From Ultra-Orthodox Jew to New York City Conductor

Meir Briskman about growing up Orthodox, leaving the faith, and becoming a successful musician.

I come from a long line of ultra-Orthodox Jews. My father was born in Brazil, and my mother in Cleveland, Ohio. My parents both descended from ultra-Orthodox Litvish families in the rabbinical tradition.

I’m accustomed to thinking big and being ambitious, which came from my maternal grandfather. He was sent to Israel to build a yeshiva, which is basically a campus, and he ended up building a whole fucking village. When he’s on a mission, he exceeds everyone’s expectations — just for the sake of challenge, I think. The village still exists, only 10 minutes away from Jerusalem. It has a large ultra-Orthodox community. In recent days, it’s been heavily affected by the coronavirus. Half of those who are sick are Israeli Orthodox, many in New York as well.

They have this “we’re smarter than anybody” sensibility. It’s not even about God. If you go deeper, it’s something in the culture. They’re an underground group of people and they don’t like acting mainstream. One thing I like about them is their unique sense of humor. The way they see it, you might die from coronavirus, but you’ll die laughing. The problem is that their cavalier attitude towards the…