Leaving Ultra-orthodox Judaism

The world of Jewish ultra-orthodoxy in New York distinguishes between community members who were born into religious families and those who became religious as adults. The former are commonly referred to as FFBs which stands for Frum (Yiddish: pious) from birth and the converts to orthodoxy are called BTs – Baalei Teshuva, meaning the “masters of repentance”.  People who leave the ultra-orthodox fold are referred to as OTDs, which stands for Off the Derech, or off the “path”. Path in this instance implies the path or religious tradition and lifestyle that the generations of forefathers had walked before. I analyze how the FFBs, BTs, and OTDs appropriate the digital space to create discourse places in which they construct the meanings and boundaries of the community, and negotiate plural identities. The methodology of this research combines digital ethnography with participatory fieldwork observation and qualitative research interviews. This research belongs to the field of new media sociolinguistics and as such tackles discourse, technology, multimodality, and ideology.

Shababniks are Yeshiva dropouts typically from Bnei Brak, Jerusalem and Ashdod, usually involved in some sort of a crime (petty thefts, robberies, credit card scams and other financial crimes, or sales of soft drugs). The term originates from the Arabic word shabab, which means a ‘young man’ or a ‘naughty boy’.  Some sources say that the term comes from an acronym for the biblical phrase “Samach bachur b’yaldutecha” – ‘rejoice, young man, in thy youth’ (Ecclestiastes 11: 9).  However, the group members do not relate to this phrase, as much as they do not identify with the term Yotzim Leshe’elah (‘those who have left to question’). Shababniks customarily hang out in groups, “being batlanim”, smoking weed all day long and showing open contempt towards community norms.
Based on ethnographic fieldwork and extensive narrative interviews, this study explores social patterns, languages, values, and identity among a group of 30 Shababniks who left the Haredi fold and relocated to Brooklyn between 2011 and 2015.  I show how the stigma they carried in Israel and their placement in ‘correctional’ (kiruv) yeshivas prior to immigration to the United States, has further solidified a common bond, creating strong social solidarity within their subculture and in relation to the superculture. In examining the intersection of their identities, I analyze four main categories: (1) in-group kinship ties, (2) professional life, (3) leisure time, and (4) linguistic repertoire of Shababniks. I further cross-map these findings with the data gathered during my previous study of formerly ultra-orthodox (so-called Off the Derech) New York Jews. In doing so I compare the overlapping and diverging points of these two different groups.
I show how Shababniks creatively restructure their social practices and adapt to new and overlapping linguistic spaces. Narrative accounts also reveal how the speakers’ evaluate and negotiate their identities, and how they position themselves against the background of both Haredi community, and world at large.
This is the first study of Shababniks who have migrated from Israel as a group and the first contrastive study on the trajectories of leaving ultra-orthodox Judaism in two transcontinental contexts.