I’m not Hasidic, but an afternoon in Williamsburg deepened my appreciation of Sukkot
A serendipitous visit to a fair during the holiday gave me a window into Hasidic life that challenged my preconceptions
A serendipitous visit to a fair during the holiday gave me a window into Hasidic life that challenged my preconceptions
Frieda Vizel left the Satmar world at 25 — but she still visits twice a week to give tours of Hasidic Williamsburg
Just off Flushing Avenue, a bustling thoroughfare in Hasidic Williamsburg, there’s a basement full of art. Chiaroscuro portraits of eminent rabbis. Scenes of Jerusalem’s Western Wall. Modernist sculptures of men kissing their tefillin, tender floral still lifes, a collection of old violins splatter-painted in exuberant colors. Housed in a lower-level ballroom in the Condor Hotel,…
The victory of an activist over a long-serving state politician might signal that there’s more support, even in a devout Brooklyn district, for secular education in religious schools than suspected. Community organizer Emily Gallagher, 36, narrowly beat Assemblyman Joe Lentol, 77, by an estimated 400 to 600 votes in the Democratic primary in the 50th…
Hundreds of Haredi children in Brooklyn gathered in the early evening on Thursday to ask New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and to open sleepaway camps and parks. Videos and photos showed a crowd of children, mostly boys with sidecurls and kippot, walking and biking along Bedford Avenue,…
Police broke up a gathering of about 100 Orthodox Jews in Borough Park celebrating a minor Jewish festival Monday night, according to an eyewitness and the New York Police Department. The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of alienating his neighbors, said he heard loud music outside and walked down the…
Read this article in Yiddish. A principal at United Talmudical Academy, a complex of schools serving the ultra-Orthodox Satmar community, told a teacher to hold classes in person despite coronavirus social distancing orders, according to a school answering machine recording from last week. In the recording, the teacher, a man identified as Mr. Weiss, tells…
New York City officials have halted an underground yeshiva that was operating in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, despite coronavirus social-distancing restrictions, a spokeswoman from Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office said. “As soon as we found out, we worked with community leaders and this particular school to immediately stop this reckless practice,” said the spokeswoman, Olivia Lapeyrolerie. She…
שמעון נויבערג דערקלערט דעם חילוק צווישן אַלט־ייִדיש און מיטל־ייִדיש און די ביכער, שרײַבערס, לייענערס און דרוקערײַען פֿון יענער תּקופֿה