An Inside Look at a Syrian-Jewish Enclave
Solidarity Forever, or ‘Medieval Minds in Armani Designs’?
By Larry Cohler-Esses
At the Deal Synagogue on the final Saturday afternoon of July, congregants were treated to the spectacle of a revered rabbi of the Syrian community disavowing his son.
“It was at the Seudat Shlishit,” one community leader said, referring to the third meal of the Sabbath, when many observant Jews in the community join their rabbi for a session of learning. Like virtually everyone connected to Deal’s Syrian community, the leader declined to speak for the record. But he confided, “Without using the word ‘disown,’ he said his son was no longer welcome in his home.”
According to two sources, the senior Dwek delivered a blistering speech at the gathering, in which he denounced the actions of a Jew being an informant against fellow Jews and requested the community’s prayers for him in a time of suffering. And then, as if to underline the point, the elder Dwek taught a class together with Nachum, the man caught in his son’s sting.
Reached by phone, Dwek declined to comment. “This is something I don’t wish to talk about now,” he said graciously, adding, “God bless you” when a reporter said he understood.
Deal, N.J., is a quiet and bucolic seashore summer community for the prosperous, largely Brooklyn-based Syrian-Jewish community of about 75,000. But that tranquility has been buried in a din of rumor and gossip since money laundering charges were lodged against the three Syrian rabbis, who are out on bail. There is a deep historical irony to these arrests: Solomon Dwek took down the rabbis from the two main rival families whose leadership struggle divided the community some 15 years ago. And in damaging these pillars of the community, some say, Dwek may have strengthened the ultra-Orthodox “black hat” stream that has been a rising force, at least among the rank and file.
Others see it, to the contrary, as offering an opening to the community’s more liberal wing, since the rabbis arrested were all strong traditionalists, if not black hat themselves.
As Sephardim — Jews of Iberian and north African descent — the Syrians don’t fit neatly into the religious denominations that define their Eastern European counterparts, but their fealty to their rabbis is profound.
So talk of the federal case is everywhere: at the Casino Beach Club abutting the Jersey Shore, where many gather to play cards and swim in the football-field-sized pool; in the large homes where extended families gather for meals in a summer ritual, and in restaurants, shopping malls and on Web sites. Not surprising for a community that reveres its rabbis as few others do, there were declarations of solidarity. “We should stand by our Rabbis in Solidarity and let what ever happened today play out,” activist Albert Edery wrote in a lengthy letter of support on the Web site symall.com, a popular community bulletin board.
But that was not the only reaction. A different Web site, enclavement.com, maintained by present and former members of the community with a bent clearly more critical, offered a faux news report with the lead:
“A heavy blow was dealt to the enclave yesterday, as news spread that some of the community’s most trusted, religious, and morally upright figures were guilty of the most serious crime imaginable: getting caught. This public embarrassment has engendered a mass outpouring of outrage and condemnation.”
This was precisely the type of reaction bound to enrage and frustrate community members mortified at the notion that the arrested rabbis might, as a result of their positions, be seen as embodying the community’s own values. It is an image that, to some extent, has been reinforced by public commentary on the community even before the events of late July. A recent Broadway play by David Adjmi skewered the Syrian-Jewish community — his former home — as corrupt and materialistically obsessed. And two years ago, a New York Times Magazine piece by Zev Chafets conveyed a similar theme.
“Their alleged actions in no way characterize this community,” one important activist argued, referring to the arrested rabbis. Recalling a previous fraud scandal involving another Syrian Jew, regional retailer “Crazy Eddie,” he acknowledged, “Once in a while, you may have an Eddie Antar.” But he noted the increased presence in recent years of an emergent Ashkenazic-style black hat faction within the community, and insisted: “This has more to do with the Haredi community. The regular community feels their traditions have been hijacked.”
As it happens, Solomon Dwek and his father are at the center of this black hat faction in Deal. But the leadership struggle goes back to 1994, when Rabbi Saul Kassin, now 87 and out of jail on $200,000 bail, won the titular title of chief rabbi after the death of his father, Rabbi Jacob Kassin, spiritual leader since the 1930s. In doing so, he beat out Rabbi Baruch Ben-Haim, who, incidentally, was married to the elder Kassin’s daughter, and whom many considered better qualified for the job.
The choice, reportedly based on the last will and testament of Jacob Kassin, was not universally popular. In the wake of losing the contest for succession, Ben-Haim withdrew from the community’s mainstream in many ways, including no longer attending the community’s rabbinic council meetings regularly, according to one source. Over time, this source related, he turned increasingly toward the ultra-Orthodox wing of the community, an orientation sustained by his son, Eli Ben-Haim, who also was charged.
Even before the arrests, some would speculate about who — if anyone — might succeed Kassin as chief rabbi. His arrest has now accentuated the question.
One longtime observer from within the community predicted that Solomon Dwek’s choice of whom to sting would inevitably strengthen the Haredi faction in the years to come. The Deal Yeshiva and Deal Kollel, both headed by Dwek’s father, are the centers for the ultra-Orthodox in Deal and remain untouched by the scandal, as does Ateret Torah, the central ultra-Orthodox Syrian congregation in Brooklyn.
But another source deeply involved in community affairs dismissed this. “No one takes seriously any longer the idea of succession,” he said. Under the relatively weak leadership of Saul Kassin, he explained, individual congregations have increasingly looked to their own spiritual leaders. This close observer of trends in the community also pointed to increasing gaps between the ultra-Orthodox and the mainstream that he predicted would, over time, erode the traditional Sephardic ethos of belief in traditional observance and simultaneous toleration of laxity of the same.
“There will very probably be a split in the community down the road,” he said. “These are centrifugal forces.”
This source noted the ultra-Orthodox emphasis on studying over work for the men in the community, and spoke of the increasing economic strain this was putting on the community’s famously comprehensive social services for its own members, generated in large part by contributions from within. The economic downturn had only exacerbated this tension, he said.
Also, in contrast to the past, when boys were encouraged to go into business right out of school, “There are now a lot of people in our community who insist on higher secular education for their children. The Haredim don’t tolerate that.”
It’s not a universal view. “It’s true there’s been a bit of polarization in the community in the last 15 to 20 years,” one rabbi said. “But the community is complex. We’re not ideological. People marry each other. The streams overlap.”
Solidarity is how this community has survived intact even as other, less insular, Sephardic communities — the Greeks, for example — have scattered and assimilated in America. The Syrians’ communal trajectory has traced the reverse course of Ashkenazic Jewry, in which each generation of the mainstream has been more assimilated than the last. With the Syrian Jews, each generation has been more insular.
It is an insularity reinforced in no small part by a rabbinic edict from the 1930s — since updated and strengthened — that, in its current interpretation, forbids community members from marrying converts to Judaism, even if validly converted by an Orthodox rabbi elsewhere. It is an insularity that has grown, even as their wealth has burgeoned due to their elaborate, family-linked network of mutual aid in business and philanthropy.
This has led some wags to describe the community as medieval minds in Armani designs. But its defenders point, instead, to the unparalleled benefits community member share.
“No community has been as successful in building such an extensive infrastructure for its members,” noted Sarina Roffe, a writer and researcher whose work focuses on her community — and who was one of the few sources willing to speak on the record.
Now this community’s absolute fealty to its rabbis will face a test unlike any it has faced before. And no one knows for sure in which direction its members will turn — toward greater openness to the outside or further fortification against it.
Contact Larry Cohler-Esses at cohleresses@forward.com
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I think your headline "Medieval Minds in Armani Designs" is highly offensive. It portrays the Syrian community as intellectually and culturally retrograde, while embracing the materialistic trappings of modernity. The Syrian community is getting enough bad press from unbiased reporting with having this sort of rhetoric directed against it. Shame on you.
Are the members of the Deal community out of their minds? They 'stand by their rabbis'? How can they reconcile their souls, their conscience with such a blatant crime? They used my donated money for ill gains! They were thinking of nobody but themselves! I hate to use stereotypes, but it proves something that all my friends keep convincing me of: our orthodox community is selfish, oblivious of the people they live next to, of the world around them, and now - of the rest of us, Jews, who are to be blamed for their actions! They should kill themselves to at least cleanse us of their dirt! And Solomon Dweck is the true son of his father and mother. His father's official line proves that the 'rabbi' cares less about the crime itself than about the fact that his son (a Jew) betryed him (his father, another Jew). Shame on the entire community!
Does anyone honestly believe Rabbi Dwek had no knowledge of his son's actions. He's been in the real estate business back in the days when he purchased the Kollel property next to Deal Synagogue over 20 years ago. Furthermore; when times were good in the real estate market, wouldn't you think Rabbi Dwek would look to benefit from his son's success. Especially since it was Rabbi Dwek who, through his brother's influence made a connection with the Adjmi family, thus securing the funds needed to launch Shlomo's real estate career in the first place. Keep in mind -When the pot gets larger, it becomes much more difficult to fold.
The American Principle:
In the immortal words of Mortimer Kaplan, when he was commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service:
"Tax avoidance is every American's birthright; for tax evasion we put you in jail."
The line is clear: One can benefit from the fine structure of the law, within the law, but violation of the law is criminal. Like the Rubashkin case, the current case is, if the allegations are proven, criminal, and law-abiding Americans of any religious persuasion should support prosecution.
As to the issue of "moser" that is a foreign concept which developed in a world where Jews were persecuted by governmemnts and did not enjoy the equal protection of the law. As long as there is no case to be made of selective prosecution by law enforcement, the notion of "moser" is inimical to American mores, where it is "our" government as well as "their" government. In fact Jews are instructed to render unto the king what is due to the king, and support of fair laws, applied uniformly to all groups, is an obligation of citizenship.
"Moser" is associated with non-Jewish concepts of "stool pigeon" and "informer". Such concepts originate in societies with oppressive governments. In a fairly governed society, such concepts protect criminals, not the rest of us.
To Mr. sternlight, What are your qualifications to render a psak as to the definition of Moser? Indeed, every Jew is obligated to keep the laws of the country we live in, and breaking those laws also violates jewish law. As well, all the people involved in this are responsible for a chilul Hashem of mind boggling proportions. However, and this is a key point that a lot of people are not getting, Solomon Dwek, Y'mach Shmo, INSTIGATED the entire situation. There clearly is a difference between someone caught in a criminal conspiracy ratting out his co-conspirators, and someone actively going out and setting people up gratuitously. While they must be faulted for making poor choices and breaking the law, and should be punished as the law dictates, they were entrapped. Finally, for what it is worth, I am a little familiar with the way the gov works in these situations, and anyone who goes after 44 people was doing it because he wanted to, not because he was forced to. At what point would he have been able to say"enough" and been ok..five, ten, evn fifteen arrests?! The fact that he went after 44 people says a lot abot this scumbag!
I'm with AD. Clearly wrong things were done, but the amounts mentioned in the news media are small, in the realm cheating and money laundering.
I had a friend who was entrapped in an internet sting operation. The second thing I thought, after the shock seeing the rabbis in handcuffs lessened, was that Dwek the younger, whether to save his own criminal skin, or for whatever reason, entrapped not only politicians, but members of his own family... was it fear of owning up to his crimes? Any here he is - willing to bring down those who might not have had that inclination, had the subject not been broached by him?
If I ever harbored any feelings of jealousy regarding the rich Syrians vacationing in Deal, I've been cured!
Mr. Sternlight,
As to the issue of Moser, R' Moshe Feinstein in his sefer Igros Moshe, Choshen Mishpat Aleph, Ches, writes that even in America the halachos of moser apply, and R' Moshe, goes on to quote the shulchan aruch in choshen mishpat, siman shin pay ches.
oink kosher pigs
oink kosher pigs
Moshe, really "highly offensive"? What about the actual living stereotypes we are witnessing there?
What is so offensive about killing children for body parts for fat old men that never worked an honest day in their miserable lazy lives.
An organized criminal said "they were entrapped."
Yeah entrapped, like how does one become "entrapped" in buying a kidney? LOL at the desperation of your stereotypes.
vestin:
show me a single sentence in Igros Moshe that is written in syntactically correct Hebrew!
R'Moshe refused to halachichally condemn smoking as bad for one's health. What does that tell you as to his grasp on current reality?
Many of his responsa demonstrate a commitment not to the Talmud and halachah on its own merits, but to reading the classic texts through the prism of his own subjective policy preferences - and then passing these off as halachah. In short, practicing eisogesis rather than exegesis.
Props to pippic!
"As Sephardim — Jews of north African descent — the Syrians...": seriously, do you guys just make it up as you go along? I mean, what are you talking about?
There is no truth in mankind....mankind have made their god to fit their life. The word has been control, what mankind has said, what mankind thinks.
To know the silence of the voice of Truth and Wisdom, one must first put the desire that G-D desires for all of us. Psalms 51...Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me know wisdom.
G-D is asking us here to "Set Me As A Seal Upon Your Heart." This seal is to identify, authenticate and protect the contents...the document that holds the law on our hearts and minds, we are the vessel, the hidden part is our true foundation that all was their, just waitting for us to ----turn. Jeremiah tells turn. It is written in Jeremiah 31 of those that will not turn on their own.......But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts; and will be their G-D, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. The world is leading the blind, mankind can not see, Truth and Wisdom in the hidden part nor become a holy child that is given up from earth to enter in the kingdom of G-D untill one puts sin out of their lives and turn. Then and only then will one be a true Jew, a holy child that the Almighty has brought forth to call his. The word Jew was given us by G-D meaning one who keeps the law. We were not born fools, only G-D can do good, and only through G-D in us can good come. Judgment of anyone belongs to G-D alone, I rather pray we all turn, it would do more good.
Syrian Jews are Real Jews. When the lineage of most present-day Reform and Conservative Jews has vanished into the Gentile American stream, the Syrians, Bukharans, among the several, will still be producing a Jew identical to our Biblical ancestors.
"However, and this is a key point that a lot of people are not getting, Solomon Dwek, Y'mach Shmo, INSTIGATED the entire situation."
Really? Did he conspire to rob a young man of his kidney? That better be true, AD, or else you just committed one hell of a libel.
When I was a child I was raised to believe that Jews are not only better than everyone else, but different. The older I got the more I realized that wasn't true. These current events prove all people are the same. No group is better or worse, or any different.
‘Medieval Minds in Armani Designs’. I wonder if the readers of Forward has ever been provided with informations about how Medieval can be those people living in Williamsburg or Borough Park. Or is this historical anathema reserved for those tchamtchakim, guilty to vote Likud and to not understand yddish and socialism?
The sad part about this is that the actions of these rabbis match the accusations you see in the Iranian, Syrian and Palestinian media and TV shows. It was not that long ago when many Jewish and Israeli newspapers and civil rights groups protested the Iranian soap opera that spoke of Jewish physicians that sold eyes from their Palestinian patients. That was fantasy, but the story above is true and just as bad as the fantasy in the Iranian media.
Understand, The world is not as The G-D of All That Is, wants it to be. As it is in heaven so shall it be below, for it is written in Jeremiah 31 Behold, the days come saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.
The blood line of the Israel and Judah is in all nations. Why? it is written ....Isaiah 40 Do you not know? have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting G-D the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom.
In the kingdom of G-D the realms have been given control of the physical realm. The commands of the King are delegated to carry out in these realms or delegate to others. This represents the spiritual forces affecting the physical world. Once the Jew now all mankind inplanted with the royal seed, represents the forces affecting the physical world. It is written Isaiah 54...For your Maker is your husband the LORD Almighty is his name the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the G-D of All The Earth. Jeremiah 32..."I am the LORD, the G-D of all mankind. Is anything too hard for Me?"
The King above is not in His full Majesty, until united with the Queen below. In the future, when He returns to ONE, and His name is ONE (Zachariah 14) All are called sons that return to Israel our G-D in the land that was promised Abraham. In the G-D of Host in the kingdom of G-D.
It is written in Job 33 The Spirit of G-D made me (flesh) but the breath of the Almighty gives life. (spiritual life in the G-D of Host, Israel)
Psalm 2 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art My Son this day have I brought you forth. or begotten you or birth you. This is what happened to Abraham, he was taken from his fathers house into the house of G-D, and from his native land earth into the kingdom of G-D, the promise land, is this.
The earth gave up a child and the goverment of G-D rest upon them, what ever is done above must be done below. Abraham walked in unity with G-D, sin was put out, for sin can not enter in the house of G-D.
For when the children having a mother who is a jew, and that is all of mankind, for it is written...Jer. 31. the Queen now holds the seeds of all mankind in her. When all mankind are blameless in their conduct on earth, the Holy Name, so to speak is whole, but when they are faulty in their conduct on earth, the Holy Name if one may say so, is not whole above. For so we have learned "One went up and the other went down. The supernal Israel ascended aloft, the Community of Israel came came down to earh. So they were parted from one another, and the holy Name was left incomplete", and all because of the Community of Israel is in exile. but never the less G-D has given the promise to David, that his line will never not sit on the throne of G-D. This is the tribe of Judah.
It is written in Jeremiah 3 ...Return, ye backsliding children, I will heal you backslidings". sBehold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our G-D.
It is written ...Psalm 51...Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts:(heart and mind) and in the hidden part (the true temple) thou shalt make me to know wisdom. These are the ones that give there hearts and minds to G-D to do the will of G-D in all they do. These are the holy children that are brought forth into the house of G-D and in the kingdom of G-D. The goverment of G-D rest upon them and what is done above is done below. This is the children of David that obeyed G-D'S Declare decree in Ps.2 and did as David did in Ps. 101--putting sin out, G-D in. They turned, having both sides of the law written on their hearts and minds, they are the stones that G-D Most High is building His temple, with His name on it ----not man's. Sin or mankind can not enter to defile it! It is written ...psalm 118 The Stone the builders rejected has become the Capstone; the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
Israel ...it is written of them in Jeremiah 31 but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their G-D, and they shall be My people. G-D'S Will Will Be Done on earth as it is in heaven.
It is written....Jeremiah 31 Behold the days come, (days in all our lives in every generation, days to turn.) saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD.
It is written.....Job The Spirit of G-D made me (flesh below) but the breath of the Almighty gives me life. (spirit above)
miriam, with respect, all that you have posited on above post i evaluate as piling conclusions on top of the original conclusion; namely, "there is god".
then follows number of conclusions: jeremiah either spoke with 'god' or listened to him/her/it, or is it to you, him? which is just another conclusion that god needs sex or is a man? All this, and still more conclusions!
does it take much if any research or thought to conclude as i do now: any god must know all people and their languages; if not then s/he's a devil. and i cld go on for an eternity supplying people with conclusion since it is thinking. Actually, one doesnt't even have to think; just shoot fromthe hip and hope it will hit the target.
why, i even conclude, that since my name means god's gift i can, ergo, add to that i am a "gift to human race" as well. but the problem with that is that i believe it? cani you imagine what i go thru believing that; i.e., being a gift to human [an extremely evil] race. aren't also 'jews' gift to humans? As such much abhored? So, give it up; you'll be happier and live longer. mir tebi! tnx
Sephardic Jews are those who descended from the Iberian peninsula and then eventually escaped to friendlier shores - Turkey, Greece and to North Africa - those Jews who spoke Ladino - medieval Spanish, before the inquisition. Syrians are Mizrachim - from the east, i.e., those born in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Egypt (many Sephardim there too) for example - those who come from Arabic speaking nations.
It is important to do research before writing such a piece.
"he denounced the actions of a Jew being an informant against fellow Jews"
Not many Jews I know would say it's okay for Jews to break the law and evade justice just because they are Jewish.
60 Minutes did a report on the rabbi's spiritual brethren.
"In most communities, a person who sees a murder and helps the police put the killer behind bars is called a witness. But in many inner-city neighborhoods in this country that person is called a 'snitch.'
"Stop snitchin' is a catchy hip-hop slogan that embodies and encourages this attitude. You can find it on everything from rap music videos to clothing."
it is unfortunate that the same members of the press keep exposing this community. the community does not welcome the attention. these writers are pissed off because they find themselves on the wrong side of the conversion edit that is upheld by this particular community. the forward is supposed to do a better job than to unknowingly provide such a platform for a known and obvious dissenter.
chava yelioz, Syrian Jews are actually a mix of Mizrahi, Sephardic and Italian Jews. Example: Isaac Mizrahi is an SY; the last name indicates that he has Mizrahi ancestry but lived in a non-(predominantly-)Mizrahi environment.
Does it surprise you? I spent alot of time in deal, forget religion, these people have no manners, they think they own the sidewalks , beaches, streets. By the way I am a jew, not an antisemite. Gary Albert
Andy is correct about Syrians being of mixed heritage. Though I'm Egyptian, my grandmother's father's family was from Syria and they had a Spanish last name. That said, Syrians are more Mizrahi than Sephardi, something members of my family often point out the moment Syrians leave the room.
Oh, and Isaac Mizrahi is, from what I understand, an Egyptian Jew. He's a cousin of Sylvain Sylvain (nee Sylvain Mizrahi), the guitarist of the proto-punk band, The New York Dolls. Sylvain Mizrahi was born in Cairo in 1948.
This article still is not fixed. Now it is changed to say "As Sephardim — Jews of Iberian and north African descent — the Syrians". How can the author claim an "inside look at a Syrian-Jewish enclave" when he does not understand the first thing about where that community comes from?
Isaac Mizrahi is a Syrian Jew whose parents had migrated to Cairo, an important economic centre and home -- during that period -- to a very cosmopolitan Jewish community of "native" Egyptian Jews, Levantine/Syrian Jews, East European Ashkenazi Jews, and many others.
Bozhaidar Balkas
You, are af abe abw. You run with the ame. You arike, what do you do?
Heed this, G-D beebe mankind. For it is written......Jeremiah 32...."I am the LORD, the G-D of all mankind. Is anything too hard for Me"? Ps. 2...I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day ( a is given all of us to turn from sin) ....have I brought you forth. ( or begotten thee)
Psalm 118.....The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
You, my friend, are a atnaxte, in your temple you are a, al
G-D is our axo and af is not made in the image the G-D aphue!
For it is written,,,,Job33 The Spirit of G-D made me, (flesh, below, death) but the breath of the Almighty gives me life. (spirit, above, in the mirror image of our G-D and everlasting life)
Stop finger pointing, the damage has been done, we have to continue to care for each other. B'H we were blessed with community members who have enough money to hire a 'dream team' to get one of our own out of this mess. It's not the end of the world, lets get it done and move forward.
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