Suri: Former Orthodox Jewish

<p>Suri Robinson grew up in an Orthodox Jewish community in Baltimore, where she learned to suppress her needs, protect her family’s image, and strive for religious perfection. After seminary, she married at 20, moved to Lakewood, raised five children, became a therapist, and helped build a Bais Yaakov school focused on children’s emotional wellbeing. </p><p>From inside the community’s institutions, however, she witnessed rigid expectations, concealed abuse, political pressure, discrimination, and what she describes as “toxic selflessness”—a culture in which saying no was treated as selfish or religiously unacceptable.</p><p>Following her mother’s death and years of relentless responsibility, Suri experienced severe burnout, depression, complex PTSD, and suicidal despair. Residential treatment gave her the distance to recognize patterns of religious abuse, coercion, shame, and control. She gradually left her marriage, institutional role, and religious observance, while facing claims that she had “snapped” or become mentally unstable. Today, through After the Burn, she speaks about religious trauma, nervous-system healing, mental health stigma, authentic connection, and rebuilding a meaningful life after losing the world she once knew.</p><p><br></p><p>Follow Suri: https://www.instagram.com/aftertheburnco/</p><p><br></p><p>Chapters</p><p>00:00 – Meet Suri</p><p>00:38 – Growing Up Orthodox in Baltimore</p><p>02:42 – The Burden of Being the “Perfect” Child</p><p>04:08 – Secret Dreams of a Different Life</p><p>05:48 – Fasting, Prayer, and Religious Performance</p><p>06:58 – Escaping into Books and Imaginary Worlds</p><p>08:38 – The Shame of a Small Rebellion</p><p>10:36 – Seminary, Spiritual Certainty, and Body Shame</p><p>13:28 – How Seminary Creates Belonging and Commitment</p><p>16:56 – Entering the Orthodox Marriage System</p><p>19:45 – Marriage, Lakewood, and Patriarchal Expectations</p><p>25:28 – Kollel Life, Motherhood, and Relentless Productivity</p><p>29:10 – Toxic Selflessness and the Inability to Say No</p><p>32:33 – Becoming a Therapist Inside the Religious System</p><p>34:59 – Building an Emotionally Supportive Bais Yaakov School</p><p>39:27 – Harassment, School Politics, and the Collapse of Boundaries</p><p>44:56 – Challenging Stereotypes About People Who Leave</p><p>46:39 – Grief, Burnout, and the Beginning of Collapse</p><p>48:47 – Depression, Suicidal Dread, and Nervous-System Breakdown</p><p>51:24 – Entering Residential Mental Health Treatment</p><p>54:20 – What Religious Abuse Looks Like</p><p>57:37 – Being Labelled Crazy After Stepping Away</p><p>01:04:04 – Rabbinical Bullying, Threats, and Control</p><p>01:07:10 – Rebuilding Belief, Identity, and Daily Life</p><p>01:13:46 – How Group Therapy Broke the Cycle of Shame</p><p>01:18:28 – After the Burn: Suri’s Work and Message</p><p>01:23:13 – Systemic Harm, Moral Injury, and Final Reflections</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>