Challenges and coping strategies in leavening an ultra-Orthodox community

Abstract

This article reports and illustrates challenges encountered by those who were born and raised in an insular Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community and opted to transition to the modern world. Based on content analysis of the narratives shared by means of in-depth interviews with 19 men and women from the NY metropolitan area, social, intellectual, legal, logistic, and financial challenges were identified. Reported strategies for coping with these challenges included reaching compromises and reasoning, relocating to a different geographical area, often to states with a small Jewish population, pretending, developing a “thick skin,” catching up and reinventing. These findings are discussed using a stress and copying conceptual framework. Implications for practice and directions for future research are suggested.