Deena Chanowitz was raised in the Chabad-Lubavitch hasidic sect.
The story of her upbringing is one of growing up in the extremist, fundamentalist Jewish movement, and it includes several themes of dysfunctional and criminal behaviors often found in Chabad and other ultra-Orthodox communities (bulleted below). Though stories similar to Deena’s are gaining increased exposure, many more are routinely swept under the rug.
- Deena tells of a repressive childhood which included, among other things, extreme modesty in dress code and denials of simple childhood requests.
- At the age of 12 or 13, she was raped on several occasions by her (married with children) Chabad rabbi/employer for whom she babysat. On at least one of those occasions she was taken from her duties, leaving the rabbi’s children nearby but unattended. (Pay special attention to how she describes the manipulative behavior of the rabbi, and the “halachic” reasoning he applies to justify raping her.)
- Deena suffered rejection and denial (and ultimately expulsion) from her parents after revealing the abuse. She was sent away and her parents never addressed the matter again.
- As a result of her abuse, she developed an eating disorder and other self-destructive tendencies.
Her parents placed her in a more restrictive, fundamentalist school. However she was only able to function there for about 2 months. After her unsuccessful enrollment, her parents issued her an ultimatum to either behave according to the extreme Chabad guidelines or leave the family. Weighing her familiar but miserable food stamp and Section 8 housing conditions (a common hasidic living standard) against the unknown world that awaited her outside of Chabad, she made the brave choice of pursuing her freedom. The interviewer in the video indicates in a question that Deena was cut off from her family unable to turn to any of her ten siblings for assistance. Rejection by families of those who do not perform according to strict religious standards is common in hasidic culture.
After receiving reports of a very troubled transition to outside life, her parents committed her to a mental institution where she was treated for the eating disorder bulimia. Convinced that she would be better off dead, she decides to make one final try to beat her disease and repair her life. This takes her through a series of different therapy sessions which address her disease and her underlying views of self worth. The long therapy process was successful for Deena and she moved on to her next battle, getting the kind education she was deprived of while growing up in Chabad life. With no high school diploma, she undertakes a self-study program for the SAT exam and persistently fights to get into a college. After a few rejections, she is finally accepted to Hunter College in New York. There she goes on to graduate as valedictorian with a degree in Biology. Though the video starts by announcing Deena’s occupation as a chef (you can visit her web site here http://www.chefdeena.com/), she announces toward the end that she has intentions of going to medical school.
Deena’s is a story of a woman who realized her incredible strength and conquers challenges that many were unable to meet. She is truly a success story. Fighter. Winner.
Hopefully her story will encourage others trapped in Chabad, and other fundamentalist Jewish sects (or cults), to leave behind lives that they find repressive. I also hope it serves as a warning to those considering involvement with Chabad. Be careful; and don’t expect your Chabad shliach/rabbi/missionary to tell you about stories like this. The full truth is typically not on their agenda.
An Outcasted Hasid Finds the Courage to Live By Her Own Beliefs: Deena Chanowitz
by StyleLikeU Published on Aug 15, 2016
Sexually abused by a rabbi in her Lubavitch (a branch of Hasidism) community, abandoned by her parents, and turning to Bulimia to try and make herself disappear, Deena Chanowitz has stared down mountains of suffering to go from suicidal to getting into med school.
Chafraud-Depravitch 
How do you know her story is true?
*Harold Lindenthal* *cell (—)—/—-*
On Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 11:31 PM, Chafraud-Depravitch wrote:
> Chafraud-Depravitch posted: “Deena Chanowitz was raised in the > Chabad-Lubavitch hasidic sect. The story of her upbringing is one of > growing up in the extremist, fundamentalist Jewish movement, and it > includes several themes of dysfunctional and criminal behaviors often found > in ” >
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Her video and web site were enough verification for me. Additionally, her story was featured on the Footsteps.org site. If that’s not enough, this video from her own YouTube channel might help:
You can watch her graduation speech, and introduction where there is a summary of her life story.
Homeless high school dropout becomes college valedictorian
Text of her speech:
https://higheredrevolution.com/high-school-drop-out-to-valedictorian-5bd15e83a3db
Also, please, do not post phone numbers here.
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The Chabad sect is a very dangerous place , anywhere you go in the world, Israel, London, Australia , Crown Heights ….absolutely anywhere ,
it’s the same , rapes, abuses of all kinds , pedophilia , molestation…..
You can never tell because of Chabad sect members begnin appearances , they look so holy , so integral , so wonderful .
They are thousands of girls like Deena Chanowitz , trapped into the sect , raped and abused at all levels .
They don’t have Deena’s courage .
This is a very good article .I wish to read more articles about the doomed Hasidic sects ,
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m,
“You can never tell because of Chabad sect members begnin appearances , they look so holy , so integral , so wonderful .”
The appearance of righteousness is a costume.
Even the 5th and 6th Lubavitcher Rebbes were sexually molested.
There is a history of sexual abuse in Chabad, and stopping it does not seem like a high priority to them.
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the article you brought about molestation with the 5th and 6th are not consistent with the life and family of them nor do they factually prove anthign its a full assumption.
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Would you prefer a narrative consistent with Chabad mythology that paints these men, who get their position through nepotism, as “tzadikim” (righteous men)? It wouldn’t be the first misinformation spread by Chabad.
You say it’s “not consistent” with their lives and family, but how much research have you done on their lives and families? Have you done the research? Or are you merely parroting the image of these rabbis that Chabad projects in their stories to uninformed outreach targets?
I know a Chabad family that produced several shluchim. I thought ‘what a holy family to produce so many rabbis’. It was only after I found one brother to be a fraud that I discovered another brother lost his shlichus (rabbinical missionary post) for having been photographed masturbating in the presence of a woman who was not his wife.
What I thought was a family of holy people turned out to be a family of frauds.
If you have a problem with the claim that the 5th and 6th Lubavitcher Rebbes were molested, or that they engaged in sexual behavior “inconsistent” with their projected images, perhas you should take it up with the original researcher. I’ve quoted the citation of the work below (which is the topic in another post entirely:
——-
“Maya Balakirsky Katz, writing in the Association of Jewish Studies Review (April 2010) has done a masterful piece of historical research and shows that the Rashab did indeed seek out treatment from Sigmund Freud, but Freud referred the Rashab to another Viennese psychoanalyst , his close disciple Wilhelm Stekel, and consulted with Stekel on the case.
The Rashab reports being sexually molested by a male household servant from the time he was 5 or 6 years old until his marriage.
He also describes sexual liaisons he had with his sister-in-law; licentious sexual behavior of his brother, Rabbi Zalman Aharon; questionable sexual behavior of his wife; and his own frequent masturbation, sometimes carried out with his brother.”
——
I’ll believe Katz’s research before your claim of ‘inconsistent.’
And based on my own Chabad experience, “holy man” projections hiding ordinary, “unholy,” dishonest, and even perverted behavior is VERY consistent with what I’ve seen in Chabad rabbis.
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I beg to differ, and believe I am fully qualified to do so, having grown up in the Chabad-Lubavitch lifestyle myself and still am a proud follower.
There are rapists and pedophiles EVERYWHERE. Your stereotyping is sick and false. Yes, there are unfortunately pedophiles and rapists who are rabbis and Chabad, as in every other religion and nation in the world.
The Chabad this girl experienced was WRONG. No parent is required to reject their child. That was a parental decision, not a religious mandate.
I know many, many Chabad shluchim from around the world. All over America, all over Europe… they have the most giving hearts and strongest connection to G-d you will ever find.
They influence, they inspire. I had my own life turned around. I used to have depressive tendencies, my life was empty, because I wasn’t so firm in my beliefs. My parents were not like Deena’s; they never picked on me for the skirt I wore.
Thank G-d I went to Chabad schools and seminary; I learned so much faith, understanding, and a deep appreciation of the principles that are Chabad.
It is sad but not everyone represents the true Chabad. I’m sorry you’ve had to encounter people like that. I am here as testimony that our lifestyle is incredible, healthy, well-rounded, and gives us solid foundations for life. It is all thanks to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn.
Do some research on chabad.org to find out about what we truly represent. There are rabbis who are willing to answer all your questions (if you still have doubts and don’t want to take my word)
With love,
– A Proud and Happy, Healthy Member of Chabad
(We are NOT a cult!)
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“There are rapists and pedophiles EVERYWHERE.”
And it’s important to know that some of them wear black hats, long black coats, and beards, while pretending to be pious rabbis and righteous ultra-Orthodox Jews.
“Your stereotyping is sick and false.”
This story is NOT stereotyping. And repeatedly exposing the problems in Chabad that they would prefer ‘swept under the rug’ is NOT stereotyping either.
“The Chabad this girl experienced was WRONG. No parent is required to reject their child. That was a parental decision, not a religious mandate.”
What this girl experienced should be a rarity if it happens at all. The fact is that in Lubavitch and other ultra-Orthodox sects this is too common. There is no shortage of stories about hasidic and haredi parents who abandon their children to save face in their communities. Deal with your religious sect’s problems, don’t deny them.
“I had my own life turned around. I used to have depressive tendencies, my life was empty, because I wasn’t so firm in my beliefs. My parents were not like Deena’s; they never picked on me for the skirt I wore. ”
I think that’s good for you. Religion is a crutch for many and you found one that helps you. Good. I wouldn’t tell the boy in Israel who recently disclosed that he was molested by a Lubavitcher not to lean on his Rebbe fantasy figure as a process of healing. The Rebbe has become a messianic parody of himself, but if it helps a person heal from the horror inflicted on him by sick sect members, then at least the Rebbe can help there.
“It is sad but not everyone represents the true Chabad. I’m sorry you’ve had to encounter people like that. I am here as testimony that our lifestyle is incredible, healthy, well-rounded, and gives us solid foundations for life. It is all thanks to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn. ”
Your true Chabad is a fantasy in your head. Most shluchim out here are nothing more than business opportunist out to extract a dollar out of the ‘unwashed masses of sub-Lubavitch’ Jews. Agreed, far less common is the Lubavitch child molester and rapist. However, far more common is the rally call to defend Chabad’s criminals, including child molesters and rapists. They generate defense funds for their criminals and turn against their victims, labeling them “moser” (informer against another Jew).
And it’s very telling that you give ALL credits to the freakish messianic Rebbe figure Menachem Mendel Schneersohn and not to God. Christians do the same for Jesus. The Rebbe is dead. Judaism credits and places its faith in God… not deceased messianic figures like Jesus or your Rebbe.
“Do some research on chabad.org to find out about what we truly represent.”
Chabad.org is a propaganda tool created to hook ignorant Jews into Chabad’s religious product. It’s a religion sales site that doesn’t come close to exposing what Chabad is really about. Do you think you’ll read about Chabad’s elitism, messianism, alcoholism, child molesters, rapists, financial scammers, and advocates of hatred on Chabad.org?
Seriously, to learn that truth, one has to dig through the news and read the attitudes of the common Lubavitcher on sites where they congregate.
And yes, Chabad is a cult.
He’s the opinion of someone, like you, raised in Chabad:
Here’s one about Manny Waks (a victim of Chabad child molestation and Chabad’s attempted cover-up)
Did you follow Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse? Or did it escape your awareness while you blindly praised ‘all the good’ Chabad does?
The Chabad.org mouthpiece won’t tell you about that one, will they?
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Hollywood and the US Government are mere babes in corruption, control and illicit sex issues in light of the big boys in Orthodox Judaism. Why iis no one in the O world, particularly Chabad world on the front pages of CNN and other media outlets??? Well, there is a reason Jews invest in media outlets. Control.
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Many in the non-Chabad Orthodox world (at least in our area) don’t care for Chabad too much, but are quiet about it. They do however recognize that Chabad is about using Jews for money and covertly (sometimes openly) messianist. MANY observant and informed Jews recognize the greed and Christian-like nature of Chabad. It’s the unaffiliated and newly observant who fall prey to Chabad missionaries.
I think it’s less the media (Jewish or not) and more the fault of the US government which allows Chabad to to run the scam it does by abusing their non-profit 501(c)(3) status in the US Internal Revenue Code.
Chabad rabbis also consider a certain number of children a milestone to achieve government food benefits. That way they can get the US taxpayer to provide for some of their expenses and they can pocket the difference.
The Chabad rabbis in my area have multi-million dollar assets, but still bleed the American tax payer who lives a lifestyle far below what these rabbis enjoy. And it’s not limited to food assistance. They are an organization very skilled at using and manipulating every possible government benefit they can obtain. Additionally, they are very territorial, and advise their own sect almost exclusively on how to cash in on benefits while neglecting non-Lubavitch Jews who truly need assistance.
In some cases the media are merely ignorant fools who also fall for Chabad’s “charitable” image. Here is one who is so enamored of his own intellect that he’s unlikely aware of how Chabad has stroked his ego to achieve his support.
“I am an honorary Shliach”
We know some backstory on this that Mr. Prager might be disappointed to learn about.
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