shlomo -- abuse -- adina -- abby -- hadas -- feminist critique -- adina -- rutie -- leah

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 verba.

English.