Hasidim Puns

So I’m in Williamsburg this week on vacation, checking out all of the historical stuff as well as Virginia Beach.

Everywhere I’ve gone so far I’ve seen a lot of very Orthodox Jews, including probably 30 or so at my hotel here in Williamsburg.

Just genuinely curious, am I seeing a random event of a lot of members of the Hebrew faith hitting the beach for spring break, or is this a traditional thing with bigger meaning?

I’ve wanted to stop one of them at random and ask, but I’ve only heard the group at my hotel speak in Hebrew. Meanwhile with all of the hate in the world at the moment, I feel like asking a random guy on the street is going to come off like “hey Jew, why are you here?”

If anybody has any insight, I’d love to hear it.

Edit: just noticed that the auto-mod calls out “no racism”, and wanted to reaffirm. My post is in no way expressing negativity (honestly enjoying being exposed to new cultures), just really curious about seeing so many people with with the long sideburns and skull-caps. Is there a reason, or is just that they really stand out in a crowd?

Edit #2: Apparently the Norfolk area has been cited previously as a Golden area for Jews to relocate to from the NYC area. I could definitely see the same factors that make it a friendly location to relocate to, making it a vacation hotspot as well. https://pilotonline.com/news/article_62e2e9c4-0408-5823-b2e9-d0aa521aabde.html

I gather Zionism is prevalent across Modern Orthodoxy, but that Zionism is a touchy subject in Ultra-Orthodox communities, I believe, with the the possible exception of Chabad-Lubavitch.

I know about Neturei Karta, that they are quite visible but also comparatively few in number. I'm sure individuals within various sects hold various opinions, but I'm interested more in the public stances.

I want to explore the siddurim Hasidim use. When I was in a Hasidic bookstore in Brooklyn way back before covid I found a siddur there that I think had the alef beit in the beginning.

What siddurim do Hasidim use?

so, the past few days, the topic of Gerrer hasidim's private life has been blowing up on Imamother (frum women's forum site. i have a troll profile there). Apparently the gerrer rebbe gave a chumra of extreme prishus, and absolutely no gashmius at all, to a few of his hasidim, but it spread to the whole hasidus. leading to abuse, no onah, and no girls wanting to marry gerrer boys. Some frummies on Imamother were defending it, saying less gashmius is probably good, mitzvah should only be done twice like the rebbe said, etc.

but the whole time I was reading like WTF?? is this for real??? anyway, does anyone know more about this topic first hand? is anyone gerrer or grew up around them in BP or EY and know about this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udZylVb_Z54

Hello Jews of Reddit!

I always used "Haredim" and "Hasidim" interchangeably to refer to any ultra-Orthodox Jewish group. But now I'm kinda realizing that they're probably not identical. What exactly are the differences, if any?

 

Wow, I had absolutely no idea how big these conversations would get. They're really informative and educational.

!תּוֹדָה רַבָּה

Forward:

"When Schneur Zalman Newfield studied at Chabad yeshivas, everyone thought he was a pious young man who had little knowledge of the outside world. They couldn’t have imagined that Newfield had secretly assembled a stash of contraband books - modern Yiddish literature, science and history texts and even Russian novels - which he feared would lead to his expulsion.

The scenario might sound like something you’d read in the memoirs of a Jewish intellectual raised before the Russian revolution. But Schneur Zalman Newfield is still in his 30s. Born in Brooklyn in 1982 and brought up in the Lubavitch bastion of Crown Heights, today he is an assistant professor at Borough of Manhattan Community College who specializes in the sociology of religious communities. His monograph, “Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism,” is the first sizable scholarly study of ex-Hasidic Jews by someone who has left a Hasidic community." #Hasidic #Lubavitch #IGotOut https://www.cultnews101.com/2021/05/meet-sociologist-who-left-his-chabad.html

Hello everyone.

I'm writing my thesis about Ex-Hasidic Jews and initially had plans to move back to my hometown of NYC to write it but the pandemic changed all those plans and as such I've decided to stay in Brussels for the foreseeable future. As such, I'm wondering if anyone has any insight into resources that may (or may not) be available for people who wish to leave the Hasidic Jewish sect in Antwerp. In NYC there is an organization called "Footsteps" that is basically THE place to contact if you are considering leaving. I'm wondering if there is an equivalent in Antwerp? Since this topic has become ever increasingly popular I have to assume that there exists at least ONE resource in the city of Antwerp due to the population of Hasidim. If anyone has any insights please list them here. I googled and was not able to find anything concrete at all.

Do they sleep in rollers? Do they use a curling iron? If they use a curling iron, are they allowed to use it on Shabbat or does that count as work? Do they need to use special hair products to make sure the curls hold? Is it hard to find kosher hair products? Do they just style them while their hair is drying and hope the shape stays???

Sorry if this is insensitive, I’m a reform ger who’s almost done an undergraduate degree in Jewish studies and I just realized no one ever told me how Hasidim get such perfect, long lasting Payot curls.

Also, which group does not believe that the state of Israel should not exist until the messiahs comes? Do any of these anti-zionists actually live in israel? תודה