Brooklyn Odyssey
My Journey Out of Hasidism
Book •
Zalman Newfield's Brooklyn Odyssey is a personal memoir tracing his life from a Lubavitch Hasidic childhood in Crown Heights through international outreach work, intellectual awakening, and ultimately exiting Orthodox practice.
The book explores pivotal events—family loss, the Rebbe's death and messianic expectations, and secret secular reading—that prompted deep questions about faith and identity.
Newfield describes shaving his beard, pursuing secular higher education, earning a PhD, and marrying outside the sect, while maintaining ties to Jewish tradition on his own terms.
Rich in cultural detail and reflection, the memoir situates an individual story within broader social and religious dynamics of contemporary Hasidism.
It offers both an intimate account and sociological insight into leaving ultra-Orthodox communities.
The book explores pivotal events—family loss, the Rebbe's death and messianic expectations, and secret secular reading—that prompted deep questions about faith and identity.
Newfield describes shaving his beard, pursuing secular higher education, earning a PhD, and marrying outside the sect, while maintaining ties to Jewish tradition on his own terms.
Rich in cultural detail and reflection, the memoir situates an individual story within broader social and religious dynamics of contemporary Hasidism.
It offers both an intimate account and sociological insight into leaving ultra-Orthodox communities.
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Zalman Newfield, "Brooklyn Odyssey: My Journey Out of Hasidism" (Temple UP, 2026)
