Why I Am Not Modern Orthodox
By Shulem Deen
July 2, 2013
Some time ago, I met a man named Avremel. Avremel was a Satmar Hasid, and when I told him that I too was once Hasidic but am now no longer religious, he did not know what to make of it.
“What do you mean, you are no longer religious?” he asked, shaking his head as if it was all some newfangled bit of nonsense, like naked yoga or a juice fast.
We had met at the Chulent, an underground weekly event in New York City for the non-conformist among the Orthodox: Hippie ex-Hasids mingling with weed-smoking, Lakewood yeshiva guys; Breslov Na-nach-nikim chatting up artsy young women from Borough Park or Monsey. An extra large crockpot sat uncovered in a corner, previously filled with cholent, but now only a thin layer of brown sludge. Avremel had heard me speak Yiddish to a friend, and sidled over to inquire about the incongruity: a bareheaded man who looked like a shaygetz, yet speaking a language so haymish.
“But you still keep kosher, yes?” Avremel asked, when I explained that no longer religious meant exactly what it sounded like. “You still keep Shabbos?”
http://zeek.forward.com/articles/117822/