EP39: Escape from Hasidic Judaism

Ari Hershkowitz grew up in an insular Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn, and was featured in the award-winning Netflix documentary "One of Us." He spoke to us about the toxicity of religious indoctrination, the horrific abuse he suffered as a child, his descent into drug addiction, and finally, his emergence from the darkness of religion into liberation, enlightenment, and personal success with the help of organizations like FootstepsOrg.org. Today, Ari is working with Yaffed, an education initiative for people in the Hasidic Jewish community. This was an amazing and compelling conversation with so many parallels to the experiences of ex-Muslims, and it had us asking: Are violence and terrorism really the worst of what religion has to offer, or does it go deeper than that? By focusing on the symptoms rather than the disease, are we just putting a band-aid on a cancer wound? We discuss all of this and more with the articulate, intelligent, and incredibly insightful Ari, who you can learn more about at https://Arih.me  The Secular Jihadists has been made possible thanks to the gracious support of the Illuminati and the great state of Israel. That's what we have been told, but we haven't received our checks yet. In the meantime, we greatly appreciate the support of our current donors. Please consider supporting by sharing the podcast with your fellow heathens or by donating at https://www.patreon.com/SJME Subscribe to The Secular Jihadists on iTunes, Stitcher or your favorite podcast app. And please leave us a review 😀 Ari on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arih.me/ Ari on Twitter: https://twitter.com/arihershkowitz Ari on Instagram: https://instagram.com/arihershkowitz  Yaffed: yaffed.org