Courageous Hearts

Stamford Hill is located in a small borough of London and home to the largest Hasidic Jewish Population in Europe. The roughly 68,000 people who live there make it their life's mission to raise invisible walls that shut out the world beyond the two square miles of their community. Leah was raised there, kept hidden away because she was different, then was married off quickly with the hope that she'd fall in line.

But Leah was born with an inquisitiveness that couldn't be stifled by being locked away in an attic or married to a man she didn't know. She was born into a life she didn't want, and as so many women have before her, and will after, she did her best with what she had and blazed a new path for herself and her child. 

If you have any questions or want to share your own story, please get in touch on:

Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @Courageousheartspodcast
twitter: @Calliewriting

or join our private Facebook group The Untold Stories of Courageous Hearts Podcast to get in on the conversation! 

If you like what we do and want to contribute to our efforts in supporting those who leave fundamentalism, you can find CourageousHeartsPodcast on Patreon and by becoming a contributor will have access to additional weekly content!

Thanks for listening!

We've told you why we left, but a question we've gotten over and over is: what does life look like now?

There's a common belief in the orthodox world that anyone who leave regrets it. Listen to find out if we do. (Spoiler alert: if the answer was 'yes' then running a podcast and nonprofit to help women and men transition out would be a horrible idea!)

If you have any questions or want to share your own story, please get in touch on:

Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @Courageousheartspodcast
twitter: @Calliewriting

or join our private Facebook group The Untold Stories of Courageous Hearts Podcast to get in on the conversation! 

If you like what we do and want to contribute to our efforts in supporting those who leave fundamentalism, you can find CourageousHeartsPodcast on Patreon and by becoming a contributor will have access to additional weekly content!

Thanks for listening!

Yeah... we're going there.

Buckle up for our breakdown of Haredi Judaism as we begin to explain the differences between sects of ultra Orthodoxy.

For sure don't join us if you're hoping for a scholarly approach to this bullshit...I mean, have you met us?? We're not professionals. We're just shining a light on corruption and hoping it makes a small difference.

If you have any questions or want to share your own story, please get in touch on:

Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @Courageousheartspodcast
twitter: @Calliewriting

or join our private Facebook group The Untold Stories of Courageous Hearts Podcast to get in on the conversation! 

If you like what we do and want to contribute to our efforts in supporting those who leave fundamentalism, you can find CourageousHeartsPodcast on Patreon and by becoming a contributor will have access to additional weekly content!

Thanks for listening!

This week Jackie and Callie talk about the Jewish High Holidays with the standard irreverence and profanity that you've come to know and love...or at least tolerate. 

If you have any questions or want to share your own story, please get in touch on:

Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @Courageousheartspodcast
twitter: @Calliewriting

or join our private Facebook group The Untold Stories of Courageous Hearts Podcast to get in on the conversation! 

If you like what we do and want to contribute to our efforts in supporting those who leave fundamentalism, you can find CourageousHeartsPodcast on Patreon and by becoming a contributor will have access to additional weekly content!

Thanks for listening!

This week we're so honored to share Judy's story with you.

Judy is a young woman who was adopted by a Chassidish family as an infant and never felt that she fit into a world of long skirts and bowed heads. As so many before her she was married off at a young age, and only then realized that she couldn't pretend any longer. Listen and hear her story of overcoming a life that was never hers, and addiction that she used to cope. There are so many that won't get the chance to leave, who aren't sure if the risks are worth freedom from the chains that bind them. Judy stared down a dark road and took one step after another, and found the light.

If you have any questions or want to share your own story, please get in touch on:

Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @Courageousheartspodcast
twitter: @Calliewriting

or join our private Facebook group The Untold Stories of Courageous Hearts Podcast to get in on the conversation! 

If you like what we do and want to contribute to our efforts in supporting those who leave fundamentalism, you can find CourageousHeartsPodcast on Patreon and by becoming a contributor will have access to additional weekly content!

Thanks for listening!

This week we're so happy to feature Raena's story. She's a woman that both Jackie and I (Callie) were honored to know and we so enjoyed getting the chance to sit down with her and catch up. Enjoy!

If you have any questions or want to share your own story, please get in touch on:

Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @Courageousheartspodcast
twitter: @Calliewriting

or join our private Facebook group The Untold Stories of Courageous Hearts Podcast to get in on the conversation!

Keep an eye out for us on Patreon, we'll be launching bonus content and extra weekly episodes available  THIS WEEK!! Are you pumped?! You should be pumped!!!

Edited with the patience and wizardry of Jon Coder!

Thanks for listening!

If you have any questions or want to share your own story, please get in touch on:

Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @Courageousheartspodcast

or join our private Facebook group The Untold Stories of Courageous Hearts Podcast to get in on the conversation! 

Thanks for listening!

You guys know how we love a good rant? Well, lately we've heard a lot of complaints from Orthodox Jews who say that there aren't really marriage expectations put on young women and men. Gaslighting like that can really hit those who leave hard, it makes them question if what they experienced was real or if maybe those who are still wrapped up in fundamentalism are right. So for this episode I interviewed 25 people who are at various points in their observance and Jackie and I discuss why the claim that there are realistic expectations put on women and men is absolute bullshit.

If you have any questions or want to share your own story, please get in touch on:

Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @Courageousheartspodcast
twitter: @Calliewriting

or join our private Facebook group The Untold Stories of Courageous Hearts Podcast to get in on the conversation!

Keep an eye out for us on Patreon, we'll be launching bonus content and extra weekly episodes available  THIS WEEK!! Are you pumped?! You should be pumped!!!

Edited with the patience and wizardry of Jon Coder!

Thanks for listening!

If you have any questions or want to share your own story, please get in touch on:

Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @Courageousheartspodcast
twitter: @Calliewriting

or join our private Facebook group The Untold Stories of Courageous Hearts Podcast to get in on the conversation! 

Keep an eye out for us on Patreon, we'll be launching bonus content and extra weekly episodes available  THIS WEEK!! Are you pumped?! You should be pumped!!!

Edited with the patience and wizardry of Jon Coder!

Thanks for listening!

This week we talk about what it means to keep Shabbos, the 25 hour Jewish day of rest that culminates the week. We get into where it came from, the laws prohibiting work, and how much preparation goes into cooking several meals. 

The 39 Melachot (forms of work that are prohibited) we mentioned in the episode are: 

Sowing

Plowing

Reaping

Gathering and Binding

Threshing

Winnowing

Selecting

Grinding

Sifting

Kneading

Baking

Shearing Wool

Cleaning

Combing

Dyeing

Spinning

Stretching the Threads

Making Loops

Weaving Threads

Separating the Threads

Tying a Knot

Untying a Knot

Sewing

Tearing

Trapping

Slaughtering

Skinning

Tanning

Smoothing

Ruling Lines

Cutting

Writing

Erasing

Building

Breaking Down

Extinguishing a Fire

Kindling a Fire

Striking the Final Hammer Blow

Carrying

Thanks for listening!!

If you have any questions or want to share your own story, please get in touch on:

Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @Courageousheartspodcast
twitter: @Calliewriting

or join our private Facebook group The Untold Stories of Courageous Hearts Podcast to get in on the conversation! 

Keep an eye out for us on Patreon, we'll be launching bonus content and extra weekly episodes available  THIS WEEK!! Are you pumped?! You should be pumped!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

The holidays can be hard, no? Just me?

So we thought that you could use a bonus episode! This week we sit down with our first male interview! Nathan seemed like a great choice, as my ex husband, and because he's stuck at my house today while the turkey finishes cooking!

Listen in as he talks about how I pulled him away from Judaism and off the derech. 

Tune in for our regularly scheduled Tuesday episode next week when Jackie and I talk all things Shabbos (the Sabbath), and I change the intro to include men...which I would have done today if I'd had any forethought ;)

If you have any questions or want to share your own story, please get in touch on:

Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @Courageousheartspodcast
twitter: @Calliewriting

or join our private Facebook group The Untold Stories of Courageous Hearts Podcast to get in on the conversation! 

Keep an eye out for us on Patreon, we'll be launching bonus content and extra weekly episodes available  THIS WEEK!! Are you pumped?! You should be pumped!!!

Edited with the patience and wizardry of Jon Coder!

Thanks for listening!

This week we are thrilled to chat with  Danielle, one of the strongest women we've met who walks us through her journey in Orthodox Judaism.

Danielle is an Israel based mom of four, family therapist and Krav Maga Instructor. With over 15 years of experience strengthening and empowering her clients, she has pioneered a modern day therapy infusing talk therapy with boxing. Boxing therapy as she calls it, is hugely successful for emotional expression, healing, trauma, the sky is the limit! Currently she helps teenagers and those suffering from abuse or trauma through boxing therapy in her office in modiin and worldwide on zoom.

You can contact Danielle to see if Boxing therapy is right for you at 972 58 725-2372

And ladies, you can join her morning kickboxing classes, which offer 40 minutes of high powered working out and positivity!

If you have any questions or want to share your own story, please get in touch on:

Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @Courageousheartspodcast
twitter: @Calliewriting

or join our private Facebook group The Untold Stories of Courageous Hearts Podcast to get in on the conversation!

Keep an eye out for us on Patreon, we'll be launching bonus content and extra weekly episodes available  THIS WEEK!! Are you pumped?! You should be pumped!!!

Edited with the patience and wizardry of Jon Coder!

Thanks for listening!

If you have any questions or want to share your own story, please get in touch on:

Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @Courageousheartspodcast
twitter: @Calliewriting

or join our private Facebook group The Untold Stories of Courageous Hearts Podcast to get in on the conversation! 

Keep an eye out for us on Patreon, we'll be launching bonus content and extra weekly episodes available  THIS WEEK!! Are you pumped?! You should be pumped!!!

Edited with the patience and wizardry of Jon Coder!

Thanks for listening!