"I have learned that this is part of an addiction called love addiction, and it is a real addiction just like any other"
As I read your article about children of baalei teshuvah, I couldn’t help but feel the lack of pride and a slight negative connotation when discussing the childhoods of the children who are first generation FFBs. Growing up in Passaic, New Jersey, I thought no one’s grandparents were frum, and if they were, it was a commodity.
I didn’t grow up feeling “different,” “strange,” or “out of the box,” and I think I can say the same for the friends I grew up with.
My parents’ shul is probably 80 percent baalei teshuvah. Davening there, you’d never guess. It’s a normal, middle-of-the-road crowd of bnei Torah, with one of the most beautiful Yamim Noraim minyanim in the state.
The married children of the shul are fully “integrated” into frum society, living in Monsey, Lakewood, Passaic, and many other “mainstream” yeshivish communities.
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