Zalman Newfield

Schneur Zalman Newfield grew up in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, in the heart of the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch Jewish community. In his early twenties he left this community, seeking out secular education and a broader life than the Lubavitch community allowed, eventually earning a PhD in sociology from New York University. Newfield’s memoir, Brooklyn Odyssey: My Journey out of Hasidism, candidly describes his emotional, intellectual, and social experiences in and out of the Lubavitch community. Newfield’s academic book, Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism, systematically explores the lives of others raised in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities who decided as young adults to leave that way of life. Newfield is also a host with the New Books Network podcast, interviewing scholars from a diverse range of academic disciplines.