Hasidic Brooklyn Shrugs Off Sandy
Glancing Blow: Sandy wrought devastation on some areas. But predominantly Hasidic Williamsburg escaped major damage. Image by nate lavey
By Josh Nathan-Kazis October 30, 2012
The heavily Hasidic Jewish neighborhood of Brooklyn escaped major damage from Sandy, suffering only minor flooding and downed trees from the superstorm that caused devastation elsewhere.
Ultra-Orthodox schools opened as usual Tuesday and a few cafes and shops had their doors open as the neighborhood struggled to return to normalcy after the massive storm hit the day before.
“God is watching us, that’s it,” said a man behind the counter at a cafe on Bedford Ave., who gave his last name as Klein. “(There’s) nothing major.”
A Hasidic woman walked three young daughters down Bedford Ave., the main street in the neighborhood, as a steely grey sky spat rain and occasional gusts of wind rattled street signs.
Some store awnings were torn up by the winds hours earlier and trees blocked some sidestreets. But power appeared to be mostly on in the neighborhood and there was no signs of severe damage.
M. Sims said he drove from Williamsburg to Boro Park for a Breslov Hasidic wedding at the height of the storm Monday evening. The nuptuals went on as planned and he drove back without incident through the near-empty streets.
“It was awesome,” he remarked.
Williamsburg is a low-lying area just a few blocks from the East River. Some parts of it are in the city’s Zone A, where officials ordered mandatory evacuations.
Still, the storm surge appeared to be nothing like as serious as the 14-foot wall of water that inundated lower Manhattan and Brooklyn’s Red Hook, both of which border directly onto New York Harbor.
At the height of the storm, the street in front of a Satmar Hasidic synagogue on Kent Ave. was seriously flooded, neighbor Joel Glick said. But the water did not get into the shul he said.
The car-less streets also struck Moshe Klein as the most obvious outward sign that a major catastrophe had taken place. He praised the Shomrim security for dealing with many downed trees in Boro Park. Thee were precious few vehicles on the road from Boro Park to Williamsburg Tuesday morning.
“It looked like July 4,” Klein said.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
