 | This article needs to be updated.(June 2020) |
 | |
| Formation | December 2003 |
|---|---|
| Founders | Malkie Schwartz |
| Legal status | not-for-profit organization |
| Purpose | support for people leaving the U.S. Haredi Jewish community |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| Website | www |
Footsteps is a not-for-profit organization based in New York City that provides educational, vocational, and social support to people who have left or want to leave a Haredi or Hasidic Jewish community in the United States. [1]
Footsteps is an organization that offers educational, vocational, professional, social, and legal support to individuals transitioning from ultra-Orthodox communities into mainstream society. According to its website, many people from the Haredi and Hasidic communities who make this shift often feel like "cultural immigrants," experiencing disorientation and isolation, alongside a lack of practical and marketable skills. Founded in December 2003, Footsteps provides resources to help those navigating this transition. Those who leave these communities often refer to themselves as "off the derech" (OTD), a term originally used dismissively by members of the ultra-Orthodox communities but now embraced by individuals reclaiming their journey of self-determination. [2] [3]
Footsteps was founded in December 2003, by Malkie Schwartz, a former Chabad Hasid from Crown Heights, while enrolled as a student at Hunter College in New York City. According to Schwartz, 20 people showed up to the first meeting, announced on flyers around the Hunter campus and through word of mouth. [4] Footsteps began as an informal social group, and soon developed an educational study group and a sex education and relationships group, members finding they had been denied access to basic sex education instruction within the Haredi community.
As the organization grew, it became a 501(c) non-profit, with a broad remit of support and education for ex-Haredi Jews. [3] Footsteps can also provide counseling, and has partnered with New York Legal Assistance Group to provide legal assistance and advice in divorce and custody cases. [5]
As of 2015 [update] , Footsteps had a permanent staff of 10, a membership of over 1000, and an annual budget in excess of $1 million. [5] Its current director is Lani Santo. [2] The organization's program director is Chani Getter. [6] [7]
Footsteps provides an array of services for its members. The Footsteps offices are known as "The Space", and are situated at an unpublicized location, due to privacy concerns. [8] They contain a computer lab, library, meeting space, kitchenette, and lounge, where members can work and hang out. Members gather for various groups, events, and workshops on topics including dating and sexuality, navigating the college admissions process, career advancement, and painting. [9]
Footsteps also holds several annual events, which are open to members and guests. Events include: Thanksgiving dinner, Passover Potluck, and an annual camping trip. Since 2009, "Footsteps Celebrates" has been held each year in June, to celebrate graduations, accomplishments, and leadership roles. [10] During the summer months of 2012, Footsteps organized a weekly soccer game in Prospect Park. During winter, an indoor game of basketball took place bi-weekly. [11]
Footsteps has also held annual art shows in which it exhibits works by Footsteps members. [12]
Abby Stein, a formerly Ultra-Orthodox rabbi and author in her book Becoming Eve, [13] as well as in numerous interviews, credits Footsteps with helping her succeed after she left the Hasidic community, even calling their work "life saving." [14] In a March 2021 interview with the New York magazine, she credits Footsteps therapists with helping her both, when she left the Hasidic community, and later when she came out as transgender women, saying that speaking with a Footsteps social worker "was the first time I ever spoke to a professional where I felt listened to, as opposed to feeling like a problem that needed solving." [15]
Board members include author Shulem Deen and businessman Steve Eisman. [16]
Footsteps has been featured in numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, PBS, NBC, and many others. The book Unchosen: The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels by Hella Winston relates the story of the founder of Footsteps and some of those who have gone through the organization as part of their journey to leave the Haredi and Hasidic communities. The National Geographic program, "Inside Hasidism", included a segment about Footsteps and some of its members. [17] The 2017 documentary, One of Us , features Footsteps and its members extensively. [18]
Hasidism or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those affiliated with the movement, known as hassidim, reside in Israel and in the United States.
Haredi Judaism is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that is characterized by its strict interpretation of religious sources and its accepted halakha and traditions, in opposition to more accommodating values and practices. Its members are usually referred to as ultra-Orthodox in English, a term considered pejorative by many of its adherents, who prefer the terms strictly Orthodox or Haredi. Haredim regard themselves as the most authentic custodians of Jewish religious law and tradition which, in their opinion, is binding and unchangeable. They consider all other expressions of Judaism, including Modern Orthodoxy, as deviations from God's laws, although other movements of Judaism would disagree.
Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch, is a dynasty in Hasidic Judaism. Belonging to the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) branch of Orthodox Judaism, it is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, as well as one of the largest Jewish religious organizations. Unlike most Haredi groups, which are self-segregating, Chabad mainly operates in the wider world and caters to nonobservant Jews.
Agudath Israel of America is an American organization that represents Haredi Orthodox Jews. It is loosely affiliated with the international World Agudath Israel. Agudah seeks to meet the needs of the Haredi community, advocates for its religious and civil rights, and services its constituents through charitable, educational, and social service projects across North America.
Jewish education is the transmission of the tenets, principles, and religious laws of Judaism. Jews value education, and the value of education is strongly embedded in Jewish culture. Judaism places a heavy emphasis on Torah study, from the early days of studying the Tanakh.
Off the derech is a Yeshiva-English expression used to describe the state of a Jew who has left an Orthodox way of life or community, and whose new lifestyle is secular, non-Jewish, or of a non-Orthodox form of Judaism, as part of a contemporary social phenomenon tied to the digital, postmodern and post-postmodern eras. In its broadest sense it can also include those changing to a milder form of Orthodoxy. Despite the term's pejorative and controversially dichotomic and definitive nature, it has become popular in use among Orthodox people, is found in mainstream literature, and has also been reclaimed by some OTD individuals.
From the founding of political Zionism in the 1890s, Haredi Jewish leaders voiced objections to its secular orientation, and before the establishment of the State of Israel, the vast majority of Haredi Jews were opposed to Zionism, like early Reform Judaism, but with distinct reasoning. This was chiefly due to the concern that secular nationalism would redefine the Jewish nation from a religious community based in their alliance to God for whom adherence to religious laws were "the essence of the nation's task, purpose, and right to exists," to an ethnic group like any other as well as the view that it was forbidden for the Jews to re-constitute Jewish rule in the Land of Israel before the arrival of the Messiah. Those rabbis who did support Jewish resettlement in Palestine in the late 19th century had no intention to conquer Palestine and declare its independence from the rule of the Ottoman Turks, and some preferred that only observant Jews be allowed to settle there.
Hashkafa is the Hebrew term for worldview and guiding philosophy, used almost exclusively within Orthodox Judaism. A hashkafa is a perspective that Orthodox Jews adopt that defines many aspects of their lives. Hashkafa thus plays a crucial role in how these interact with the world around them, and influences individual beliefs about secularity, gender roles, and modernity. In that it guides many practical decisions—where to send children to school, what synagogue to attend, and what community to live in—hashkafa works in conjunction with halakha or Jewish law.
Orthodox Jewish outreach, often referred to as Kiruv or Qiruv, is the collective work or movement of Orthodox Judaism that reaches out to non-observant Jews to encourage belief in God and life according to Jewish law. The process of a Jew becoming more observant of Orthodox Judaism is called teshuva making the "returnee" a baal teshuva. Orthodox Jewish outreach has worked to enhance the rise of the baal teshuva movement.
The response of the Haredi Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York City, to allegations of sexual abuse against its spiritual leaders has drawn scrutiny from inside and outside the Jewish community. When teachers, rabbis, and other leaders have been accused of sexual abuse, authorities in the Haredi community have often failed to report offenses to Brooklyn police, intimidated witnesses, and encouraged shunning against victims and those members of the community who speak out against cases of abuse, although work has been done within Jewish communities to begin to address the issue of sexual abuse. Additionally, the existence of sexual abuse has also been used to promote stereotypes or fuel Antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Mavar is a UK-registered charitable organisation providing professional support to people who have left or want to leave the Haredi Jewish community. It provides financial, educational, legal, and emotional support enabling people to find new communities and support networks after Haredi Judaism.
Young Advocates for Fair Education is an advocacy group dedicated to improving secular education in Haredi Jewish schools. The group advocates for curricular changes within schools, in compliance with New York State law.
Luzer Twersky is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his role in the film Felix and Meira, for which he garnered a Jutra Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor at the 18th Jutra Awards and won the Best Actor award at the Amiens International Film Festival and the Torino International Film Festival.
Shulem Deen is an American author, essayist, former Skver Hasid, and critic of Hasidic Judaism. He is the author of the memoir All Who Go Do Not Return (2015), and is a regular columnist at The Forward. He is also the founding editor of Unpious, a journal for voices critical of Hasidic lifestyle and beliefs.
Abby Chava Stein is an Israeli-American transgender author, rabbi, activist, blogger, model, and speaker. She is the first openly transgender woman raised in a Hasidic community, and is a direct descendant of Hasidic Judaism's founder, the Baal Shem Tov. In 2015, she founded one of the first support groups nationwide for trans people with an Orthodox Jewish background who have left Orthodox Judaism.
One of Us is a 2017 documentary feature film that chronicles the lives of three ex-Hasidic Jews from Brooklyn. The film was directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, who also created the documentary Jesus Camp. One of Us opened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2017, and was distributed the following month of October via Netflix, which also financed the film.
Chani Getter is an American counselor and interfaith minister focusing on those leaving the Haredi Jewish community and those in transition. They are also an activist and educator who supports the LGBTQ community.
Shulem Lemmer, known professionally simply as "Shulem," is an American Belz Hasidic singer from Borough Park, Brooklyn, in New York City. He is the first born-and-raised Charedi Jew to sign a major record contract with a leading label, Universal Music Group, under its classical music Decca Gold imprint.
The Besht Yeshiva Dresden is a Jewish educational institution in Dresden, Germany and the first founded Yeshiva in East Germany after the Shoah, as well as the first liberal-Hasidic yeshiva in the world. It was named after the founder of the Hasidic movement, Baal Shem Tov.
Freidom, originally OTD Meetup, is a non-profit organization based in New York City that hosts social and cultural events for former Haredi Jews in a dozen cities throughout the US and Canada.
