The facade of faith: the psychological wellbeing of Jewish Orthodox hidden non-believers

A growing body of research highlights the challenges non-believers face within the Orthodox Jewish communities, with minimal studies focusing on “double lifers” – individuals who have lost faith yet remain within their communities. This study is an exploration of “double lifers’” experiences and perceptions of psychological wellbeing through a phenomenological approach. Twelve double lifers, recruited via social media groups and snowballing, participated in semi-structured individual interviews exploring their experiences, reasons for staying, and implications of their decisions. A phenomenological qualitative analysis yielded several themes, suggesting that double lifers’ experiences centre around family considerations, social consequences, mental and emotional wellbeing, contemplating leaving and staying, and negotiating dissonance. The findings suggest a need for interventions for this population, including therapy that provides tools for coping with emotional distress and relational conflict, and that extends beyond the individual to include the family unit. Future research should study double lifers within different populations.