Growing up in the Hasidic community, Tzippy Pollak has encountered horrors and struggles many of us have never even heard of. This remote sect starts the brainwashing process when the children are still young as a way to ensure discipline and obedience. The following is the story of Tzippy’s life in the community and what finally caused her to leave. The piece includes general information about the community to give a better understanding of Hasidic life.

From a very young age she viewed anyone who wasn’t Hasidic as odd and strange, even though she grew up in Brooklyn and lived in close proximity to non Jews. Hasidic people stereotype all “goyim” as murderers, criminals, immodest, and unclean people. “I was taught to never envy the non Jews, because they led pointless lives being that they don’t worship the true god,” she proclaims.

Tzippy particularly remembers the time when she wished of being an ice skater “I thought being an ice skater was the most magical thing in the world,” she says. However, wishing so would’ve been catastrophic to her psyche, therefore she was constantly forced to rationalise all the horrors around her just to get by in life.

Growing up, Tzippy never thought her school was different or lacking. “I hated school,” she says, but it never crossed her mind that most children go to school and can actually partake in art, music and sports (her textbooks even had words like library, TV, news, and sports censored). Her teachers were 18 year old girls that graduated high school from the same school system. “I wish I can go back in time and attend a secular school,” she says “ But I’m truly happy that at least my children get to recieve what I couldn’t.”

Tzippy got pregnant 3 months after getting married, “I was absolutely ecstatic,” was her reaction when she found out she was pregnant. For a hasidic girl there’s only motherhood to aspire to.

Tzippy admits, “ I always felt like second class and sometimes noticed how women were regarded as lesser than the men, but in order to function in the community I had to tell myself that it’s not a big deal.”

After growing up and forming a life in the Hasidic community, it’s clear withdrawing would be a hard decision, however, Tzippy did the impossible. She began questioning the authenticity of the community a lot as she got older. However, she never dared to question the existence of god. Four years ago, however, after removing herself, along with her family, from the Hasidic community into a more modern jewish community, she found the courage to read countless books about the origin of our species and our world. Within a few weeks she was an atheist.

Leaving the community meant leaving the people she had known her entire life. Her parents, relatives, and friend’s didn’t recognize the Tzippy they once knew. They couldn’t handle her choices and eventually stopped communicating with her all together.  

Despite having left a couple years ago, Tzippy still has a withstanding opinion of the community. “What I find particularly disturbing is the fact that almost everyone in that community is subjected to serious abuse one way or another. It can’t possibly be that they’re all heartless people. In my opinion it’s the brainwashing from a young age that creates this vicious cycle of ignorance and abuse,” Tzippy reveals.

“I also feel that the only way to make changes in that community is enforcing existing laws we have in place in this country to protect children from the horrors that I went through and those thousands upon thousands that are still suffering to this day,” she states. Unfortunately, government officials are made to turn a blind eye by being promised the thousands of votes that only the Hasidic community can produce.