Documentarian Joshua Z. Weinstein, 33, who dubs himself a humanist filmmaker, says he never wanted to make a Jewish movie, but rather one that explores the interplay (maybe the clash) between faith and modernity. It’s almost — but not quite — incidental that his characters are Yiddish-speaking Hasidim, members of the most austere sects living…
Two hours before half the liberal Jews in Brooklyn were set to turn up at a local synagogue to learn how to resist President Trump, things were feeling a bit precarious at the offices of the city councilman who was organizing the whole thing. “Did you hear anything?” Rachel Goodman asked. Goodman is chief of…
A state law blocking New York City’s effort to charge a nickel apiece for plastic bags at grocery stores is a victory for Brooklyn’s powerful Orthodox community — where large families might mean an outsized burden. The law, signed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Tuesday night, bars the city from enforcing its own law,…
The war between Brooklyn’s kosher grocery stores and the Orthodox Jewish press is over, for now. After a tense day of conflict Wednesday between the grocery stores in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn and 20 publishers of Orthodox magazines and newspapers, the two sides have agreed to a de-escalation, the Forward has learned. More…
There’s a war in Orthodox Brooklyn this week between the booming Orthodox media industry and the local kosher grocery stores that sell their papers. Grocery store owners in Boro Park are refusing to sell the publications of twenty Orthodox publishers that will not meet the grocers’ demands for deep cuts to newspaper wholesale prices. On…
Since Donald Trump’s election, Jews in New York have been the targets of more than half the city’s hate crimes, from Williamsburg and Brooklyn Heights to the New School in Manhattan; and all this, amid the sharp spike in reports of anti-Semitic vandalism and hate speech nationally. Yet in the heavily Orthodox neighborhood of Borough…
It’s Hanukkah time, but don’t get carried away with the holiday spirit. Fliers posted in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods of New York City warn: amidst your Hanukkah parties, dreidel spinning and menorah lighting — don’t let the men and women mix. There should be no engaging in “unnecessary chatting,” “frivolous laughter,” or “playing games together.” This even…
A Brooklyn woman told police on Tuesday that she was grabbed in the genital area by a man while standing outside the entrance to her synagogue in the predominantly Hasidic Boro Park neighborhood, according to the local news site DNAInfo. The victim told authorities the incident occurred at 50th Street, and that the man appeared…
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