Off the Derech

<p><b>Combines powerful first-person accounts with incisive scholarly analysis to understand the phenomenon of ultra-Orthodox Jews who leave their insular communities and venture into the wider world.</b></p><p>In recent years many formerly ultra-Orthodox Jews have documented leaving their communities in published stories films and memoirs. This movement is often identified as off the <i>derech</i> (OTD) or off the path with the idea that the path is paved by Jewish law rituals and practices found within their birth communities. This volume tells the powerful stories of people abandoning their religious communities and embarking on uncertain journeys toward new lives and identities within mainstream society. <i>Off the Derech</i> is divided into two parts: stories and analysis. The first includes original selections from contemporary American and global authors writing about their OTD experiences. The second features chapters by scholars representing such diverse fields as literature history sociology psychology anthropology religion and gender studies. The interdisciplinary lenses provide a range of methodologies by which readers can better understand this significant phenomenon within contemporary Jewish society.</p>