Inspiration for the Nation with Yaakov Langer
Inspiration for the Nation with Yaakov Langer

Yosef Waslow: How Alcohol Addiction Ultimately Led Me to Becoming a Chassid

July 11, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Yosef Waslow grew up in North Philadelphia in the 1990s, the biracial son of a Jewish mother and a Baptist father who never spoke about religion. He attended predominantly Black schools, felt he never fully fit in anywhere, and began drinking at age thirteen. From the first drink, he says, "it was over"—he knew his relationship with alcohol was not normal. By his early twenties, he had lost his best friend to leukemia, a second friend to suicide, his father, and both grandparents in rapid succession. Drinking became his way of coping, and by age twenty-two, his life had become unmanageable: his wife (then girlfriend) was ready to leave, his mother had given up, and his best friend took his son away from him at an Eagles training camp because he showed up drunk.

The turning point

On August 28, 2012, Waslow entered a treatment facility. He recalls the statistic shared in recovery meetings: out of twenty or thirty people in a room, only about three will leave and stay on the path of recovery. Five days in, he told his counselor he was done and ready to leave. She told him he could only go against medical advice. He left anyway, promising to return in a year to prove he had done it. He never went back, but he did keep it together.

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What you'll learn

  • 1 Timestamped Outline
  • 2 (00:00) **Opening & Sponsor Roll** - Episode introduction and sponsor acknowledgments for Kol Chabad, WheelsLease, Bipping, Qualify Way Protein, OU Women's Initiative, and Chabashaim Heritage Foundation
  • 3 (01:34) **Childhood in North Philly** - Yosef Waslow describes growing up in the 1990s in Logan, a historically Jewish but then predominantly Black neighborhood in Philadelphia
  • 4 (03:50) **Father's Background and Early Loss** - Yosef's father was a Vietnam veteran who did battlefield cleanup and was deeply traumatized, though he remained a loving parent
  • 5 (15:49) **First Drink and Addiction Trajectory** - Yosef had his first drink at 13 and knew immediately it was not a normal experience—he was chasing the feeling of not caring
  • 6 (19:11) **The Turning Point in Treatment** - In the facility, he learned that addiction is just a symptom of the bigger problem: the person themselves
  • 7 (22:50) **Rebuilding Life as an "Adult Baby"** - Recovery required starting life over as a child, earning back everyone's trust through humiliating and humbling work

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Today, Yosef Waslow is a Chassidish husband and father, but his story is far deeper than becoming frum. Raised by a white Jewish mother and a black Baptist father, Yosef battled with alcoholism, fitting in, searching for identity, and eventually found his way to Torah and family. Yet this conversation isn't really about addiction, race, or even becoming a baal teshuva.
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✬ IN MEMORY OF ✬
This episode is in memory of:
• Shimon Dovid ben Yaakov Shloima
• Miriam Sarah bas Yaakov Moshe
• Shaindel bas Chaim Yehuda Leib
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Lchaim.

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