Free Peer Community for Former Ultra-Orthodox Jews | Footsteps
Footsteps is a national organization that supports people transitioning out of ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities. Founded in 2003, Footsteps combines staff- and peer-led programming, peer support groups, social events, educational and vocational guidance, mental health support, and a community of other Footstepers walking similar paths. For many members, Footsteps is the first place they meet others who have made or are making the same transition — a turning point in what is often a profoundly isolating experience.
What to Expect
Footsteps programming spans multiple domains. Peer support groups give members a space to talk honestly about what they are working through — family rupture, religious identity, grief, freedom, sexuality, education, parenting in a new context, and the practical work of starting over. Social events and community gatherings build belonging. Educational and vocational support helps members navigate secular schooling, careers, and financial independence. Mental health programs include peer-led groups and partnerships with affirming therapists. Many members find a circle of close friends — fellow Footstepers — who understand the experience from the inside.
Who This Group Is For
Footsteps serves people who are leaving or have left ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities — Hasidic, Yeshivish, and other haredi backgrounds. Members are at every stage of transition: just beginning to question, secretly preparing to leave, recently out, years out and rebuilding, and parents navigating the transition with their own children. Footsteps welcomes members across the spectrum of new identities — people who remain Jewish in different ways, people who leave religion entirely, queer members, members in mixed marriages, and members raising kids in secular contexts.
Why Peer Support Works
Leaving an ultra-Orthodox community is a particular kind of life change — encompassing loss of family, community, identity, language, and the entire framework of meaning a member grew up in. Mainstream support systems rarely understand the depth of the rupture. Footsteps exists precisely because Footstepers themselves know the texture: the specific grief, the specific freedoms, the specific tensions of building a new life from scratch. Members consistently describe finding Footsteps as the moment they realized they weren’t alone.
How to Join
Footsteps programs are free. Visit footstepsorg.org to learn about programs, request to become a member (a brief intake process protects member privacy and community safety), and read member stories. Footsteps is headquartered in New York and runs programming both in person (primarily in the NYC area) and virtually for members across the United States.