From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Bob Carlson, and this is unfictional.

Unfictional is KCRW's program of stories and documentaries, and today it's one story about a young man

who gives up everything he has and reinvents himself.

It's like a kid who was born in a one-room basement. He never left that room all his life.

And when he was 23 years old, someone took him, put him in Grand Central Station,

and walked away.

Today on Unfictional, Breaking Away, the story produced by independent radio producer Joshua Gleason.

The Hasidic community is both sort of a presence and kind of a hidden world that you see but you know nothing about.

By nature, this is a world that's hard to penetrate, which is what made it interesting.

But I ultimately found my way to this weekly game. to penetrate, which is what made it interesting.

But I ultimately found my way to this weekly gathering that happens in New York that draws people,

both people from within the Hasidic community who are questioning and exploring life outside the Hasidic community, people who have left,

and oddly enough people who are interested in finding out more about Judaism, the idea being that nothing is sort of off limits as far as points of

discussion and nothing is heretical per se.

I met loser there. You know, he was someone who made an immediate impression,

and I immediately had a feeling about him that he would be a great candidate for the kind of radio documentary that I wanted to do and he had just fully left the

community just a couple months prior. That's producer Joshua Gleason you're

listening to Unfictional on KCRW and KCRW.com, this is breaking away.

My first name is Loser. Yes, it's Loser. It's not who I am, it's just my name.

And it's spelled differently too. It's spelled L-U-Z-E-R, not L-O-S-E-R.

It's actually a name from the Bible. This is me singing at a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-so-a-so-a wedding at a traditional wedding.

I used to be a singer at weddings. I miss it very much I wish I could keep doing it but you can't not be religious

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