Moshe Krakowski: Why Jews Leave Faith Behind [OTD 1/3]

18Forty Podcast

18Forty

Religion & Spirituality, Judaism

4.6 • 638 Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2025

⏱️ 94 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, talk to Moshe Krakowski, a professor at Yeshiva University, about his work on Attrition and Connection in American Orthodox Judaism, the OU’s study on what we crassly call “OTD.”

Dr. Krakowski takes us “under the hood” of those who leave their religious communities to show us what factors lead Jews to leave faith behind. In this episode we discuss:

Why do so many of us choose the countercultural life of Orthodox Judaism?
What leads someone to leave a religious community—or seek out a more insular one?
How do we create a Jewish world that is sticky, rich, and spiritually nourishing?

Tune in to hear a conversation about why we leave Jewish communities and, maybe more importantly, why we stay.

Interview begins at 9:29.

Moshe Krakowski is a professor at the Azrieli Graduate School for Jewish Education and Administration at Yeshiva University, where he also directs Azrieli’s doctoral program. He studies American Haredi education and culture, focusing on the relationship between communal worldview, identity, and education. He also works on curriculum, cognition, and inquiry learning in Jewish educational settings.

References:

18Forty’s OTD Archive

“Passing Through” by David Bashevkin

Attrition and Connection in American Orthodox Judaism by Dr. Moshe Krakowski, Dr. Rachel Ginsberg, Aliza Goldstein, Abby Nadritch, Joshua Schoenberg, and Akiva Schuck

“Yiddishe Taavos” by Motty Ilowitz

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi friends and welcome to the 1840 podcast where each month we explore different topic balancing modern sensibilities with traditional
0:22.0	sensitivities to give you new approaches to timeless Jewish ideas. I'm your host, Devin Bischefkin,
0:28.5	and this month we are returning to the topic of why people leave religion. This podcast is part of a larger
0:36.3	exploration of those big, juicy, Jewish ideas. So be
0:40.2	sure to check out 1840.org. That's 1-8-F-O-R-T-Y.org, where you can also find videos, articles,
0:47.5	recommended readings, and weekly emails. You may not remember this if you joined 1840 more recently, but those who have been listening to us from the very, very beginning, I believe the second series we ever did was on this very topic, which at the time we called leaving religion.
1:06.9	And we had a fantastic series on that topic.
1:09.9	We re-released our episode with Shulham Dean. We had an anonymous episode with someone named Philo Judeus. And we had a conversation with Kelsey Osgood. And of course, you can go to 1840.org. That's 1-8-F-O-R-T-Y.org, where you can find all of those past topics and essays that we had on this topic.
1:28.1	So why are we returning to it now?
1:30.6	I remember when we first released and came to this subject and when we kind of first
1:35.3	released 1840 to the world, many people who were listening to us actually jokingly would
1:41.2	refer to us as the OTD podcast, OTD being an acronym for Off the Derrach,
1:47.0	a term that I don't really like, but is used very often colloquially, for those who have
1:52.3	left the Orthodox Jewish community. They were raised within, and then they chose to leave.
1:57.6	And I remember I was like very offended, Like we're so much more than that.
2:01.1	We're not just talking about this topic. But I guess the way that we spoke about things and
2:06.0	when we first announced and we first kind of released our first episode, which was an entire
2:10.4	mess thinking back at it, we made so many mistakes. It's crazy that we even still exist,
2:15.6	to be quite honest. But I remember at that time,
2:18.8	people would say, that's all you're interested in. Like, why are you so fascinated with this
2:23.7	subject? It is the second topic that you are talking about. Of course we think you're this
2:28.9	OTD podcast talking about, you know, this subversive, transgressive podcast where we listen to, you know,
	...

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