The organization Footsteps, which helps people leaving the Haredi lifestyle, has cut ties with Freidom, a separate, smaller organization with a similar purpose, over concerns about “safety.”

“Footsteps has recently decided to stop promoting Freidom events to our membership, based on complaints about the lack of safety at Freidom events,” wrote Hoda ElMahdy, a senior director at Footsteps, in an email sent to the organization’s members on Tuesday.

Freidom’s board of directors responded on Wednesday with a statement. “Freidom cannot speak directly to the nature of complaints raised by Footsteps because they have not shared any details with us,” the statement said. “There are currently no unaddressed complaints that Freidom is aware of.”

Freidom’s founder, Gene Steinberg, is also its sole employee. 

Footsteps declined to share more information with Shtetl about its concerns about Freidom, citing member confidentiality.

Launched in 2012, Freidom hosts social events – such as gender-integrated museum visits and restaurant outings – meant to help its members assimilate to non-Haredi cultural norms. Every July, Freidom also hosts “Freifest,” an event the organization’s website describes as “a celebration of personal freedom in nature together as a community.”

Steinberg grew up in the mostly Satmar Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel and left the Orthodox lifestyle at age 28, according to the organization’s website. 

Steinberg is also the co-founder of KindEar, a Yiddish and English phone hotline that provides mental health support to Haredi and formerly Haredi people.