Tech entrepreneur leaps to her death from 20-storey New York City rooftop after renouncing Hasidic Judaism

A 30-year-old entrepreneur who battled depression after renouncing her strict Hasidic Judaism faith reportedly threw herself to her death off a 20th-floor rooftop bar in New York City.

Faigy Mayer, who was founder and CEO and of mobile apps firm Appton, struggled with her relationship with her parents after she told them she no longer wanted to follow Hasidic Judaism – which is a branch of Orthodox Judaism.

"Once you don't feel loved by your own parents, it's the end of the world. You hate yourself. You don't want to live," a source in the Jewish community said.

According to the New York Post, she had posted old family photos on Facebook before she leaped to her death from the 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar in the Flatiron District of Manhattan.

Her last words were to a barman, whom she asked for directions to the east deck – east being the direction in which Jewish people pray towards Jerusalem. He tried to stop her as she mounted a nearby wall, but she broke free. She then next ran through the Manhattan bar, where a corporate party was being held, and leaped off the roof.

In 2009, she appeared in a National Geographic documentary called ­'Inside Hasidism', in which she talked about how she never really believed in her parents' faith.

"It was actually at the age of three that I already showed no interest in Yiddish or Hebrew," she said.

Then when she openly rejected the faith, she said: "My parents, they were like, point blank: 'You have to get out of here because you are not religious anymore.'"

Friends on Facebook have said that she battled with depression.

A friend posted on 21 July by her recently update profile picture: "And now we are going to *our* friend's funeral. Chilling. I'm still waiting for her to text me and say, Libby stop! What nonsense are you spreading on my page while I'm coding away?"