The Unchosen

Sandee Brawarsky reviews the book in the Jewish Week. Who is Malkie Schwartz? Get me in touch with her.
UPDATE 1: ...and here is Malkie - Footsteps: Our History.

UPDATE 2: S. H. comments to this post:
I went to school with Malkie Schwartz - her story is far less glamorous than anything portrayed in Unchosen or her person profile on Footsteps.org. In fact, her father comes from an wealthy and crusty upper east side family which disapproved of his becoming religious and shunned him completely, both emotionally and financially. At the same time, the grandparents consistently reminded the children in the family, i.e. Malkie and sibs, that if only they would leave religion they would be welcomed with open arms (i.e. given a share of the family $ pie). Her father is a melamid and she's from a family of over 8 at least plus she has a severely disabled sibling... so just imagine how rosy her life had been. Couple that with extreme intelligence, the feeling of being an outsider to the ffb clans in crown heights no matter how hard she tried and no matter how 'chasidish' she behaved and appeared, and you've got a girl who at 19 years old just one day up and leaves her destitute and noisy home and moves in with her posh and doting grandmother.

Then she does what any good Lubavitcher does and starts to think about all the other Jews 'in need', however crooked that may sound, and she founded Footsteps. The program never really took off- at the meetings they basically pass around condoms and sex-ed pamphlets, talk about what it was like to walk into McDonalds for the first time and curse out their parents and teachers for causing them so much guilt and shame for living how they want to, bla bla bla. So that's the short story.

Of course Malkie now has celebrity status among 'religious renegades' because she's very vocal about what she did and why. She's been quoted everywhere from the NY Times magazine article on post-messianic chabad to lilith magazine (a jewish femenazi publication aimed at destroying all things sacred). I personally resent that in her interviews she portrays us 'fools' who choose to remain observant and continue to believe in whatever mission we call our own as frauds - she makes the presumption that we all feel like her, only we're too trapped, be it because we have no resources in the 'outside' world or because we're creatures of habit and it takes too much courage to break out the way she did. I think most people disagree. Idealism and true faith still thrive in crown heights and elsewhere and these so-called rebels don't prove anything about the life they've rebelled against. They've made personal choices about their lives and I can't stand when they make so much more of it.

UPDATE 3: A Reader comments:
False statement #1: "In fact, her father comes from an wealthy and crusty upper east side family which disapproved of his becoming religious and shunned him completely, both emotionally and financially."
False statement #2: "plus she has a severly disabled sibling..."
False statement #3: "The program never really took off- at the meetings they basically pass around condoms and sex-ed pamphlets"
False statement #4: "The girl needed financial support her parents could ill afford. And her grandmother provided it."

UPDATE 4: Tzemach Atlas:
Human behavior is too complex to be reduced to smile formulas. Saying that there is cause and affect during mysterious and personal dialogue with G-d is unbearably inaccurate and primitive. When dealing with BTs or TBs (made up aabbreviation), reducing the decision making to a traceable event or events is rarely true. In some way this reasoning is the unfortunate byproduct of the frum culture when human behavior is mapped after a fairy tale story where giants and midgets take caricature steps in life. I don�t mean the culture permeated by the lively and uncensored drama of the "Bible" but the culture of the sterilized fairy tales.

UPDATE 5: mentalblog.com: I'm 23, I live in Crown Heights and I write well. Deal with it :)

UPDATE 6: mentalblog.com: The Lady Malkie Schwartz.