How an Orthodox Jewish scholar found an unexpected home among the Amish

JERUSALEM (RNS) — When Rivka Neriya-Ben Shahar, an Orthodox Jew who lives in Jerusalem, first arrived in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 2011 to research Amish communities, she had only visited the U.S. once and could barely speak English.

But after years of researching women in Israel’s Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, community, one of her academic advisers, Yehiel Limor, “basically forced me to read about the Amish,” she told RNS. “I tried to negotiate and say, ‘look, I don’t have time, and everything is in English.’” When she relented, “I just fell in love with this community,” she said.

Fast-forward over a decade later, and Neriya-Ben Shahar, whose research straddles media, sociology and anthropology, has visited with the Amish more than 100 times for short and extended visits in Lancaster and beyond. She conducted the first comparative study of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel and old-order Amish communities with a 2024 book, “Strictly Observant,” relaying her findings and experience. She made her most recent visit to Lancaster in September, researching her second book on Amish women. She now considers some of the women she’s lived with her extended family.

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