Purim In Hasidic Williamsburg

"…Imagine you are a kid, 12 years old. Every day, you are in school till 7 PM—no TV, no video games, no bicycle, and maybe an hour a day to run around, tops.  Life is pretty shitty. If you talk back to the teacher you get smacked.  If you are too pretty you get fondled. You spend your day failing to understand the point of your Talmudic studies, confused about who pays if your friend's cow falls into a pit on your neighbor's farm. Purim is your break from that.…You actually see people smiling on the street.…"

 

Purim in Hasidic Williamsburg
By Baruch Herzfeld • Vice Magazine

Purim, the little-known holiday that is the Jewish alternative to the Catholic bacchanalia of Carnaval, is the best day of the year for the Hasidic Jews of Williamsburg. The holiday, which occurred this weekend, is the only time of the year when they are really allowed to smile and have fun, and when it's warm enough to go outside but still cold enough that their multi­layered, 18th-century underwear and top layers don't make them itch and sweat and stink from every orifice.

 

Imagine you are a kid, 12 years old. Every day, you are in school till 7 PM—no TV, no video games, no bicycle, and maybe an hour a day to run around, tops.  Life is pretty shitty.  If you talk back to the teacher you get smacked.  If you are too pretty you get fondled. You spend your day failing to understand the point of your Talmudic studies, confused about who pays if your friend's cow falls into a pit on your neighbor's farm. Purim is your break from that. You get 24 hours off. Even though you are only 12, your dad lets you get drunk because he's drunk. You get to see all your parents and grandparents walk around in silly costumes. You stuff yourself on candy. You actually see people smiling on the street.

 

Life is pretty, pretty, pretty good. At least for 24 hours. 

Comments

[Yochanan Lavie]

You can even have your jollies by burning the flag of the first sovereign Jewish nation in 2000 years. Oy, what fun!

[jancsibacsi]

About riding a bicycle that part i would delete they do have bicycles,but dont get much time to ride them:)

[Alter Kocker]

Because you live in a world of psychologically damaged individuals whose dependence on the cult for acceptance has rendered them incapable of any human emotion save and except for anger and frustration. They are allowed to smile for two days a year.

Is it no wonder their rabbis restrict media incursion into this cloistered dirty little world. Is it any wonder the children are told the goyim will kill them, drug addict them, rape them (as if their senior members don't bugger kids at will). This is mind-control. This is not a religion, it is a cult.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

YL| March 19, '14 at 07:26 AM
:-)
apart from that, what is 'oy' in Yiddish?
in Hebrew, it's an expression of lamentation, how does it get to express -obviously in this case- delight?

[Lo K'darkah]

Seculars (chiloinim) like to make fun of those who respect tradition, because by them every day is Purim. Every day they are shikkur. Every day they dress and act like fools and take chutzpah from their kinder, so why should they even begin to understand a day that is so special to those people who try live with a bit of yiras shomayim?

[Yochanan Lavie]

Posted by: Lo K'darkah | March 19, 2014 at 09:15 AM

This drivel is what passes for trenchant social commentary in the ultra-Orthodox world.

[jancsibacsi]

Lo K'darkah--Dummy chiloinim are the ones who make the country function to sustain and defend its citizens,you guys are much more drunk then chiloinin drunk with domination and power,you accomplish nothing dont create nothing but crap you should be the last once to criticize chilioinim

[Jeff]

"This drivel is what passes for trenchant social commentary in the ultra-Orthodox world.

Posted by: Yochanan Lavie | March 19, 2014 at 09:21 AM "

Yes, thank you. Saved me the trouble.

I's okay, Lo K'darkah - if your kinder gives you "chutzah" you can just drop him off at school and the teacher will beat the crap out of him for you: http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2014/03/video-hasidic-teacher-hits-child-on-head-and-face.html

[RWisler]

Lo k'Darka,
If they acted with Yiras Shomayim instead of gai'va, dishonesty, ignorance and the total lack of godliness, there would be no need for this blog. Let them stop the attitude "it's okay to cheat the goyim". Then you can talk "yiras shomayim". I know many Christians and Muslims who are TRUE yiras shomayim unlike that crowd in New York.

[Yochanan Lavie]

LKD also epitomizes Ahavat Yisrael (sarcasm).

[Lo K'darkah]

Hilarious.
Just for once, I thought I'd try some ironicography - you know, l-shem Purim - and write in the style of the chareidi-logisprach found in the trollasphere.
Look where it got me! None of the regulars have recognised me enough, even after 8 years of comments in complete accord with the tenure of this blogsite, to either give me the benefit of the doubt that I was, hello, being ironic; or to even realise how too perfectly ridiculous my imitation actually was. (obviously I had completely overestimated my recognition factor here).
Hilarious. Best outcome I could have hoped for. Humbling, really.

[Jeff]

And by the way, LKD, two points:

1. Baruch Herzfeld, the author of the article, is Modern Orthodox - that is, he's Orthodox in the way people used to be before you guys insanitized the whole thing.

2. I am the most secular Jew you will ever encounter, and the only time I ever drink is when I'm at the home of a friend, a Modern Orthodox rabbi, for Shabbat - and even then, I don't really like it and take no more than a thimbleful and would rather have grape juice.

[Mefoar]

This is exactly what people in the Soviet Union were told about America.
They showed pictures of the poorest neighborhoods like Bedford Stuyvesant,Harlem,Bronx,Detroit and Chicago how people sleep on the street squeegees washing cars people killing each others etc and of course they never showed what the real free world is all about.
Same goes here you read all day toilet paper trash about these "parasite hasidim" how their life is all about stealing and molesting children so of course you get brainwashed. Get into the real world and go into those frum neighborhoods for a day or two or a Shabbos and see for yourself.

And finally,Baruch Herzfeld,you are a POS. To say "If you are too pretty you get fondled" on your fellow Jews you are no better than the old time Ukraine's and Pols with their blood libels.
I have no clue if you Herzfeld is an observant Jew if you are SHAME on you if you are secular than hey you have all the right to fabricate stuff.

[Jeff]

Baruch is Modern Orthodox, owned a business in Williamsburg for years and knows whereof he speaks.

[Barry]

Purim is a miserable time for many kids because their yeshivos expect them to go shnorrering. The kid with the richer parents will get money from them, but the poorer kid will not and will be stressed out by the thought of the retaliation and humiliation in store for him for failing to raise enough money to satisfy the greed of their rabbinical abusers.

Remember these threats from Satmar made on Hanukah

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2013/12/do-not-send-your-child-to-school-without-hanukkah-gelt-money-for-the-teachers-satmar-school-says-678.html

No doubt at this very moment, some poor kids in Williamsburg and Kiryas Joel are being beaten about their heads by their rabbis and being told that because of children like them, Yoellish was unable to bribe the Germans from invading Hungary after Purim in 1944.

Hareidi educational funding requires that the poorest children in a class must be beaten not because they failed to raise the money expected (how could they?) but rather to warn the children of the richer parents of the fate that awaits them if they are lax in getting money of their parents next Purim and to remind the parents that the abuse they suffered as children still goes on so they better pay up if they do not wish to see such abuse inflicted on their children

[js36]

This article is way over the top. Though Chassidic kids are quite restricted and have different lives than average Americans, what makes Chassidim different than litvaks or nonChassidic Chareidim is that they do smile. They do enjoy things in life just in a completely religious way. They have raucous dancing at weddings and every Friday night at the Rebbe's tisch. Chassidim smile a lot and are not suffering as you say. The Chassidic lifestyle is not for me and some of the criticism of Chassidim on this site is legitimate but to paint such a somber picture of Chassidic life is untrue and unfair.

[Robert J. Barron, Attorney-at-Law]

@js36-----> They have raucous dancing at weddings and every Friday night at the Rebbe's tisch. Chassidim smile a lot and are not suffering as you say.

Well, if you read some very well-written accounts of African-American slavery in the US before Emancipation, you'll read that the slaves had some happy times too...dancing, singing, holidays.....but I don't think I would recommend that lifestyle to anyone; despite the free housing and free food provided by their owners.

[SkepticalYid]

Posted by: Mefoar | March 19, 2014 at 10:31 AM

The poverty rates and reliance on welfare services in KJ, NS and Willie speak for themselves.

[jancsibacsi]

SkepticalYid--You forgot to mention bp boro park in fact bp is the biggest more then all those you mentioned combined.

[Specter of Communism]

Mefoar, 90% of things people in the Soviet Union were told about the states turned actually out to be true, while many things people in the states were told about the Soviet Union were false.

Thus said, I completely agree with you that toilet paper trash about these "parasite hasidim" is full of shit.

[Maria]

Where is the love of God and love towards neighbor in all of this?! I hear nothing but legalism and rigid ritual...aren't the Jews supposed to be a joyous celebratory people?! Show me the love and joy of Yaweh!! This is so sad, so sad...I believe the Father's heart would be grieved to hear of these sins of abuse, greed, neglect and criticalness! So sad!!