In New Square, A Totalitarian Theocracy Rules

“There’s no concept of democracy. There’s no concept of any kind of a civil society at all. Every institution in the community is completely under the rebbe’s thumb.”

 

In New York shtetl where arson attack occurred, the rebbe’s word is law
By Alex Weisler

NEW SQUARE, N.Y. (JTA) -- For years, this leafy Chasidic village about an hour north of New York City has been a shtetl-like haven where residents could live their strictly Orthodox lifestyle far from the temptations and bustle of the nation’s largest city.

Out of view of all but very few, life in this community of some 7,000 Skverer Chasidim has revolved around its spiritual leader, the Skverer rebbe, Rabbi David Twersky.

In the wake of a recent arson attack that left a dissident New Square resident in the hospital with third-degree burns over more than half his body -- and thrust this community into the harsh glare of media and police investigators -- the question is whether the centrality of the rebbe to community life has created an atmosphere of dangerous coercion.

“We cannot encourage theocratic rule,” said Michael Sussman, the civil rights attorney representing the burn victim, Aron Rottenberg. “Yet by tolerating these communities, we’re doing that.”

The incident that has thrust New Square into the spotlight came in the wee hours of May 22, when police say that Rottenberg approached a man carrying a rag soaked with flammable liquid behind his family’s house. In the ensuing altercation, which took place at approximately 4 a.m., Rottenberg and his alleged assailant -- Shaul Spitzer, 18 -- were badly burned. Both remain hospitalized.

The incident appears to be the culmination of a dispute about enforcing the will of the rebbe -- something akin to the rule of law in New Square.

The rebbe likes his followers in New Square to pray at his synagogue. But since the fall, Rottenberg and a small group have been making the milelong trek to Friedwald Center, a nursing home in the adjacent village of New Hempstead, for a minyan. That instantly marked Rottenberg, a 43-year-old plumber, as persona non grata in the community.

The campaign of intimidation began soon after.

Rottenberg had stones thrown through his car and home windows, received threatening phone calls late at night and found his children expelled from the village’s religious schools, according to Sussman.

Then came the arson incident involving Spitzer, who had been serving as Twersky’s live-in butler for about a year.

In a letter sent to state and federal judicial officials, Sussman said the campaign of intimidation occurred “under Twersky’s authority” and asked for the arson attack to be classified as a hate crime.

The FBI reportedly has joined forces with the Ramapo Police Department to investigate the attack, according to The New York Times.

Most New Square residents defend Twersky as innocent, according to Yossi Gestetner, a Chasidic journalist and public relations consultant.

“Few people in New Square think that the New Square grand rabbi or anyone in leadership actually ordered or at all wanted this arson attempt to take place,” said Gestetner, who is based in the nearby village of Spring Valley, N.Y. “However, many people living in New Square think that leadership owes responsibility -- in a moral, not legal sense -- for not coming out strongly against the low-level violence in the past.”

The haredi Orthodox AMI magazine published an interview with Twersky last week in which he condemned “in the strongest possible terms any violence or coercion under any circumstances.”

Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter, the magazine’s publisher and editor in chief, said it is unfair to blame Twersky for the actions of one member of his community.

“It’s racism to attack an entire community based upon a lost soul or criminal minds who perpetrate crime against others,” he said. “When we have an attack like that, we don’t go ahead and attack an entire community, and we don’t attack the rebbe, who has never been accused of a crime.”

In communities like New Square, however, where Chasidic leaders influence not just residents’ spiritual lives but their financial and political endeavors as well, little happens without the rebbe’s say-so, says Shmarya Rosenberg, author of Failedmessiah.com, a watchdog blog about the haredi Orthodox community.

“There’s no concept of democracy. There’s no concept of any kind of a civil society at all,” Rosenberg said. “Every institution in the community is completely under the rebbe’s thumb.”

If a New Square resident crosses the rebbe or breaks one of the village’s many unwritten rules, one New Square resident told JTA, his neighbors will treat him “like a goy” -- not saying hello in the morning, not answering his questions or acknowledging his presence. The man, who asked to be identified only as Weiss, agreed to talk only if the interview were conducted outside New Square.

Weiss said a dissident faces even more harassment: His house windows might be broken, his car’s tires slashed and his kids expelled from school.

“Everyone’s fighting because they think the rebbe is God,” he said. “I’m not going to fight, even for God. They make sick people because of the rebbe.”

Shulem Deen, a former New Square resident whose ex-wife and five children still live in the village, said dissent is not tolerated and leaving is extremely difficult. Deen himself faced harsh resistance from the village’s rabbinic court before he eventually left the village about six years ago.

“New Square is not an organization, it’s not a private club where you join, pay dues and then you can cancel your membership,” he said. “Their entire life is in that community.”

Deen recalled an incident about seven or eight years ago when a family chose to circumcise their son in Brooklyn rather than New Square. Their tires were slashed and their house was vandalized, he said.

“This is definitely a sea change,” Deen said of the arson attack. “This is not new, but it’s never been anything quite like this.”

Nomi Stolzenberg, a University of Southern California Law School professor and an expert on haredi Orthodox Jewish communities, says internal divisions often arise in the successor generations following the death of the Chasidic rebbe who founded the community.

In New Square, Twersky, 70, took over in 1968 after the death of his father, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Twesky, who founded the community in 1954. Twersky lives in a mansion and is treated like royalty by community members -- as are most Chasidic rebbes by their followers.

“Competing factions arise,” said Stolzenberg, also the co-author of the forthcoming book “American Shtetl.” “Even if there hadn’t been an outside world looking on, it’s inevitable that schisms and factions and divisions within the community were going to develop.”

Still, most Skverer Chasidim remain loyal to Twersky and believe the incident is being unfairly magnified by secular authorities, Deen said.

“I think they primarily see it as a public relations issue. I would be very surprised if there are discussions going on there that are about actual change,” said Deen, who runs Unpious.com, a blog about the haredi Orthodox world. “Most of the discussion there is now is how do we respond to the world as opposed to how do we be reflective about what we’ve been doing wrong.”

New Square resident Meyer Knoloch said the Rottenberg story has been blown out of proportion by outsiders and anti-Semites.

“Most of the population living here is very satisfied with the village -- just a few people not so satisfied who make the trouble,” Knoloch said. “People live here peacefully. There’s no fighting, no drugs, no weapons. There’s no break-ins in houses. But there are rules.”

Hank Sheinkopf, a public relations consultant hired shortly after the attack by “a group of concerned citizens,” says New Square’s peaceful and philanthropic past should prompt outsiders to think twice before lambasting the village.

“Nonsense, untrue, inaccurate,” Sheinkopf said of the rumors of a campaign of intimidation against Rottenberg. “The rebbe’s been very clear about this.”

Still, there are certain rules that come with living in a 0.4-square-mile modern-day shtetl, and Sheinkopf said residents know what they’ve signed up for.

“They know what community they live in,” he said. “There’s a rebbe, there’s a way of life, it’s worked for 60 years and it will go forward.”

[Hat Tip: Seymour.]

Photo: Rabbi David Twersky, the Skvere Rebbe.

Comments

[David]

The United States should offer political asylum to any refugees that manage to escape from the Kingdom of New Square.

[Yirmiyahu]

I'm sure that the paragon of civil rights, Nathan Lewin, will make an appearance on behalf of the Rebbe and his RICO operation any day now.

[Mittlemench]

Yirmiyahu is right.

[Jeff]

"Most New Square residents defend Twersky as innocent"

Yes, well, there's a shocker.

[Reuven]

yup, it's a cult. Even if many of its tenets are similar to some that you follow. If it's theocratic and totalitarian, it's a cult, just like the Waco and the polygamist and Jim Jones and all the other cults out there.

[Reuven]

Wikipedia has it that a "destructive cult" is "a religion or other group which has caused or has a high probability of causing harm to its own members or to others. Some researchers define "harm" in this case with a narrow focus, specifically groups which have deliberately physically injured or killed other individuals, while others define the term more broadly and include emotional abuse among the types of harm inflicted."

At the moment, I see enough evidence to classify the Skverer Hasidim at New Square as a destructive cult (including the misguided attempt to burn down one person's house which led to the person himself being burned). This designation might not apply to the whole of Skverer Hasidism, though - but it certainly fits New Square, thanks to the young "hotheads" who apparently go about bullying people. Other forms of Hasidism might be more acceptable and less culty. I don't know.

[Observer]

Nat Lewin is a scam artist. He has turned the Rubashkin case into a profit center, raising and spending 5,000,000. Rubashkin has become Lewins cash register

[David A]

A full federal investigation into civil rights violations is absolutely necessary. It is unacceptable what is occurring in New Square. The residents of New Square have civil rights just like people in other parts of the US and these rights mus be defended by the government.

[ruthie]

i was in the new square market yesterday...got into a conversation with one of the managers...nice guy....ended up me telling him his rebbe is an idiot (and i'm fully aware of how holy a rebbe should/could be) and he's telling me...and all was said in kind tones..that the media is lying, the media doesn't like the jews...and i just said your rebbe is an idiot.
what i did notice is about 8 different women....in different aisles of the store...AND ALL OF THEM WERE GIVING ME SMILING EYES AND MOUTHS WITH TOTAL ENCOURAGEMENT TO SAY WHAT THEY COULDN'T. there are still many many good people in new square.
it hurts me to say this...but i think their rebbe is an idiot

[jancsipista]

this is the reason why the jewish and other immigrants came to usa to defile this freedom is to go against all that this country stands for, theese mindless fanatics bought their missery with them from the old home i say send them back to siberia

[ah-pee-chorus]

ruthie -

kol hakavod!! i love your feisty disobedience. the NS women should only learn from you.

[seymour]

this is the reason why the jewish and other immigrants came to usa to defile this freedom is to go against all that this country stands for, theese mindless fanatics bought their missery with them from the old home i say send them back to siberia

Posted by: jancsipista | June 07, 2011 at 08:31 AM

that is exactly what then rebbies wanted to build. Do you think the rebbieis wanted to give up their power.
Of course not, they were the law in the sheteil so they created a sheteeil in the USA.

The reason I do not trust the rebbies in the cheseish movement is look at them, they demand from their chasedeim to be treated like royalty dress like royalty and treat their community like their kingdom and piggy bank.

The chasedeish movement might have started off just fine but turned into something I am sure the ball shem tov would not approve off,

He would be shocked that a rebbie is treated as a god. That was never the intention. a rebboie was supposed to help you get closer to god. That is your actions and your spirituality. Not just hanging onto the rebbies coat tails and he will drag you along to heaven

I wonder did the Ball Shem tov ever hold tish? I think not

[ah-pee-chorus]

I wonder did the Ball Shem tov ever hold tish? I think not

Posted by: seymour |

i dont know but i hope he at least had a $2 million house on a river in ukraine and a horse with "official" license plates , a siren, and strobe lights. if not, what kind of rebbe was he!

[Alter Kocker]

Time has come for an all out investigation of the Rebbe and his holdings. This smacks of the same conditions that the Unification Church operated. I wonder how much of their income the cult members turn over to the Rebbe. I wonder how much the residents of New Square actually own. When they die, does most or all of their estate revert to the Rebbe?

[Yankel]

The house on the river by Upper Nyack is for the Rebbe resting and gaining new powers for learning (does he?) and enhancing Chasidus (aka a municipality with its own offices for section 8, ripping off uncle sam, denying divorces to abused women, and G-d forbid men never abuse because they bring the money to the Rebbe)

[Wondering]

Anyone ever hear of the term עיר הנדחת?

[asher]

Now its all coming out he ruled as a terrorizer!!

Leading to KRISTALNACHT 2011 and a Russian style POGROM 2011!!!!

Where is Agudah and all its HOLOCAUST studies?

Cmon frum chevra and all the rest of heimishe we know you read this.

You represent DAAS Torah time to break ranks and be MOCHEH if not "midishoski robonon sma minah nicha lahu"

you dont comment you agree and part of it.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

what is jewish about these clowns?
their face? is not semitic.
their attire? is old slavic.
their language is corrupt germanic.
their religion? is prostituted judaism.
time to dismiss them completely as jews.
they simply aint.
at the most they are second cousins to the frankists.

[Jacob]

Rabbi Frand on the "Skvere" Rebbe:
"The Rebbe is heilig, he is an ehrliche yid, he is an ish kadosh, he is a manhig of
Klal Yisrael. You see his hadras panim, and
you see his piercing blue eyes."

Looks like someone has a man-crush on the Square Rebbe.

[mytake]

The Bal Shem Tov did "fair tish." But what he did not do was the following:

1) Expell children from school because thier father didn't doven in his shul...

In fact, he himself wellcomed and gathered the chilren and walked them to school, all the while singing beautifurl jewish songs with the kids.

There is the famous story where the Bal Shem Tov saved the children from a bear while walking to school.

2) Send people out of thier home if they lived withen 10 mile radios frome his shul and didn't doven there...

3) Tell women the are not aloud to drive.