At 16, she attended an educational weekend event at a local synagogue that was hosting Lubavitch Jews. Lax grew up in Texas in a liberal, secular Reform Jewish family her mother was a talented artist but inconsistent and at times neglectful, Lax said. “It was kind of like putting on a costume.” “I fell into Hasidism as a girl who had never been kissed,” Lax told J. With “Uncovered,” Lax has joined that chorus of voices. “I didn’t know I was going home with an armful of outrageous feminist voices, just that they spoke to me,” she said. Lax came out as a lesbian and left the Lubavitch movement 14 years ago she and her wife married last year.Ī turning point for her came years ago, when she first decided to explore secular literature, and she happened to pick up an anthology by noted feminist and lesbian poet Adrienne Rich. Not only was the book featured in the Advocate and on NPR, but it also is being adapted into an opera by composer Lori Laitman. Her topic will be her 2015 book “Uncovered: How I Left Hasidic Life and Finally Came Home” - the first memoir, she says, written by a lesbian about leaving Hasidic life. It’s almost like devalued literature is OK for devalued people,” said Lax, who is scheduled to speak at Book Passage in San Francisco on Wednesday, July 13. “In the Lubavitch community, secular reading for women isn’t nearly as frowned upon as it is for men.
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