I grew up in an anti-zionist Hasidic community in NYC. I studied in an anti-Zionist cheder (boys school) and yeshiva until I got married at the age of 20. Fast forward to today, I still live and raise my family in a predominantly anti-Zionist Hasidic community. Like in all other Jewish communities, our community has many […]
“The Rebbe told me that everyone has to do the utmost he can do in life to change the world, Tikkun Olam. [We’re now in] a big phase three trial of two hundred patients at six centers in the states. And that, if successful may end up to be a very good treatment for ALS […]
Judge Ruchie, the Hasidic Superwoman of Night Court Ruchie Freier is a 52-year-old Hasidic Jewish grandmother who has blazed a trail in her insular religious community with so much determination that the male authorities have simply had to make room. Eleven years ago, she became one of the first Hasidic female lawyers in Brooklyn, and […]
Military food rations generally don’t include kugel and matza balls, but when a group of uniformed U.S. Army and Israeli soldiers came in for an early dinner last week at Gottlieb’s Restaurant in Williamsburg (Satmar-owned for three generations) that’s exactly what they got. Gottlieb’s is a neighborhood fixture, known for their heimishe cuisine and popular for Shabbos […]
When Hasidic men on airplanes are in the news, it’s generally not for a good reason. But what about all the polite and positive interactions that go on everyday, unreported? Or the heroic ones, like what happened on a flight this week from Tel Aviv to JFK, when two Satmar Hasidic men saved the day? […]
Sometimes, life comes full circle in the most unexpected ways. The circle in this story began almost thirty years ago at Mt. Sinai hospital in the city where my father was training to become a doctor. While there, my father – a very secular Jew – treated many Satmar Chasidim. He couldn’t stand them, and […]
