This Group Helps NYC Jews Leave Ultra-Orthodoxy

NEW YORK CITY — When New Yorkers Shane Langsham and Jood Barnett left their ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn, they said their families and friends mostly stopped speaking to them, and they had trouble navigating the secular world.

"When you enter the secular world, it's like you're entering a whole new language, culture and social dynamic. When I left, I felt like I was an alien in my own country," Barnett said. "I had lost a lot of friends and some family members wouldn't talk to me because they didn't approve of my lifestyle. And this is before I even came out as queer."

But, Footsteps, a Manhattan-based nonprofit that creates support systems for people leaving Jewish ultra-Orthodox communities, was there to help.

Footsteps, which was started in 2003 in New York City, sets its clients up with all the resources they need to succeed in the secular world: Career coaches, scholarship funding, divorce and custody support, peer support groups, and more.

"We're not recruiting people to leave their communities — we're just here to help. If somebody needs us and they want access to support to leave, we are the organization to help them," Naomi Moskowitz, the director of economic empowerment at Footsteps, said.

Most recently, the nonprofit has doubled down on housing and has built a multi-pronged program with funding to support members in securing a safe place to live.

In the past year, Footsteps has supported more than 100 people with more than $80,000 in housing-related stipends, one-time donations, and case management in New York City, Moskowitz said.

"It's very obvious that if we don't have housing services, it's really hard for us to do the other work we do, right? If a member doesn't know where they're sleeping at night, they're hardly focused on finding a job," Moskowitz said.

Usually, housing programs involve building housing specifically for a population, but the cornerstone of Footsteps is freedom of choice, which is why the program offers stipends and case management instead, Moskowitz said.

"We want members to feel agency in what their journey looks like, and if we have apartments in the city that we put somebody in, we take away some of their choices to figure out where they want to live," Moskowitz said.

When Langsham and Barnett's landlord caught on to the fact that they were dating, they started getting harassed to leave their Brooklyn apartment.

The couple would not have been able to afford the moving costs on their own with such short notice, but Footsteps stepped in.

"Our old landlord said, 'You need to leave tomorrow,' and then we messaged [Footsteps] and they said they could help us, and at that point, we were like 'Okay, now we can start looking for an apartment,'" Langsham said. "Our new landlord is very nice, and we have really nice neighbors, and we feel wanted there."

Now, Langsham and Barnett are focused on their jobs and creative passions, including their published novel about a teenager caught between the secular and religious world.

For 2025, the nonprofit is focusing on scaling up its model to help even more people with housing needs, and is planning to hire a full-time housing navigator, Moskowitz said.

"We have done case management for 75 folks, and given funds to 51 — all without a housing navigator on staff. So I expect our housing case management to exponentially rise when we have a staff person dedicated to it," Moskowitz said.

To learn more about Footsteps, go here.

For questions and tips, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.