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 book, Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (Temple University Press), 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 podcast host with the New Books Network, interviewing scholars of Jewish and religious studies.