So far, since about two weeks ago when I handed in grades for this semester, I've finished Dancing Girls by Margaret Atwood (which I had been slowly reading since January sometime), re-read the last Harry Potter book and the new Chuck Palahniuk book (Rant), and started reading Bait and Switch by Barbera Ehrenreich. I'm almost done with that though, and I don't have any new books I particularly want to read in my queue right now (I've been about half way through A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn for like 3 years now, but reading it feels too much like school, so it'll continue to live half-read on my night stand indefinitely), so it's time for new books.
I read a Column in the Huffington Post today (my favorite super-lefty daily news source) written by Elissa Wall, who left the FLDS church. This reminded me that I had been wanted to read another book by someone who left the FLDS church, and while I was at it, I figured I could read a book by someone who left orthodox judaism as well.
The reason I started this blog is because last year when my grandmother died, at the funeral my dad used about 20% of the eulogy to talk about his mother, and about 80% to talk about how he has to make sure his children are orthodox jews to "honor" his mother (who ironically was "traditional," not orthodox, and went to a conservative shul). I was very hurt by this, and one random day started searching google to try and find other people who had left orthodox judaism. I came across Jewish Atheist's blog, and was inspired to start my own.
The point here being is that many blogs in the little circle that is the former-orthodox-jewish-current-skeptics-blogosphere are about intellectual critisisms of Judaism, but what I was looking for, and what I try to write about, is the actual personal experiences of leaving a lifestyle which you were raised in, and which all of your family lives by. Sometimes this blog has descended into people bickering about bullshit (ie who I really am "thanking" on thanksgiving if I don't believe in god), but really, I have no interest in fighting about my beliefs or lack thereof. I'm just looking for some people who are going through similar experiences as I am, so I feel a little less lonely on this journey.
Anyways, back to my original point, the theme of the books I just ordered on amazon.com to start off my summer reading list is that of people leaving their fundementalist religious upbringing. They are:
Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall
A Former FLDS member
Escape By Carolyn Jessop
Another former FLDS member
Foreskins Lament by Shalom Auslander
A former orthodox jew who grew up in Monsey (where I went to high school!), this book has been mentioned on many a skeptic's blog, so I figured I would check it out. Plus this seems to be the only book out there about leaving Orthodox Judaism, unless I'm mistaken (but looking at related books, and what other people who bought this book have bought, that seems to be the case)
And finally Beware of God: Stories by Shalom Auslander
Same guy who wrote Foreskins Lament, cause what the heck, it was only $10.
I haven't read Auslander yet, but from the excerpts I've seen he seems to be bitter and obnoxious, as well as giving a very oversimplified negative view of OJ.
ReplyDelete" Yehudi Hilchati said...
ReplyDeleteI haven't read Auslander yet, but from the excerpts I've seen he seems to be bitter and obnoxious, as well as giving a very oversimplified negative view of OJ."
And that's leaving aside the question of whether he projects his view of others unto them and also the question as to whether he doesn't take the path that some have taken of taking liberties with ones history for the sake of literary style. Of course let the buyer beware. I remember reading a novelistic sounding supposedly true story except that it wasn't true because the supposed Lubavitcher Shaliach was nonexistent as they are organized and know all of them and he wasn't real and at the supposed event. In any event he would have made a strange Lubavitcher to look at as he was described as having peyos down to his shoulders something Lubavitchers do not have as they go for moderation in look down to the peyos.
"The reason I started this blog is because last year when my grandmother died, at the funeral my dad used about 20% of the eulogy to talk about his mother, and about 80% to talk about how he has to make sure his children are orthodox jews to "honor" his mother (who ironically was "traditional," not orthodox, and went to a conservative shul). I was very hurt by this, and one random day started searching google to try and find other people who had left orthodox judaism."
ReplyDeleteYou felt hurt but he has a right to feel hurt too. The best way to resolve the situation is addresing why you both feel hurt. If you can emotionally accept the idea that he cannot accept everything you do as correct just like you have done the same with him, it will be a start.
> and what I try to write about, is the actual personal experiences of leaving a lifestyle ... I'm just looking for some people who are going through similar experiences as I am, so I feel a little less lonely on this journey.
ReplyDeleteNow, that's a sentiment I can agree with. I too focus my blog on the skeptical journey, not so much the debate.
I found this book very interesting too. About two brothers that grew up kinda traditional if i recall and one went crazy frum off the deep end the other became a journalist (liberal, if you can imagine) - just complete opposites. Its from the journalists point of view SO INTERESTING
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Chosen-God-Brothers-Joshua-Hammer/dp/0786886013/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211316905&sr=8-2
"I haven't read Auslander yet, but from the excerpts I've seen he seems to be bitter and obnoxious, as well as giving a very oversimplified negative view of OJ."
ReplyDeleteYeah. He's definitely bitter. But its an understandable bitterness from the way he describes his childhood.
Also, he does such a good job of describing the mindset of someone growing up in an MO community. And he's SO funny.
"I'm just looking for some people who are going through similar experiences as I am, so I feel a little less lonely on this journey."
I completely hear you on this.
I read Auslander's Foreskin's Lament and while it was funny, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Auslander doesn't seem to have any regard for the privacy of people he mentions and identifies by name (although in some cases the names appear to have been made up.) I don't know how much of what he wrote was true, and how much was fictionalized, but to me it's not right to use your memoirs to expose identifiable non-public figures to ridicule. And I agree with YH that Auslander comes off, if not obnoxious, certainly distasteful.
ReplyDeleteOHO if you are looking for an account of an experience of someone who had gone through a similar experience as you are, although in a different context you might want to look at Witness by Whittaker Chambers.
Full disclosure: It's often on conservative reading lists, and most liberals I've met who haven't read it think that it's something different from what it really is. I thought the book was absolutely riveting. (There are parts that you might wonder why he put in, but they make sense as you read more and realize that he's talking about controversies about some of the minor but notable public figures of the time.)
Ichabod Chrain