Leaving Religion in Israel

Israel is the densest country in the world for OTD (off-the-derech) deconstructions. The Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community in Bnei Brak, Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, and elsewhere is large, growing, and tightly bounded, and there is a substantial flow of young Haredim leaving the community every year. The exit looks closely like the OTD exits in Brooklyn, Lakewood, Stamford Hill, and Antwerp, with the added complication that Israeli OTDers also have to navigate military service questions, the absence of secular life skills the secular educational system would have provided, and a welfare and housing system that often leaves them on shaky footing for the first few years.

There is also a significant Modern Orthodox softening, where individuals and families are moving from observant practice to "traditional" or "secular-traditional" identification, with much less rupture than the Haredi exit involves. And there are smaller but real exits from the Israeli Christian Arab community, the Druze community (which is notoriously closed to outsiders and to leavers), and the various Muslim Israeli Arab communities (which face the typical Muslim exit costs intensified by the broader political context).

For Israeli readers, the pillar page on Orthodox Judaism is written with the OTD experience as a primary focus and references the local organizations (including Footsteps in the U.S., and Hillel and Yetzia’at She’ela in Israel) that exist precisely for this transition.