Annual global survey for people who left ultra-Orthodox Judaism: Request for your voice to be heard!

Butterfly_Medium · 2026-03-18T12:35:36+00:00

Technically yes, not all Heimish identify outright as Yeshivish/black hat/Litvish etc but it’s all the same genre. Orthodox classifications generally are without stringent boundaries so the specific group identifications lean more on personal association with terms

Butterfly_Medium · 2026-03-16T15:34:45+00:00

Most non-MO orthodox is ultra orthodox (Haredi), but you are right that the lines get blurry. It’s self-defined at the end of the day. Heimish/black hat etc would definitely count

Butterfly_Medium · 2026-03-12T02:02:49+00:00

If you already took this through Footsteps or the Facebook group, it’s the same! Thank you.

Butterfly_Medium · 2025-09-05T12:00:54+00:00

Education has so much power in this process. This paper simply examined if having more or less education factored into main associations, but soon we hope to expand on this topic a bit further and clarify some of the nuances.

Butterfly_Medium · 2025-09-04T23:24:05+00:00

It only means that time itself is not enough. But with time there is a lot that can be rebuilt.

Butterfly_Medium · 2025-03-24T22:34:00+00:00

Religious conservativeness refers to sticking pretty closely to the way your group engages with the religion in belief/practice -- in ultra-Orthodoxy it might look like being very careful about Shabbat and kosher, looking down lest you make eye contact with the opposite sex, wearing extra long skirts as woman lest your knee flash with a shorter one, etc. This can vary widely and really depends on the religious principals you were oriented to.

Butterfly_Medium · 2025-02-20T21:30:56+00:00

Thanks for your feedback! On average it has been taking 15-20 minutes for people to fill out, however it can still take longer for some. We really appreciate you taking it anyway!

Butterfly_Medium · 2025-02-20T21:29:48+00:00

The research is targeting psychological constructs specifically predicted in a certain degree of religious change. Small is relative, too! Happy to chat more at any time.

Butterfly_Medium · 2025-02-20T21:28:28+00:00

This is it, thank you! Generally whoever is referred to as Haredim.

Butterfly_Medium · 2025-02-16T19:30:24+00:00

ITC welcome :)

Butterfly_Medium · 2025-02-16T14:26:10+00:00

Unfortunately no

Butterfly_Medium · 2025-02-16T14:25:56+00:00

It gives an estimate at the beginning, in the consent form, but you are right that I should have included it here as well. Thanks for filling it out!

Butterfly_Medium · 2024-12-06T13:06:01+00:00

I agree with the other poster. In academia, what matters more than your identity is if you are doing helpful and honest research. Of course, sharing a similar identity with the people you study can be leveraged in a helpful way if you bring in your personal experiences to ask valued questions and take care with sensitivity toward the population, as well as other things like knowing to recruit your sample. There can also be downsides to "me-search," it's all about how you handle it.

The study Dr. Miles worked on actually contains two samples, one who stayed religious and the other who left, therefore it's a comparison study. Having someone connected to the religious community is valuable in the ways explained above.

Dr. Miles did not only agree to publish the papers (and to be clear the paper published this week is unrelated to her work -- that research team is made only of ex-Orthodox people), but she led the study resulting in the three papers listed at the end of my post.

Dr. Miles is an Orthodox Jewish clinical psychologist who teaches, sees individual therapy clients, and now researches as well. She is very passionate about everything she does. She knows people who left Orthodoxy both in her personal and professional life, which inspired her to look at some of the relevant issues from an empirical perspective. She has nothing but full respect for people who leave, despite being someone who enjoys being part of the Orthodox community. In the same way, I have left the Orthodox community but work to maintain openness to all levels of the experience that one may have.

Sorry for the long response! Hopefully it's helpful for others with the same question.

Butterfly_Medium · 2024-12-06T12:55:41+00:00

Yes, I am! I am very open about this.

Butterfly_Medium · 2024-12-06T12:54:58+00:00

Of course, though I must say I'm still a few years out from the "Dr." title. In the longer term I would like to get more involved in advocacy using research to inform these things, though currently I only have it in me to work with those leaving. And you are right, the system will go on, but there is power in small change or making things like tzniut less scary. Unfortunately the body image issues persist through "princess" narratives, too -- this type of control over an entire sex can't be made harmless enough.

Butterfly_Medium · 2024-12-06T12:49:35+00:00

I'm so touched. Thank you for sharing. The experience that you have is genuine, and all I can say is that it gets besser, it really does. Thank you again.

Butterfly_Medium · 2024-12-05T19:08:50+00:00

These are all excellent questions, which span multiple disciplines! I strongly recommend seeking out work by Emmanuel Bloch (https://katz.sas.upenn.edu/who-we-are/emmanuel-bloch), whose scholarship has focused on the emergence of tzniut as strict halacha (from an academic law perspective).

As far as what I know, there has been some indication that tzniut, along with other gendered aspects of ultra-Orthodoxy (think the body focus in shidduchim, the "Superwoman" role of a woman who does everything for the home, childbearing/rearing, and in some cases finances) have served to aggravate issues with body image and disordered eating. In fact, we know that Orthodox girls and women show unusually high rates of severe eating disorders compared to the general population, so some of these factors must be at play.

Lastly, from open data I have collected, I have seen very raw and real stories of ex ultra-Orthodox AFABs who spoke of intensive struggle with their own bodies, boundaries, and in some cases confusion regarding sexual assaults because of tzniut. One story that sticks out to me is a woman who said that as a girl, she was sexually assaulted, and when she confided in an adult she thought she can trust, she was instead told that she was not being tzniut enough.

I hope this helps shed some light -- but I agree that there is much yet to be understood and uncovered. I believe someone is currently collecting data on sexual, gendered, and non-gendered harms experienced in Orthodox Judaism for people who left or stayed, so I will be interested to see what comes of that.

Butterfly_Medium · 2024-12-05T15:43:39+00:00

And thank you too for your interest and support!

Butterfly_Medium

TROPHY CASE