Uncovered: How I Left Hasidic Life and Finally Came Home

This was a fascinating memoir. There were parts that were a little monotonous for me, but overall the story kept my interest and made me think. The author is a strong woman who has transformed herself a couple of times in order to find her own happiness. Admirable.

A good part of this book was mostly the story of a woman living a religious life. But for me, about 2/3rds in, a powerful voice emerged full of deep questions, challenging, running and returning, struggle, pain, grief and acceptance. This made everything really worthwhile. I even copied several paragraphs to read to myself later, to consider and grapple with. Well done.

What a perfect title! Uncovered has many layers of meaning ... and the process through which the author chose to live a "covered" life and then eventually free herself from that life is both fascinating and powerful. A story that defies categorization much like that of its author: Uncovered is a "coming out" story on many levels. Ultimately, it is a hopeful story of coming home to yourself and your life.

A wonderful book, 'Uncovered' is vivid and compelling, spanning the spiritual to the painful, the crushing to the triumphant. Extraordinarily frank about her most intimate thoughts and experiences, the author carried me not only into her life, but back into my own.On the surface, 'Uncovered' relates the journey of a maturing woman living as a Hasidic Jew after leaving a difficult family environment. Non-Jews, like myself, interested in what it feels like to lead this other life, will find 'Uncovered' fascinating.However, as much as I learned about the Hasidim, this is not what makes this book important to me personally. Although I do not share the author's religious background, gender, or family trauma, I clearly see myself in 'Uncovered'. This is both because the author so vividly portrays her inner life and because she chronicles struggles that I (and doubtless everyone) must deal with.I recognize in her a person, like myself, who was burdened with unwanted challenges and shrouded misconceptions about self and world. "Uncovered" becomes a metaphor for our discovering the scars of life and consequent misunderstandings, so difficult to recognize from the inside. For me, life's major challenge has been to find the scars and to discover, confront, and discard my many misconceptions. I've learned this difficult, but the author shows it can be done. In that sense 'Uncovered' is a tutorial by example of how to engage ethical, authentic life and to uncover and meet true self.I'm halfway through 'Uncovered' a second time. Rich and deep, on second reading it's a new book. I feel like I've met a new person and made a friend.A thoughtful and valuable book that would have helped me as a young adult needing a model for discarding obsolete notions and moving on to a new life.

“I need meaning,” Lax says, deep into this book. “Without that, my Hasidic life is a sham. I’d have to leave.” She does leave, but it’s a tortured path. Uncovered is the most painful struggle to be oneself I’ve ever read. There’s no poverty here, no racism, no external havoc, yet the turmoil in this book is huge. Leah Lax has been torn apart, and writes about it fiercely.

I did not love the author's writing style, so it took me a bit to get into her story. However, I love that she shared her story of finding Hasidism after growing up in a secular Jewish home. It takes a bit to understand what led her down that path, but with the environment she grew up in, the draw of a rule driven and rigid lifestyle makes sense- it gives a sense of control. Unfortunately, she is hiding a lot about herself including her sexuality. What's sad is it takes her over 25 years to find herself and live a life that is honest about who she is.

The power of well written words is amazing. Here I am, a white, middle-aged, moderately observant heterosexual male Jew reading the memoir of a Hasidic lesbian woman. I haven’t shared any of the specific experiences that Leah mentions in her book. Given the body I was born into, I never experienced a life of being “covered”. Yet, I felt each of Leah’s experiences as if they were my own. Leah creates this connection through skillful storytelling, beautiful writing, and sheer honesty and openness.I could feel the sadness, the emptiness, and the struggle to find oneself in a world which at best ignored you and at worst pushed you aside. Leah tells a compelling, moving, and often sad story of her journey to make sense of all of this. It’s that struggle for meaning and purpose that connected me to her. It’s her honesty and openness about her journey that tugged upon my heart. And, it’s the critical (thinking) manner in which she approaches retelling her experiences that challenged my assumptions and beliefs.Creating a connection, drawing upon my heart and empathy, and opening my eyes to a different point of view. A good book does any one of those. Leah’s book does all three. This book is a must read for anyone who has been brave enough to question who they are and strong enough to find the answer.Thank you Leah.

This book is a page turner, filled with the mysteries, secrets and spirituality of a cloistered people, Hasidic Jews, that those of us living in the outside world are rarely given privy to. Its pages are filled with raw emotions, self discoveries and painfully honest confessions which draws the reader into the very essence of Hasidic life and how it is being lived today. It causes those who are walking a spiritual path, no matter what religion, to question each step and to decipher that which is “real” from that which is “blind faith” based on rules laid down by a male dominated religious society a thousand plus years ago.Absolutely insightful, thought provoking and beautifully voiced.

All through this book I kept asking why.The author came from a dysfunctional family and elected to become part of a fundamental religion that expects women to obey archaic rules and submit themselves to a life where they are brainwashed into being nothing more than subservient breeding machines.She quickly learned that she could not expect any support or affection from her husband who was totally obsessed with his religion, but nevertheless she continued to live with him for a quarter of a century and produced seven children.The rituals required of her - including among others scraping small burnt pieces off the inside of her oven, carrying out forensic searches of the entire house in search of crumbs, and the never-ending mikveh - purifying baths - as well as working, running the family home, weekly two-day shopping and cooking marathons for the celebration of the Sabbath, and raising the children - made her life physically and emotionally exhaustingWhy did she put up with it for so long? She is obviously a strong and intelligent woman. How could she let herself stay for so long in a community where women were regarded as little more than grubby slaves in need of regular cleansing? I felt so frustrated reading her story, wanting her to take off her damned wig and walk away from a life she clearly did not enjoy.How is it possible that in the 20th and 21st centuries this extreme movement still attracts followers?It is a very long book and I skipped chunks, because despite the fine quality of the writing there seemed to be far too much self-indulgent soul searching and repetition (how many times was mikveh mentioned?).I'm glad she did finally break free and find happiness, but I think if this book was only half as long it would be a better read. It made me angry.

I have yet to find a religion/cult that did not treat women in a heartless, unsympathetic way. Women in these male dominated groups are expected to do all the unpleasant jobs that a home requires. Women are forbidden to use contraception and are told that this is "God's will". As if these male leaders have ever been holy enough to see or get direct contact from this God. As a consequence of this daft rule, women are worn out by annual childbearing and domestic drudgery. This makes an ideal world for idle mysoginists who, when the wife dies, can get a younger model and keep her as a tame slave, too. Women, read this book and before you take any orders purporting to come from a Higher Intelligence, seek out information from scientists who are actually researching the subject. Some have had some surprising results but so far I have read no confirmation that a 'God' wants his followers to dress in a certain way, remove their hair in order to wear a wig or limit touching between males and females. I love, admire and respect the Jews for their patience, intelligence , humour and their long record of civilising this world. And I really hate to see them suffering as Leah Lax did from childhood.

First, I want to commend the author for openly sharing her story. That takes courage. She writes well, so as for literature, it was an enjoyable read. However, the story felt unfinished to me.**Spoilers ahead**The book is 348 pages. She does describe how she became Hasidic and how she gradually found conflicts with this lifestyle. However, it isn't until page 327 that she physically explores her lesbian desires (and carries on an affair while she is still married). With less than 20 pages left in the story, she wraps up transition from Hasidic Jew to non-Hasidic Jew, and it left me with a lot of questions. She does not go in to how her choices impacted her family, her friendships, her community. I thought there would be more. So while I enjoyed the first part of her story, learning about the Hasidic life and so forth, her personal story felt incomplete to me.

I have read most of the other auto bios about living and lead a strict orthodox life [ the rabbis daughter, unorthodox , cut me loose]. This is by far the best and most moving as Leah is such a beautiful writer. Her teenage rebellion was to choose such a religious path and then the narrow walls of motherhood and domestic drudge to be closer to God began to wear her out. Secret visits to the library , secret stories written in the middle of the night , secret lesbian poetry. Words , books ,stories saved her. Leah could become her own woman, feminist and lesbian. I found the ending , when she sits writing , dog by her side and wife in the yard deeply moving.

J’ai beaucoup aimé m’immiscer dans l’univers d’une femme et d’une famille Assidique. J’ai particulièrement apprécié le cheminement intellectuel et émotionnel de l’auteur ainsi que le courage de faire un 180 degrés pour vivre selon ses nouvelles convictions, malgré la pression sociale du milieu. Chapeau! Très enrichissant.