Humanism conference--an ex-hasidic's response

When I went to the Harvard Humanism conference back in April, a briefly met an ex-Hasidic Jew named Leah. "I was Hasidic," she emphasized. "Not just Orthodox." She had a bag with what I thought was a wonderful cartoon: a cow and a caption that said, "I was slaughtered kosher and all I got was this painful hook in my neck."

It happens that she was featured in an SSA eMpirical piece relating to the conference. She had some criticisms of one of the speakers there:

Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine, a speaker at the conference, had made a joking reference to humanists as being "scarred" by religion. But Leah says that in their case, it is neither a joke nor an exaggeration. "Some of us have been literally tortured, and have gone through really painful situations because of our beliefs." She points out that there are a lot of people at the conference with a similar background, and that being called "wounded" by fellow humanists isn't a nice feeling.

I liked Rabbi Wine. He was a funny speaker, and a lot more honest than many proponents of secularized, cultural versions of religious traditions. He is right, in my view, to reach out to those who haven't been hurt by religion but simply don't believe. However, looking back I realize his comments on former fundamentalists had a derogatory edge that went beyond "we're not them," and that's unfortunate.