Community in Conflict: Hasidic Jews & Defection

we are trying to find a solution for the future the less they know the outside world the better is not acidic or secular insane it totally totally insane [Music] first of all people are part of the custody community for several reasons one because they like it second because this is all they know in order to preserve their unique identity and the traditions they believe that they should remain isolated from the rest of the world so when I grew up I wasn't letting the mingle with anyone so it's a tight-knit community that is there for you as long as you fit their profile of how you look and how you behave as soon as you deviate from that path they block you out think about it if you're poor and you're part of the consetta community they'll take good care of you there's no extent you'll get the food packages you know for for holidays and and some would even implore you just because you're part of our community if you decide to leave you know you risk losing all of that about two years after I dropped out of you Siva this friend who I mentioned he actually like he said that my class is having a reunion he asked me to go and then he kept pressuring me so eventually I was like okay I'll just show up so I show up they're like I'm a jeans and t-shirt and they're all like in the bike hats and coats and like everyone's like looking at me like oh like they started asking me what I do like they were like oh do you smoke Dedra I do do drugs a little stuff so I explain that no I'm I clean school and I'm studying all these studies and so one of my friend he's actually really smart he asked me like he mention math like what he's studying math so I was actually studying AP calculus I obviously like couldn't tell my uncle we would have no clue what I'm doing so I told him like I'm learning advanced math so he looks at me like what I mean by advanced math fractions I'm Jake I am 19 years old I'm currently at the University of Pennsylvania just started my freshman year and I grew up in the Williamsburg Brooklyn in the tough city community but when I grew up I wasn't like I said like I wasn't a lot of into meeting with anyone outside the community so the only people I would talk to would be other Pacific boys who looked exactly like me had long curls a black head we didn't have any internet no movies no TV I didn't know anything about pop culture I didn't know who Lady Gaga is I didn't know anything about like even like Mozart or Shakespeare like any of that I didn't we know anything much about a civil rights movement or US history or global history except for Jewish history [Music] never never heard of the Beatles when I was 7 or my parents separated and my father started going to college which is also something that's not allowed in the community afterward he introduced me to science and other cultures now was immediately fascinated because like I said like that was the only time I was able to learn all the stuff and that kind of made me like think outside the box I realized that there's this whole world out there even though like I live in New York City not some throwables country I'm in New York City surrounding but all these opportunities and at some point I realized that you know like I really like I'm fascinated by science and math and that's what I want to pursue but I knew that it's a unrealistic dream the only way I can study that would be by attending school outside of the community and no one does that because the community school is not just the school but it's kind of like integral to the community it's a fabric of the community everyone goes to the community school so if you leave you're basically like means like social suicide you lose all your friends and then one day in like a spring of 2013 I went up to my mother and stepfather and told them that I'm dropping out of UC there and honestly even now when I think back I'm like shocked that I did it I still don't know how I found the courage to do it but somehow I found it I told him that I'm dropping out today hope that one day I go back and realize the truth and go back to you Sheila as much as I you know it's sad that like they're really unhappy with me I kind of lived my life for others so for me it was a long transition I don't feel like I made a break it was slowly figuring myself out as I distance myself from the community there were a lot of obstacles I was 14 years old when I left and I didn't go to school until I got to college then there was not knowing how to dress how to normal people dress because I'm used to dressing a certain religious way how to behave in the city how to talk to boys [Music] my name is bina Aaron I'm a second semester sophomore at Amherst College I'm studying neuroscience and I'm from the Hasidic community in Borough Park in Brooklyn so I was introduced to the outside world you can say and I was about 12 and my grandfather used to take me with him to work in the city he worked in the diamond district and I guess I saw that there was a different way of living and I began to express my interest in it while I was going through eighth grade and ninth grade and my school didn't like that so it was more about the way I behaved I would open my top button I didn't want to be choked anymore I wouldn't wear the thick thick tights that they wanted us to wear I spoke with my classmates about different ideas for example the fact that we have periods and they didn't like that I had an iPod at the time that I wasn't allowed to have and that was my outlet I explored the internet a lot I used to stand at the corner of my block and use the free Wi-Fi for hours just finding out everything that there was out there ideas like what is philosophy I had no idea what that was or evolution or things that wasn't allowed to know about so I came home one day and my iPod was gone I couldn't find it anywhere I went into school that day and I was told by my principal and they told me that I had two options I could either put a filter on the Internet of my iPod and keep it and they'll let me see or I won't be able to come back and I went back home to think about it and then I just never returned I was getting really difficult for me to keep living at home while keeping up my lifestyle I I wanted to wear jeans in the house I wanted a dress a certain way but my mother asked me politely not to because the influence it would have on my siblings so I decided to move out and I moved into an apartment with my boyfriend they really didn't want me to leave because they knew that once I would leave they would lose the ability to kind of influence me and to come back to the community yeah it probably still is so I waited until I was about 17 to go to get my GED I studied for on my own and after that I went to Kingsborough Community College for two years yeah I was taught a lot growing up to not get along with people from different cultures and race and different races than me but when I came to school and I met these people I realized that everyone is just the same and yeah it took a while to reinforce it but it was really exciting the first time I went to buy a pair of jeans I didn't know how to read or in the standard sizes I didn't know there were so many different shades and colors and I didn't know which one to choose but when I tried it on it felt really great and I still wasn't able to walk around the fit in the community I was afraid of like people seeing me in pens but I was just standing in the mirror and look at myself in jeans and was exciting they were the label of being OCD aqua derek has the term given to people who choose to leave the community generally when somebody chooses decides to leave the community they are ostracized by their family friends and community that wasn't the case for me because my parents are very supportive thankfully but I've a lot of my friends went through that [Music] I grew up in the hospital community I grew up in Barrow Park I was part of the belts Hasidic sect this often comes up as to whether I'm still Hasidic and when I'm considered an insider or an outsider but I'm an insider and I have the scars to show for it because I myself was deprived of an education and it really cost me dearly to this day you know I had actually initially wanted to become a psychologist and I was never able to finish to pursue that dream and I ended up getting on MSW masters and Social Work simply because it would have been way too much to take the GREs which depends a lot on knowledge that you get that you accumulate throughout the years which I didn't get until the age of 20 I didn't realize how poor my education was compared to others in psychology we talked about like do you remember where you were when the verdict for hotate Simpson was announced and everyone was like yeah sure I remember I remember and I'm like who's OJ Simpson those are the kinds of things that would come up meaning the professor's trying to use some example instead of responding to the example I'm asking what is the example me we are trying to find a solution for the future the less they know the outside world the better is you want us to educate our children more in the secular world what secular world are you talking about do you want to become a Madoff or do you kind of want to become a Microsoft what part do you want them to become at the end of the day God tells you what's gonna happen and all you have to do is show a little effort they are terrified of people getting new ideas having any exposure to the world and learning about other people about accepting of different ideas so that exists to everybody is a professor everybody became a psychologist and I got ecologist and they can fix you for five hundred dollars they can fix the mother and the daughter wasted money thrown out the window just believe a little patient if you think your child went off make believe the child is sick would you throw this sick child out no let them get it out of a system see what happens with the time I realized that in public school or out there like everyone is different everyone has their own tradition their own background their own family so being different is what makes you like the same as everyone and that but I mean I realize that I'm like you know like yeah I'm like I grew up acidic and I'm different but so does everyone else everyone has their own life story their own like traditional beliefs and I realize that being different is what makes me one of everyone and then that it helped me a lot to just put myself out there and realize that I'm not as different as I think I am and I still go visit all the time it feels weird when I walk down 13th Avenue it's like Times Square of our park and I just don't feel like I belong there anymore no now I'm really happy I made like has got me a lot of good friends in college I made a lot of friends so it's really exciting and getting to meet people from all these different backgrounds and cultures is actually one of the most exciting aspect of my new life like in the community you're stuck in this position where you have to take care of nine to twelve kids and take care of your husband and the husband does the work but here I can create my own career path I can learn anything that I want and I can make my own decisions [Music]

Channel: Fox News

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Keywords: Judaism, Religion, Apple News, Digital Originals, Education, Primary US, Special, US, Web Exclusives, Fox News, News, hasidic jews, orthodox jews, orthodox judaism, Jews in New York, jewish community, Jews, Hasid, hasidic, hasidism, hasidic jew, community, culture, faith, values

Id: Oo8zJuHWZUQ

Length: 11min 28sec (688 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 15 2018