This Week’s Issue: When Leaving Your Religion Can Mean Losing Your Kids

Plus: using the homeless to guard empty houses, the virtual-assistant industry, and New York’s mob mythology. View in browser | Update your preferences A Reporter at Large When One Parent Leaves a Hasidic Community, What Happens to the Kids? The irreconcilable differences between Orthodoxy and secularism increasingly end up in court. By Larissa MacFarquhar Letter from Los Angeles Using the Homeless to Guard Empty Houses As the pandemic makes an already terrible housing crisis worse, a new version of house-sitting signals a broken real-estate market. By Francesca Mari Brave New World Dept. What if You Could Outsource Your To-Do List? Virtual assistants are one click—but often one continent—away. A new industry for bringing order to our work lives could shift the order of our workforce. By Nathan Heller Portfolio The Race to Make Vials for Coronavirus Vaccines A Corning factory in upstate New York is running around the clock to help meet the urgent demand. Comment The Cost of Trump’s Assault on the Press and the Truth The President is being forced to give up his attempt to overturn the election. But he will continue his efforts to build an alternative reality around himself. By David Remnick Books Why New York’s Mob Mythology Endures We hang on to legends of the Mafia’s inner workings as parables for the wider world. By Adam Gopnik Musical Events What Does It Mean to “Reimagine” an Orchestra Season? With live performances constrained by the pandemic, musical ensembles are streaming productions for listeners curious enough to seek them out. By Alex Ross On Television “Roadkill” Offers the Fantasy of Politics as Usual The British political thriller, full of small-bore scandals and Victorian twists, can hardly compete with reality. By Alexandra Schwartz Comic Strip A Cheery Story After the Degenerate Era comes the Black Hole Era, which lasts until the black holes themselves start to die. Which they do. By Roz Chast PAID POST “A Rollicking Read.”—The Wall Street Journal The #1 New York Times bestselling fast-paced and funny original fairy tale, from the author of the Harry Potter series. Humor from The New Yorker Shouts & Murmurs Raised by Wolves “Sweetheart,” he said. “We went over this in therapy. The reason I left the family had nothing to do with you. It was a crazy time for me. I had rabies.” By Simon Rich Cartoons From The Issue Cartoons from the Issue Drawings and drollery from this week’s magazine. This e-mail was sent to you by The New Yorker. To insure delivery, we recommend adding newyorker@newsletters.newyorker.com, to your contacts, while noting that it is a no-reply address. Please send all newsletter feedback to tnyinbox@newyorker.com. For more from The New Yorker, sign up for our newsletters, shop the store, and sign in to newyorker.com, where subscribers always have unlimited access. Contact us with questions. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2020. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.