Nechama Leapley: How an Amish Girl Found Her Way to Orthodox Judaism
Inspiration for the Nation with Yaakov Langer
Living Lchaim
4.9 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 15 November 2025
⏱️ 117 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Inspiration for the Nation is the weekly Jewish podcast from Living Lchaim, hosted by Yaakov Langer.
From Amish to Jewish???
Yes.
You read that right. Briana Leapley, now Nechama Leapley, shares her inspiring journey from Amish life in rural Kentucky to becoming an Orthodox Jewish convert in Brooklyn. Leaving behind her family and traditions, she navigates intense culture shock, finds guidance from rabbis, and embraces a life of Torah and mitzvot. Her story is one of faith, courage, and transformation, moving from Amish simplicity to Jewish identity, and from Briana to Nechama, with her heart set on Israel.
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✬ IN MEMORY OF ✬
This episode is in memory of:
• Miram Sarah bas Yaakov Moshe
• Shimon Dovid ben Yaakov Shloima
This episode is for the speedy recovery of:
• Yosef Chaim ben Devorah Chaya Golda
Lchaim.
#iftn
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I've been doing this for five years and genuinely, this is the most excited podcast that I've ever done. |
| 0:06.5 | How in the world did an Amish girl get to a Orthodox from community? |
| 0:11.9 | When I was 16, we met the Amish community. |
| 0:14.1 | I like the idea of going and living where you don't have to drive cars and where there's no running water, no electricity, no heat, no air conditioning. |
| 0:26.6 | Brianna Leapley grew up in a pretty sheltered home, and at a young age, her entire family officially became Amish. No electricity, no machines, no phones. Cut off from the world we all know. |
| 0:31.6 | Years later, she wildly found her faith, Orthodox Judaism, but it came out of cost. She had to leave her community, |
| 0:39.4 | her parents, the only world she knew. What's your first day like in Amish, |
| 0:43.9 | for us children, it was more fun. If someone is like going through the house and they're caught |
| 0:48.3 | with like a fax machine, like what happens? They will eventually excommunicate you. Was there |
| 0:53.2 | fear of also like if you leave, you're letting your parents down? |
| 0:56.6 | 150%. |
| 0:57.7 | That was, hands down, the hardest part. |
| 1:00.0 | They knew how to let go. |
| 1:01.0 | It was difficult to know that I was going to do something that they weren't going to be happy with. |
| 1:09.1 | Never in my wildest imagination that I think that someone from the Amish world would be a |
| 1:15.0 | from religious Jew today. |
| 1:16.8 | This is the full story of Nachama Leapley. |
| 1:19.6 | This episode is in memory of Shemendavid Ben Yaakov Shlema and Mirimisarabas Yaakov-Mosha. |
| 1:24.1 | This episode is Rufuahim, Yosef Chaim Bedvarah Gaya Goulda. |
| 1:27.8 | This episode is powered by Twillerie, Wheels to Lees, the book, the Rumspringakala, and Pipin. |
| 1:35.7 | How I got to Nechama is a pretty cool story within itself, so stay until the end for me to |
| 1:39.8 | share that story. |
... |
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