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First Computer Opened A New World
- Shulem Deen first bought a computer in 1996 to make worksheets and discovered AOL via a free floppy disk.
- The AOL chat rooms and online curiosity opened him to strangers and ideas outside his Hasidic world.
Encountering Different Jews Shifts Beliefs
- Exposure to other Jews who practiced differently shattered Shulem's assumption that non-observant Jews were simply ignorant.
- That realization started him questioning his entire religious worldview.
Library Trips Were Secret Journeys
- Shulem used the public library and rented movies to explore secular culture, experiencing big anxiety about visibility.
- Those small trips became a series of exposures that felt like travel and broadened his references.