This is the Forward’s coverage of Brooklyn, a borough of New York City home to a major population of Hasidic Jews.
Brooklyn
The Latest
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Fast Forward Happy Hanukkah — Cut the Chit Chat With Cousin Gertrude!
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…
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News Satmar Hasidic Activist Isaac Sofer Arrested for Food Stamp Fraud
The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested prominent Brooklyn Satmar community activist Isaac Sofer on Thursday morning on charges that he lied in order to obtain food stamps. Updated, 3:00 P.M. Sofer manages government relations for the Central United Talmudical Academy, the Williamsburg yeshiva system that serves followers of the politically connected Satmar Grand Rabbi Aron…
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News Orthodox Man Pelted With Ice, Called ‘South Side Jew’ in Brooklyn Attack
An Orthodox man walking to his car in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn was on the receiving end of New York’s post-election hate crime wave, as teens pelted him with ice and shouted at “South Side Jew” at him. “Two kids, they were DNAInfo. “I don’t know what that means.” The epithet might have been…
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Culture Chaos In Brooklyn: Pirate Radio Teaches Torah, Picks Fight With Classical Music Station
Pirate radio — broadcasting on FM, AM, or short-wave radio without a license — sounds kind of sexy. It certainly looked sexy in 2009’s wonderful “Pirate Radio” — see Bill Nighy, below, if you doubt me — and realistically, it probably used to be sexy. Those days, my friends, are done. What robbed pirate radio…
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News Vandals Spray Neo-Nazi Graffiti in Another Brooklyn Park
A worker at park between Brooklyn and Queens discovered swastikas and neo-Nazi graffiti scrawled on benches Thursday, the latest in a wave of hate crimes in New York City. The vandalism at the Newton Creek Nature Walk included swastikas, the slogans “Go Home Refugees,” “Heil Hitler,” “Now begins 1000 years of TRUMP!, and insults directed…
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News Why World’s Largest Menorah Can’t Be Called ‘World’s Largest Menorah’
(JTA) — Each year in Brooklyn, Chabad Rabbi Shimon Hecht ascends 33 and a half feet to light the tallest menorah in the world. But he’s not allowed to call it that anymore. By decree of a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbinical court, Hecht must cede the title of “World’s Largest Menorah” to another candelabra, this one also erected…
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Fast Forward Brooklyn Mother Who Lost 7 Children in Shabbat Fire Hopes To Build Community Center
(JTA) — The Brooklyn mother who lost seven of her children in a house fire said in her first public remarks on the March 2015 tragedy that she wants to build a center for families on the site of her razed home. “What consoles me most is working on the positive — not lamenting on…
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The Schmooze WATCH: When 4,000 Rabbis Epically Fail To Stand Still for the #MannequinChallenge
4,000 rabbis attempted the #MannequinChallenge in Brooklyn, NY this week — to varying degrees of success. For those who’ve missed this whole viral phenomenon, the challenge involves a group of people standing frozen in one position while a camera pans across the scene. The rabbis, gathered together for the annual Chabad-Lubavitch conference, stood in a…
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