Delusion

Title: DELUSION: Growing up in an Amish-Jewish Cult
Author: Patricia Hochstetler
Publisher: Baker Trittin Press
June 2007
ISBN: 978-0-9787316-4-9
Genre: Autobiography

Patricia’s family was a member of the Amish, and when Patricia was very young a man who claimed to be a Jew, and know a lot of the Bible came into her community and started befriending the Amish. No one knew much about this man, but the Amish became confused, and some of them decided to call this Jewish man as their Bishop. This caused a split among the Amish Community, and eventually, the Bishop decided to move the community into Tennessee into a heavily wooded area, and the only ways into the area are blocked by gates. No one could leave, and no one could get in.

The families are not allowed communication with any in the outside world, so the community became the only world these people knew. Doctors were not allowed, nor any professionals of any kind. All food was raised in the community.

But eventually, discord began to spread. The Bishop ordered one seventeen year old boy to be taken to Delaware and dumped. The teacher was using traditional school books, and the Bishop called them of the Devil, and banned the teacher from the community. A young boy cut his leg to the bone and got an infection. The Bishop decreed that there was sin in the boy’s life and that is why he wasn’t healing.

DELUSION isn’t really a well-written book, but the story is fascinating. I was hooked, and wanted to see how this story would play out. Unfortunately, DELUSION is just the beginning of the story, and it is continued through two more books, Deception and Deliverance which I haven’t had the privilege of reading.

If you are interested in a true story about a man who turned an Amish community into a Amish-Jewish cult, then don’t miss DELUSION or the other books in the series. The story has been flying off the shelves in Amish bookstores, and Amish historians have verified the truth of it, and in fact the Jewish “bishop” who caused the problems has stayed in several other Amish communities. Don’t miss DELUSION. Available on-line at www.bakertrittinpress.com. $12.95. 140 pages.