FailedMessiah.com

Report: Haredi Street Kids Murdered Arab Boy

Ex-haredim and haredi street kids allegedly murdered 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir.

Charity To Help Ex-Haredim Opens In Britain

“We do have a small minority who choose to opt out and that’s their choice but there are many more who choose to opt in," Rabbi Pinter said. But Pinter is "completely ignoring the hardship, intimidation and huge amount resources the community leaders (people like him) put against anyone who dares to make such a 'choice,' a British source told FailedMessiah.com.

Ex-Haredi To Be Awarded Top Israeli Honor

Israel Defense Forces Sgt. David Adani left the haredi home of his parents and eight siblings in Bnei Brak to pursue a secular identity at the age of 15. He gave up his studies, loitered the streets with nothing to do and soon fell in with the wrong crowd. From there, his path to a life of crime was a short one. Police became a perennial presence and within three years, at age 18, he had already been convicted of a crime. And now he is about to receive Israel's Presidential Medal of Excellence from President Shimon Peres and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz.

Video: Footsteps – Project Freedom

"As part of our 10th anniversary year, we are proud to announce the launch of Footsteps Project Freedom a series of videos in which our members express what freedom means to them. First up is Sara Erenthal, a performance artist and painter who finds freedom in creating art, a passion she only discovered after she left ultra-Orthodoxy and joined Footsteps."

Israel Extends Haredi University Prep Education Benefits To Ex-Haredim

"…because the educational background of ex-Haredim is identical to the background of Haredi students, one must not discriminate in the provision of support between the two groups. Therefore, it is clear that these [ex-haredi] students are entitled to the same (financial) aid and prerequisite entry conditions.…"

When Israeli Haredim Want To Leave, They Often Find They Have Nowhere To Go

"Although the government is now offering a growing range of vocational training programs and grants for ultra-Orthodox men and women interested in joining the workforce, only those who remain Haredi are eligible. What choice is there but to remain inside and raise another generation in denial?"

How Ex-Haredi Memoirs Became New York Publishing’s Hottest New Trend

Have memoirs written by young ex-haredim become the New York publishing world's hottest trend? Why?

Recent Suicides Among Ex-Haredim In Israel Shock, Trouble Friends, Professionals Alike

“The young people who gathered Sunday at Jerusalem’s Shamgar Funeral Home were unfortunately no strangers to the place. Only Thursday they had been there for the funeral of M., a friend who had committed suicide, and now they were there for A., who had also taken her own life.…"

Video: Shalom Auslander Speaks At Footsteps 10th Anniversary Event

OBSCENE LANGUAGE WARNING: The well-known author – who also happens to be  Rabbi Norman Lamm's nephew – talks about leaving Orthodoxy. Auslander manages to be obscene, funny and profound all at the same time.

Knesset Committee To Hold Hearing On Funding Ex-Haredim

The Knesset's Committee on Public Petitions is holding ahearing tomorrow morning on funding groups that help haredim who have chosen to leave haredi communities and on funding ex-haredim.

Video: Ex-Haredim Talk About Footsteps And Leaving Ultra-Orthodoxy

A new video, Footsteps: The Journey, for your viewing pleasure (or displeasure, depending on who you are).

Brooklyn Haredi Kiruv Rabbi Says There Is An “Onslaught” Of Haredim Who Are Really “Closet Atheists,” Launches Anti-Footsteps Program

"…[T]here is an onslaught of frum [Orthodox and haredi] people that are r”l [may the Merciful One {i.e., God} protect us] closet atheists who no longer believe in Hashem [God] and are no longer Shomer Torah u’Mitzvos [Torah and Jewish law observant]. Many of these people are married and even have children and in many instances their wives and children have no idea of their spouse or father’s secret identity.…"

A Death In The OTD Family: "At Least She Will Have Pious Descendants"

Deb Tambor died, apparently a suicide, distraught over losing her children to the well-oiled, cunning, deceitful New Square hasidic onslaught against her. How did her still-hasidic family react to her death? By tweeting happy birthday wishes to another family member.

A Death In The OTD Family: Who Wants To Be Buried Next To Her? Her Family Is Very Ashamed

“Who wants to be buried next to this lady? It’s very difficult to know where to put her. I hear they called up the rabbonim in Israel and they told them the decision [to bury her outside New Square].…The family is ashamed [of her]. They’re very ashamed.”

A Death In The OTD Family

Here was a woman who lost her children (to what objective cult experts call a cult) with the help of a judicial system so corrupted by hasidic bloc votes (and, allegedly, hasidic bribes) that a fair resolution of custody disputes involving Sqvere hasidim is almost impossible to achieve.

Ex-Orthodox Transsexual Woman Standing For Australian Federal Parliament

Melissa Starr is running for Australia's parliament on the the Sex Party ticket. She's Jewish, a former BT – and a transsexual.

Video: Former Haredi Yeshiva Head, Now Secular, Explains His Journey To – And From – Religion

Rabbi Yaron Yadan explains how and why he became haredi, why he stayed haredi for 17 years and headed an advanced yeshiva for married men, and why and how he finally left the haredi fold – with his entire family intact.

When Rabbis Become Atheists

A new study deals with the surprising number of rabbis – including Zionist Orthodox and haredi rabbis – who are closet atheists.

Video: NBC Rock Center – Leaving The Haredi World

Here's the full video of ex-haredim from Friday night's Rock Center broadcast.

Video: Inside A Hasidic Wedding – We're Not Marrying The One We Love, NBC Rock Center

NBC's Rock Center has a segment tomorrow night on hasidim. Here's a preview called, Inside A Hasidic Wedding – We're Not Marrying The One We Love.

Video: Ex-Haredi, Footsteps Staffer, On Katie Couric Show

“She said, ‘Leah if you try to go to college we are going to have you locked up.’”

Ex-Haredi On Katie Couric's Show Tomorrow

As part of a series on people who have left fundamentalist religions, an ex-haredi woman will be on Katie Couric's show tomorrow at 3:00 pm eastern time.

Synagogues' Parsha Sheet Punked – Obscenely

On the surface, it looked like a pious poem titled "Talks of Holiness," and Olam Katan, a weekly parsha sheet handed out in synagogues across Israel, published it. But when read together, the first letter of each line forms an acrostic that says something very different.

Haredi Nursing Student Loses Her Faith, Haredi Nursing School Expels Her For It

A haredi nursing student was kicked out of a nursing school linked to Laniado Hospital in Netanya and the Sanz hasidic dynasty because she had a crisis of religious faith.

Video: Samuel Heilman On Leaving Haredi Judaism

Sociologist Samuel Heilman talks about the haredi community and why some choose to leave it – and why those who do face such an uphill battle.

Video: Leaving Haredi Judaism

"We are seeing a lot more [haredim trying to leave ultra-Orthodoxy], just in this year alone, we’ve seen a 60% increase in our membership and in new people coming to us, and that’s compared to a 35% increase that we’ve been on for the last few years." – Lani Santo, Footsteps.

Israeli Pol Wants To Give Ex-Haredim Government Benefits Like New Immigrants

If passed, Zahava Gal-On’s bill would give former haredim benefits like those currently given to new immigrants to Israel, along with providing education and employment training benefits to help ex-haredim – who often have no secular education and few jobs skills – find ways to be self-supporting.

Leaving Haredism For The Israeli Army

Volunteers man the [ex-haredi help organization] Hillel hotline, where they receive their fair share of hang-ups and whispering voices, callers likely ringing from home and terrified of being found out. Questions range from “Can you get me a girl?” to “If I stop keeping Shabbat, will I die?” “It’s important that we don’t create another rabbi figure for them, what we do is to make sure they’re mature enough to make this choice,. It’s not our role to tell them if there’s a God or not. It’s our role to ask them if they have food to eat the next day, since many are finding themselves on the street.”

Haredim Burn Jerusalem “House Of Prostitution”

Large numbers of police and firefighters rushed to the Shmuel HaNavi neighborhood of Jerusalem last night after an apartment containing what local haredi rabbis and haredi activists call a “house of prostitution” – but really appears to be nothing more than the home of an ex-haredi woman and her children – was set on fire.

Video: Ex-Haredim Thank Footsteps

Ex-haredim who now have new lives through the help of Footsteps say thank you to Footstep's management, donor and volunteers.

Haredim Reportedly Stoned By Neighbors At Jerusalem “Brothel” Protest

Last night, haredi rabbis and several dozen local residents reportedly protested outside an apartment in the Shmuel HaNavi neighborhood of Jerusalem that haredim say is a brothel run by a former haredi woman, a mother of many children. But the haredi protest did not go as planned.

Matisyahu To Perform During Tisha B'Av Fast

Matisyahu has a scheduled performance in New York City Sunday, during the Tisha B'Av fast commemorating the destruction of the 1st and 2nd Jerusalem Temples.

Breaking With Hasidism: How The Internet Helped A Hasidic Woman Think – And Flee

"In my Hasidic community, people knew me as the young newlywed, mother of one, daughter of so-and-so, and married to such-and-such, with a scarf over my head and an apartment in the new development. But on the Internet, I was anonymous. I was anyone. I was everyone. I was a mystery, and I was hidden. I was whoever I wanted to be, and I could say whatever I wanted to say without fear.…"

The Ex-Haredi Dating Coach, Part 2

Sara, who three years ago left her husband, and three weeks ago decided once and for all that there is no God, doesn’t fit the profile of a divorcée on the prowl: She’s 22 years old. Her baggy sweater hides her figure. She doesn’t drink. Oh, and she’s never had a conversation with a secular man.

Hasidic Rapper Comes Out As Gay

“I feel like I’ve wasted years of my life worrying that it would alienate the community I dedicated my life to as an artist and as a man. But my hope is that it will open their eyes—and hearts.”

Haredi Parents Allegedly Throw Hot Oil At Children Who Would Not Make A Blessing Over Food

An unusual demonstration was held in Bene-Braq in the afternoon hours. A secular group together with six family members who turned secular, stood on Avnei Nezer Street, opposite their parents’ home, carrying signs protesting their parents’ violence.…

Leaving The Rebbe For Music

The music duo Wolf ‏+ Lamb duo talk about leaving Orthodoxy and finding their groove.

Ex-Haredi Wants To Create Secular Halakha

“My older brother told me that it would have been better if I were killed in a car accident, because that way, in his view, I would have been killed without having sinned. My father asked Rabbi Schach what to do, and he told him not to perform any rituals of excommunication and not to sit shivah. But my father didn’t speak to me for 10 years. Emissaries were sent to try to get me to change my mind, and the peak was when they brought in Uri Zohar, who spent a whole night trying to scare me with a depiction of hell that was totally superficial. It didn’t work.”

Ex-Orthodox, Ex-Haredi Dinner At 92nd Street Y Tribeca

Manhattan's 92nd Street Y Tribeca is having a dinner this Friday night specifically for ex-haredim and ex-Orthodox.

Ex-Hasid Death Metal Band Flourishes – In Crown Heights

It was Saturday afternoon, and all through Crown Heights, sleepy heads were nodding. But deep in the basement of a foreclosed row house on Empire Boulevard, a stone’s throw from the seat of the Chabad-Lubavitch sect of Hasidic Judaism from which they hail, a group of unorthodox rockers were giving Black Sabbath a new meaning.…

Ex-Hasid Turns Dating Coach

Israel Irenstein left Brooklyn's Gerrer hasidic community and learned how to date. Now he teaches other ex-haredim how to meet and romance women. And he does it for free through Footsteps.

Thinking Weakens Religious Faith, Study Shows

A new study finds that rational analytical thinking weakens religious belief. (That may be why rational analytical thinking appears to be so rare in religious movements, and why it is rarely stressed or taught by religious leaders.)

Fleeing To Freedom: Escaping Haredi Arranged Marriages

When I was 19, my family arranged for me to marry a man who turned out to be violent. With no education and no job, and a family that refused to help me, I was stuck. By age 20, I was a trapped, abused, stay-at-home mother. Ten years later, still trapped and unhappy, I finally took what became one of my first steps away from Orthodox Judaism: I stopped wearing a head covering. The consequences were swift and severe. My family cut off contact with me; one of my five siblings kept in touch long enough to inform me the others were contemplating sitting shiva for me, or mourning as if I had died.

Ex-Hasidim Have Reality TV Show

The Real Hasidim of New York are coming to reality TV.

Set Your TiVos or DVRs

National Geographic's documentary on the hasidic world and those who leave it premieres tonight at 10 pm Eastern. Here's a brief video preview…

Leading A Double Life In The Haredi World

He looks like any other Hassidic man – shtreimel, long side locks and black-and-white attire included. But the appearance is just a façade…

Feldman Says Ex-Husband Slept With Her Cousin

Deborah Feldman's web of lies and intrigue continues to grow larger.

More Evidence Deborah Feldman Lied

Deborah Feldman, the author of the memoir "Unorthodox," makes it seem as if she attended strict Satmar schools her entire life before going to Sarah Lawrence College. Here is proof she attended a much less strict haredi school first. Along with that, I've included evidence that she may have been happier at home and in school than she wrote in her book.

A Picture Exposes The Lie

A smiling, happy Deborah Feldman poses with her smiling, happy parents when Feldman was about 7 years old – years after Feldman claims her mother "abandoned" her.

Deborah Feldman's Parent's Divorce Record

Here it is, just to prove again that the divorce was in 2010. Which means when her mother said she left her husband seven years before the divorce, she left in 2003 – more than a decae after Feldman claimed she left.