In Judaism, a ba'al teshuvah (Hebrew: בעל תשובה; for a woman, בעלת תשובה, ba'alat teshuva or ba'alas teshuva; plural, בעלי תשובה, ba'alei teshuva, 'owner of return [to God or his way]') is a Jew who adopts some form of traditional religious observance after having previously followed a secular lifestyle or a less frum form of Judaism.
The baal teshuva movement is a description of the return of secular Jews to religious Judaism. The term is used to refer to a worldwide phenomenon among the Jewish people.[1][2]
^Dana Evan Kaplan Contemporary American Judaism: transformation and renewal 2009 "Some found it in a havurah and later in Jewish Renewal; others found it in the baal teshuva movement where (hundreds of) thousands of Jews have returned to becoming Torah observant... of Jewish Renewal that is the Baal Teshuvah movement. It is unprecedented in Jewish history. In ed. Mark Avrum Ehrlich Encyclopedia of the Jewish diaspora: origins, experiences, and culture: Volume 1 2009 Page 627 "It is important to note that although Renewal was fed by the Baal Teshuva movement (new returnees to Judaism) in the late 1960s ... The Baal Teshuva movement was a movement of disenchanted Diaspora and Israeli youth who turned back to ...
^Timothy Miller America's alternative religions 1995 Page 113 "The Baal Teshuva movement addressed these same issues. Men and women attracted to Orthodox Judaism articulated a vision of renewed selfhood. M. Herbert Danzger, studying this phenomenon, commented on the affinity between the ideals of ..."