Unchain My Heart: Shulem Deen's Breakaway From Radical Hasidism

Shulem Deen was raised in an ultra-orthodox sect, the Skverers, considered too extreme even for other Hasidic Jews. He grew up speaking Yiddish in the middle of New York, married in his teens and had five children. Then everything began to change. His book All Who Go Do Not Return is a tell-all of both of the extreme insularity of Hasidic life, and the journey of his soul from the Skverers to the secular world he lives in today. It is a path of great discovery, and tremendous sacrifice.

This season of the Tel Aviv Review is made possible by The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, which promotes humanistic, democratic, and liberal values in the social discourse in Israel.