Literatureפאראנאק מרגוליס

Faranak Margolese

Faranak Margolese is an American-Israeli writer known for Off the Derech, a book about people who leave Orthodox Judaism.

born 1972The book Off the DerechThe Hebrew book HaYotziimResearch on leaving Orthodox Judaism

Occupation: writer
Education: Columbia University, Stern College for Women, Columbia University School of the Arts

Faranak Margolese was born in 1972 in Manchester

Margolese was born in Manchester, England, in 1972. She is the great-granddaughter of a former Chief Rabbi of Tehran. She grew up in Los Angeles in a traditional Sephardi home, the child of parents who came from Iran.

She finished Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles. She earned a BA in philosophy from Stern College and a Master of Fine Arts in nonfiction writing from Columbia University.

From 1995 to 1997 she taught expository writing at Yeshiva University and Queens College. She edited the 1999 edition of Freedom in the World, a yearly report by Freedom House. She also worked as an editor for the Los Angeles Jewish Times and wrote a column for The Jerusalem Post.

Her book Off the Derech, published in 2005, looks at why Jews raised in Orthodox homes stop observing and how communities can respond. She spent 5 years on research, interviews and an online survey. In 2017 she published HaYotziim, a Hebrew edition based on a new study of Israeli society.

She moved to Israel in 2002 with her husband David Margolese. They lived in Jerusalem and divorced in 2017.