Hasidic Swimming Pool Wars Rage in Brooklyn

Sweating the Summer: Hasidic women love the pool as much as anyone. But they won?t dip their toes in the water unless there are no men around ? including the lifeguard. Image by getty images
Assemblyman Dov Hikind dove back into Brooklyn’s Hasidic swimming pool wars, sending a letter to the New York City Parks Department that demands it reverse a plan to limit women-only hours at the Metropolitan Recreation Center in Williamsburg.
The city Parks Department granted the single-sex swimming hours as an accommodation to the area’s Hasidic women, whose code of modesty precludes them from swimming with men. But it is slashing the women’s-only times from four hours to two a week starting next month, prompting a protest petition drive spearheaded by a group of Hasidic women.
Hikind lined up behind the push to restore the four hours a week.
“I respectfully request that the Parks Department not only restore the previous hours, but actually increase them to accommodate all women who wish to take advantage of the facility,” he wrote.
The latest back-and-forth extends the controversy over the program, which some see as a violation of the city’s gender discrimination policies and human rights credos requiring equal access for all to public facilities.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, reliant on ultra-Orthodox votes and attuned to their concerns, released a statement then defended the separate hours as in the interest of women.
“We view this as a broader set of important guidelines that will ensure women and girls — in a variety of circumstances, and regardless of their religion — have access to safe recreation spaces in which they feel comfortable,” said Natalie Grybauskas, a City Hall spokeswoman, in a comment to the New York Times.
That compromise was at the time accepted by ultra-Orthodox leaders. Hikind told the Times it amounted to “a human rights victory for women,” in allowing them to swim in public while holding to their religious beliefs.
“This is not about Jewish women,” he added. “It was about understanding cultural differences.”
But Donna Lieberman, the head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, denounced the move as contrary to the Constitution, saying:
“People have every right to go swimming in a gender-segregated environment pursuant to their religious beliefs,” she said. “But not on the taxpayer dime.”
Lilly Maier contributed reporting to this article.
Contact Daniel Solomon at solomon%forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.