Dr. Leah Zitter was raised inside Neturei Karta, an extremely insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish community where, according to Leah, information, identity and contact with the outside world were tightly controlled.

In this episode of Zero Signal, Leah takes us inside that closed world and shares how childhood isolation, fear, obedience and restricted access to information shaped the way she understood reality. She discusses the experience of being confined in her grandmother’s attic, the questions that began forming as she watched the outside world through a window, and the difficult process of leaving the community and rebuilding her identity.

But escaping physically was only the beginning.

After leaving, Leah pursued an education in philosophy, psychology and behavioral neuroscience. Her research focused on people who separated fro ...