Published: 3 March 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
THEY LOOK AND LIVE HAREDI, and while this group of lapsed believers secretly question their faith, they choose to continue to appear religious to avoid being shunned by the community in which they have lived for their entire lives
As the men wearing long black coats approached, Shmuel, a lapsed member of Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, lowered his head to avoid being recognized.
Like those moving towards him on the Jerusalem sidewalk, Shmuel is part of a community known in Hebrew as Haredi.
But Shmuel, who is in his late 30s and asked that his real name be withheld, said he stopped believing in God a decade ago.
He agreed to meet at a bar, a place ultra-Orthodox Jews cannot go for religious reasons. He was there to meet other ultra-Orthodox Jews who doubt their faith but want to continue appearing religious to avoid being shunned by their community.
"No one knows about me," Shmuel said. "Not my wife, not my parents, no one."
Shmuel is part of a group known as Anusim - Jews who have inwardly renounced strict ultra-Orthodox practices.
Yair Hass, who heads the Hillel association that supports people who leave religious communities, estimated the Anusim could number tens of thousands in Israel.
FULL STORY The 'double life' of Israel's ultra-Orthodox doubters (Ynet)
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Photo: Haredi men in Jerusalem (Photo: EPA)
