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The Sins of Our Daughters: A Memoir
Ultra-orthodox Jew. Married. And gay.
Here is the story of Shana, a woman who finds herself inside the insular, dangerous world of the fundamentalist ultra-orthodox Jewish community. Determined to set herself and her children free from a life dictated by a twisted, oppressive religious doctrine- including humiliating modesty laws and bizarre restrictions on sexuality--Shana risked everything to escape.
Shana was looking for a way out of her life --and she found it in the form of a rabbi who took it upon himself to save her soul. At nineteen, she was married off to a mentally ill man and lived the next eighteen years in a nightmare. She struggled not only to survive the radical community in which she lived, but to hide her sexuality.
Every moment of her life, and the lives of her children, was regulated by a radical religious doctrine and an all-controlling rabbinic hierarchy--what they did, what they thought, what they ate, and what they wore. Forced to adhere to demeaning and repressive laws that controlled every aspect of her existence--from having children to sex to politics--Shana knew she had to save her children from the horrors of life inside a cult.
When Shana was eventually exposed as a lesbian, and her secret relationship with a woman discovered, her former community set out on a witch hunt to destroy her.
Here is the story of Shana, a woman who finds herself inside the insular, dangerous world of the fundamentalist ultra-orthodox Jewish community. Determined to set herself and her children free from a life dictated by a twisted, oppressive religious doctrine- including humiliating modesty laws and bizarre restrictions on sexuality--Shana risked everything to escape.
Shana was looking for a way out of her life --and she found it in the form of a rabbi who took it upon himself to save her soul. At nineteen, she was married off to a mentally ill man and lived the next eighteen years in a nightmare. She struggled not only to survive the radical community in which she lived, but to hide her sexuality.
Every moment of her life, and the lives of her children, was regulated by a radical religious doctrine and an all-controlling rabbinic hierarchy--what they did, what they thought, what they ate, and what they wore. Forced to adhere to demeaning and repressive laws that controlled every aspect of her existence--from having children to sex to politics--Shana knew she had to save her children from the horrors of life inside a cult.
When Shana was eventually exposed as a lesbian, and her secret relationship with a woman discovered, her former community set out on a witch hunt to destroy her.
289 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2014
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January 13, 2015
I know I am minorly obsessed with this topic. Bravo for her courage to escape the clutches of this awful cult. I have so many questions about her new life. I wonder if any of these "escapees" continue to have any connection to Jewish life or culture at a much lower level?
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