A Satmar hasid goes in the restaurant business in Monsey, New York. But a competitor opens "down the street with 100 more seats and a very similar menu" and drives him out of business. So, two years later the hasid buys a food truck, dives it to Williamsburg and parks it at the corner of Lee Avenue and Williamsburg Street West. He does well. But local hasidim begin to protest, even blocking customers from reaching the food truck.
Why?
Because of this:
Sub on Wheels is a kosher food truck catering to the Hasidic community in Williamsburg, but which welcomes us all. (Lichtenstein had never heard the term "hipster" before, but cheerfully reported that he gets "all types.") I discovered it after seeing some friends, the band Rainbowsssss, play their psychedelic/improvisational/ experimental music the other night at Rock Star Bar. Not to get all sentimental or anything, but don't you love New York?
This comment on the Satmar news blog VosIzNeais says it all:
Did anyone read the article in the Village Voice about this truck? *HIPSTERS* are coming to this truck after ROCK concerts in the goyishe part of W'Burg. After the article, probablly even MORE of them will be infesting a clean, Jewish neighborhood.
Most of the current comments on VIN disagree with this approach. But the fact remains that local Williamsburg Satmar thugs are behaving in a very similar way to some local Beit Shemesh thugs we just read about a couple of days ago.
As these communities continue exponential growth funded by our tax dollars (i.e., the welfare programs that allow them to have a dozen children per family and study Torah much of the day) look for a commensurate growth in anti-social behavior, as well. What will come with that growth is anyone's guess.
In case you want to stop in and buy dinner or a late night snack, here's the info:
Sub on Wheels
Lee Avenue at Williamsburg Street West
Williamsburg
6PM-12AM
A few moments after posting this I saw a new comment on VIN:
I remember when they protested the first pizza store to open on Lee Ave. 40 years ago. They broke windows , etc. Now it's acceptable to eat pizza and own pizza stores. Give this some time.
First you gotta protest and terrorize. Then everything is kosher lemehadrin.. Somebody stands to make of few $$$$ , and there's where der hint iz bagruben.
He was responding to this comment left moments before, directed to the food truck's owner:
Nathen get a Hechsher from CRC and evreything will be OK.
In case you miss the line of reasoning, the point is thugs will protest until rabbis, in this case the rabbis of the Central Rabbinical Congress, Satmar's kashrut arm, make money. When the rabbis make money from the food truck, the rabbis will find a way to control the thugs and their handlers.
I think this is true, but only to a point. The protests in the 1950s were against men and women eating together in public, and against the idea of neighborhood Jewish youth having a non-synagogue, non-yeshiva or seminary place to hang out – especially when teenage boys and girls might socialize there.
The protests today are about non-hasidic non-haredi non orthodox and non-Jewish people "infesting" a "pure" Jewish neighborhood. I may be wrong but I don't think Sub On Wheels could ever make enough money for local rabbis to make this perception go away.
And, indeed, another commenter claims the letter against this food truck was signed by "ALL MECHANCHIM" because it is a "potential danger" to the community.
Gotta have a lot of money to overcome that, I'm afraid.