![[Hasid divider line]](hasid.gif)
This FAQ is based on questions that I am often asked about my way of life by people in multi-cultural newsgroups, classes, and conferences. This FAQ is not intended to be an in-depth explanation of Hasidic philosophy. Rather, it is a set of basic Judaism 101-level questions written in a way that is understandable to the average non-Hasidic reader. In some cases, there is overlap between Hasidism and general Judaism here, since Hasidism is a form of Judaism. Many of these customs and practices are common to all Jews and are not necessarily limited to Hasidim only. Hopefully that will be clear in the Q and A.
(If you have already read this intro material in one of the other FAQ sections, you can skip to the list of Questions for Part 1-B. If are new to this FAQ, please read on...)
Out on DVD at last!
The 1982 film, The Chosen
is finally came out on DVD after being out-of-print for years. It's not
likely to show up in your local video store, but you can
order the DVD on Amazon.com.
If you are not familiar with Judaism in general, you might want to check out The Judaism 101 website. That site explains basic Jewish beliefs, customs, practices etc., in plain English.
If you'd rather read a really basic physical book, I highly recommend The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Judaism, which, of course, is not really for idiots! Written by Rabbi Blech of Yeshiva University (Orthodox), it uses the familiar "Idiot's" series format to explain the basics in very accessible language.
Or, if you prefer the Dummies series, try Judaism for Dummies.
Yet another good resource you can find for free on the Web is the Speaking of Jews interactive computer tutorial, which explores some of the common stereotypes about Jews and Judaism -- in other words, how to keep your foot out of your mouth when talking with or about Jews.
Part 1-B of the Hasidism FAQ (which you are reading now) discusses how Hasidim are portrayed in the media, Potok's The Chosen, recommendations & criticisms of books and movies, explanations of some bloopers and misrepresentations, etc.
PART 2 covers some common questions (and misunderstandings) about Hasidic garb, customs, mannerisms, roles of men and women, etc.
PART 3 of the Hasidism FAQ has questions about Hasidic beliefs, how one becomes a Hasid, observing the Sabbath, some medical issues, Hasidic music, occupations, belief in angels, etc.
PART 1-A covers some basic background about the origins of Hasidism, some of the different Hasidic groups today, Rebbe Nachman's Breslov movement (and why Breslov is not Bratzlav), etc.
For your convenience, many of the books, films, CDs, and other
reference materials mentioned in this FAQ are directly linked to pages
on
Amazon.com, where you can read
the customer reviews (including mine) and purchase copies. Purchases
made through these links pay a commission
to Gershom's
Book Shop and help underwrite
this FAQ to keep it on the Net. So please, if you decide to purchase
any of these materials, use our links.
You
can also check out my
book reviews on Amazon.com, too,
and find out what I've been reading lately. (not all of it Hasidic!)
I'm currently in Amazon's list of Top Reviewers -- voted there by
readers you! So, visit if you visit a listing and like my review,
please click "Yes, it was helpful" to keep me on Top.
If you have questions you would like to see included, or if you have comments, corrections, and suggestions for the FAQ in general, please send them to Rabbi Yonassan Gershom, the author of this FAQ, at: gershom613@yahoo.com. Do not rely on this to do your term paper! I am often a month or more behind on answering mail, which is done on a volunteer basis when and if I have the time.
And please -- be sure to read all three sections of the FAQ first! The answer to your question might be on another page. At the end of each FAQ menu and at the bottom of each page there are links to the next page(s). And do not, repeat, do not waste my time with missionary questions about Jesus. Questions suspected of being "bait" to lure me into debates about Christianity will be deleted. This includes questions about blood sacrifices, the messiah, Isaiah 53, etc. Been there, done that, not interested. If you sincerely want to know what Jews believe about these things, try the Jews for Judaism site.
Q-9:I saw this movie called Yentl about the oppression of Hasidic women...
Q-11: Speaking of movies, what did you think of the Gene Wilder comedy, The Frisco Kid?
Q-12: How about the movies A Price above Rubies and Kadosh?
Q-13: What good movies about Hasidim do you recommend seeing?
Generally speaking, most Hasidim frown on watching commercial TV, which is known colloquially as "the Yetzer Hara Box" (roughly translated, "The Evil Temptation Machine") because of the high level of violence, sex, and other material which goes against our basic values. As one Hasidic woman put it: "I watched TV when I was in the hospital and was amazed that women could watch it all day and not become mentally ill." (From A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, aired on PBS in 1997.)
The majority of Hasidic households do not have a television set or, if they do, they use it only sparingly and strictly supervise what the children watch. (Not a bad idea!) Some Hasidim use a VCR or DVD player for educational materials but do not watch cable or network TV.
Regarding computers, the same principles apply. Most Hasidim see no
problem with using a computer for business, writing, education, etc. In
fact, quite a few Hasidim are in the computer business in one way or
another. Many Hasidic women, especially, have become computer
programmers or do data entry because it is a business they can do at
home and still be with their children. We are not Amish, we have
nothing against technology itself. (Actually, there is at least one
Amish guy on the Internet -- the ribbon on the right takes you to his
Amish Online Campaign page.)
Regarding the Internet, there is the same controversy as with TV. Some Hasidim feel that one should stay off the Internet entirely, again because of possible bad influences. Others see nothing wrong with using the technology with restraint, and some groups even have websites. But the vast majority of Hasidim would agree that children should not be allowed to surf the Net without some kind of adult supervision.
![[photo of Reb Gershom]](gershom2.jpg)
As
for me personally, I am an educator
with a specific focus on building bridges of understanding among
different peoples, and educating the public about Jews in particular. I
use the Internet because it is a good way to get the information out
there for the general public. I first became aware of this need when I
moved to a small rural town in the Midwest, where most people have
never even met a Jew, let alone a Hasid. (For about my life there and
some photos of our farm, go to my personal
page.)
I was totally flabbergasted at the level of ignorance about us, and
decided to do something about it.
The local libraries in rural America rarely have much on Judaism except for material written by Christians, which is not accurate. In most cases, the library budget is small, and books on Judaism are not high priority in areas where there are few Jews. In some parts of the country, especially in public schools, there is actual censorship. So the information just isn't there, even if people sincerely want to find it.
The Internet is a good way to correct this problem because anybody, anywhere can log on, read my FAQs, and follow the links to authentic Hasidic websites. So, although I have sometimes been criticized by fellow Hasidim for being on the Net, or for explaining things "too simplistically," I also get good feedback from people who find my pages to be informative and helpful.
Regarding movies, I usually view those which have Jewish content or are otherwise relevant to the discussion. In many parts of the USA and the world, the only exposure which people have to Hasidim is by watching a movie like Fiddler on the Roof or Yentl. As I have pointed out elsewhere in this FAQ, these movies are not always accurate! So it helps me in the dialogue to be familiar with these films in order to understand what misconceptions might be in the minds of my readers, etc. Sometimes the movies also have positive points, which I can use to start the conversation in multi-cultural settings.
(Updated on 3/13/05.) This is a perfect example of what I was talking about in Q-8 above, regarding popular films which give false impressions of Hasidic culture. The story of Yentl, the woman who dresses as a man in order to study at an all-male Jewish school in 19th-century Poland, is an old form of comedy which has been done many times before, in many time frames and many cultural settings. (As, for example, the classic gender-bender farce, Victor Victoria. which takes place in the secular gentile world.) Like all comedies, Yentl uses exaggeration, satire, and absurd situations to get a laugh. However, there is also some interesting Hollywood history -- and quite a bit of controversy -- behind the scenes.
To begin with, the movie is based on a short story (novella?) called Yentl the Yeshiva Boy written by Nobel Prize-winning Yiddish author, Isaac Bashevis Singer, in 1962. It is now out of print, but you can find used copies of the 1983 hardcover edition on Amazon for reasonable prices, as well as read reviews there (including mine.) In addition, the story has been adapted into a play. (I don't know where to get the script.) There are some serious differences between the book and the movie (discussed below) so, if you have only seen the movie, I highly recommend reading the book, too.
Although Singer's stories are set in the pre-Holocaust world of Eastern European Jewish villages, they are really modern pieces of fiction which explore many contemporary issues and questions. In other words, the stories are anachronisms. Within the circle of Singer's original Yiddish-speaking readers, this was clearly understood. The problem arises when the stories are read by non-Jews who have no cultural context to evaluate them. In such cases, satire and comedy are often mistaken for fact, or serious drama is mistaken for comedy.
In the case of "Yentl the Yeshiva Boy," it appears the original plot may have been about a female-to-male transsexual, not necesarily a feminist woman. In Singer's version, Yentl says more than once that s/he has "the soul of a man in a the body of a woman." Yentl's physical description is boyish also, even to the point of saying that she has small breasts, narrow hips, and "a slight down on her upper lip." (Of course, not every woman with these characteristics is a transsexual! However, I think we can safely assume that this was Singer's intent in his story, especially since Yentl enjoys secretly dressing up in her father's clothes and admires herself that way in the mirror. She also smokes his pipe. Her boyish appearance enables her to pass as a man later in the story,)
Yentl's father explains on page 8 that this mix-up of souls happened because "even heaven makes mistakes," and this remark sets the tone of the plot. (Plus, the story came out only a few years after Christine Jorgensen got so much publicity for having a sex change in Sweden.) Yentl later says that she is "neither one [sex] nor the other"(p. 44) and later repeats that she has a man's soul in a woman's body.(p. 49.)
The original Yentl did not go back to living as a woman after divorcing Hadassah, nor did s/he go to America to become a "liberated" woman as is suggested in the Streisand movie version. S/he remained as s/he was, living in Poland as the man Anshel (which a transsexual would do, but not a feminist.) The stage play version remained true to this story line and was popular for many years in gay/lesbian/transgender circles and avante garde theatres.
![[link to buy video or DVD]](video/yentl.gif)
However, by the time
the Streisand film version of Yentl
was being made, it was"politically incorrect" in many feminist circles
for a person to be female-to-male transgender, because that was
re-defined as being "butch" (and no longer PC in lesbian circles) and
"seeking male privileges" (not PC in feminist circles.) So the
transgender aspect of the story began to be played down during the
1980s and the focus shifted, to the point that most people now see the
Yentl character as a feminist, which is how Streisand portrayed her.
So what we really have here is: a modern non-Hasidic feminist movie producer, who interjected her own agendas about Orthodox Jews into her version of the film. I have been told repeatedly that the author, I.B. Singer, was so upset over Streisand turning his story into a feminist polemic that he tried to stop film production but could not, because he did not have artistic control over the subsidiary rights or something. The fact that the first illustrated hardcover edition came out in 1983, the same year as the movie, suggests to me that this was Singer's way protesting. If he could not stop the movie, then he could at least make the original story more easily available in English at the same time that the movie came out. In the Antonio Frasconi woodcuts illustrating the 1983 hardcover edition, Yentl/Anshel "passes" quite well, and looks like any other male yeshiva student. I have no doubt this was how Singer pictured her when he wrote the story. In the movie, however, Barbara Streisand comes across like a woman in drag, and there is never any question of gender identity in her performance.
At any rate, Singer's original intention was to explore issues of cross-dressing and gender identity, not to bash Orthodoxy or Hasidism. In fact, the Singer story was quite sensitive to traditional Judaism. The original Yentl believes in Orthodox Judaism, and struggles long and hard with the moral and theological implications of her personal dilemma. At no time does she ridicule or bash the traditions in the farcical way that the movie does.
![[Rebbitzin Jungreis with Pres. Bush]](hasidfaq/jungreis-with-bush.jpg)
Instead of Yentl,
I highly recommend reading
The Committed Life by Rebbitzin
Esther Jungreis, an excellent book about the spiritual life of a real
Orthodox Jewish woman who is definitely not
a Yentl stereotype! Jungreis is the daughter of the Szgeder Rebbe,
a line that traces all the way back to King David. She is a gifted
public speaker who, over 25 years ago, founded Hineni,
an Orthodox outreach movement that has received the blessings of both
Hasidic and non-Hasidic rabbis. As a survivor of the Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp, Rebbitzin Jungreis not only kept her faith under
such terrible suffering, but has devoted her life to rekindling the
faith in God, that, sadly, was destroyed by the Nazis for so many Jews.
She has spoken to huge crowds in Madison Square Garden, to women in
Israeli prisons, and to seeking individuals wherever she goes. In 2005
she was invited to the Inaugural Ball for President Bush (see photo --
she's the blonde lady on the far left.) You can read more about
Rebbitzin Jungreis and her org, including essays by her, at
hineni.org's website.)
Yet another good resource
is a new book entitled
Around Sarah's Table: Ten Hasidic Women Share Their Stories of Life,
Faith, and Tradition.
It's based on a real study group in Brooklyn, where Hasidic women from
many walks of life gather to share Torah insights and give support to
one another. My wife and I both enjoyed it. It's well-written and
accessible reading for people of all backgrounds.
Read my 5-star review on Amazon....
And for something to read online right now, try the article Henny's Secret. You will not only learn that keeping a kosher home is not a bunch od drudgery, you will also learn something about the important mitzvah (commandment) of hospitality on Shabbat (the Sabbath.)
Unfortunately, this fictional invention of Potok's is now being read worldwide in English literature classes and taken as fact by unsuspecting students. At the end of each academic quarter I receive tons of questions about the supposed Hasidic custom of "raising children in silence." Again, people -- there is no such custom! However, there once was a tendency for European fathers (not just Hasidim) to be emotionally distant from their children -- recall the stuffy (gentile) British father in "Mary Poppins" or the cold (Austrian) military Dad in "The Sound of Music." This is not a Hasidic custom per se, but it was a European custom that probably influenced some European Jews.
One person who read this FAQ said that she queried Potok himself, who referred her to "the withdrawal into silence by Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk." (Potok's words to her.) If this was indeed his answer, I fail to see how it relates to raising a child in silence as described in the story. The Kotzker Rebbe was an adult when he himself retreated into silence. He did not raise his son or anyone else in silence. There is a chapter on the Kotzker Rebbe in Elie Wiesel's book, Souls on Fire: Portraits and Legends of Hasidic Masters, which discusses The Kotzker's retreat into silence. (Some say the Kotzker had gone mad or lost his faith. Others say there were deeper reasons why he became a recluse for 20 years.)
Aside
from this point, however,The
Chosen is reasonably accurate
concerning it's portrayal of Jewish life in Brooklyn during the 1940s,
although it does get some of the theological details about Hasidism
wrong. In 1982 the book was made into a movie, also called "The Chosen"
which was re-released on DVD (Sept. 2003) and
now available on Amazon.com.
It's well worth seeing -- Chaim Potok even makes a cameo appearance as
the Talmud teacher. (The VHS version is out of print, but you can
sometimes
find used VHS copies on Amazon.
In my opinion, however, the DVD version is more convenient for school
use, because you can go to various scenes without wasting classroom
time re-winding a tape.)
One more comment: Regarding the change of clothing (from Hasidic to modern) by Danny Saunders at the end of the book and the movie, this was a matter of dress codes, not voluntarily giving up his traditions to become "modernized." In the sequel book, The Promise, it is clear that Danny remains an observant Jew.
Back in those days, there were strict rules against wearing beards on campus, etc. At Brooklyn College (Jewish) he could dress Hasidic, but to go to Columbia University (non-Jewish secular), he had to give up his traditional mode of dress. Nowadays this is no longer an issue. Hasidim (and other minorities) can dress however they want on campus. Most of Potok's books deal, in one way or another, with the tension between being part of a minority and participating in the larger society. How much do you keep? How much do you give up?
There are a few Jewish bloopers, though. The most obvious is the one about when the Sabbath ends: it should be after dark, when three stars are visible, not at the exact moment of sundown as portrayed in the movie. Also, the rabbi should not be leading his horse on the Sabbath, either, and the horse should not be carrying a burden. (Animals as well as people get to rest on the Sabbath, so the horse would be unloaded, unsaddled, and allowed to graze.) But the idea that he would risk being captured by the posse in order to observe the Sabbath was very touching and sensitively portrayed. So was the part about his willingness to die for the Torah. At this point we realize that he is just as brave as the cowboys -- but in a different way.
I was also impressed with the general honesty of the rabbi character, such as his returning the money from the bank robbery and his non-violent solution to the problem of the bad guy at the end. Allowing for the bloopers and a few stereotypes (such as the rich man's matchmaking for his daughters), I thought it was a nice introduction to basic Jewish values. (But again, please keep in mind that it's a comedy.) Unfortunately it is out-of-print on VHS and has not yet come out on DVD, and it's hard to find in video stores. But it's worth owning as a family film (no nudity -- they even swim in their longjohns) and you can Find used copies on Amazon. (Or wait for the DVD -- when it comes out, I'll post it here.)
The plot of A Price Above Rubies -- an R-rated story about a non-Hasidic woman who marries a Hasidic man, has a bad experience, and then decides Hasidism is not for her -- is a grade B formula plot. Yes it "could" happen, in any community anywhere. As a grade B movie, it is probably no different that a lot of similar R-rated movies about bad marriages that break up over sex. The problem is, there are so few movies around about Hasidim, that people tend to see such characters as representing Hasidic culture in general, rather than as confused individuals with serious personal problems.
What was portrayed in that movie was sinful, not at all typical of Hasidim. It came out of the erotic fantasies of the non-Hasidic script writers and actors, not real-life Hasidim. (Fascination with the sex lives of "exotic" cultures seems to be a common failing among bored human beings.)
In addition, the dialogue was not at all how real Hasidim would speak to each other in the privacy of their own homes. As I already explained in Q-6 of Part 1, Hasidim are reserved on the streets, but behind the scenes we do show love and caring for each other. We are not always stone-faced, either. The writers of this film apparently assumed (wrongly) that public behavior is the same as private behavior, and that Hasidim are always cold and distant with each other at home. Not!
Also, in a Hasidic marriage, it is the woman who decides when "this is the night" and if she is not in the mood, he is forbidden to force her. On the other hand, if she is in the mood, then her husband is obligated to please her. Regarding the seduction by the brother-in-law in the movie, such incest is strictly forbidden by the Torah to all Jews, not just Hasidim. So what happened in A Price Above Rubies would be an abnormal, sick family situation, not the usual way of a normal Hasidic home. Enough said.
Similarly, the 1999 Israeli film, Kadosh, is an extremely anti-Hasidic piece of propaganda by a secularist producer who freely admits in his interview on the DVD that he intended the film as an attack on the Orthodox and on all religion in general. The title, Kadosh, means "holy" in Hebrew, but it is clearly being used sarcastically here. The director goes out of his way to find every obscure negative statement about women ever made in the 5000-year-long history of Judaism, then strings them all together into a shallow, bigoted, preachy plot. In the words of one Orthodox Jewish woman who reviewed this film film on Amazon:
If I were to show you a movie and tell you that it is a political propaganda film, you would take it with a grain of salt. If I were to show you a movie and tell you that it is a racially biased propaganda film, you would take it with a grain of salt. But people accept the movie Kadosh as fact, when it is really one of the saddest types of slander around - it is a Jewish director targeting other Jews.
Most other reviewers on Amazon are equally negative about Kadosh, giving it an average of one or two stars. Several say they literally walked out of the theater or turned off the VCR in disgust. Don't waste your time and money on this piece of pornographic dreck, and for heaven's sake, don't use it in the classroom!
Also just
released on DVD is
Left Luggage, a 1998 film
about a university student named Chaya, daughter of Holocaust
survivors, who is totally secular and in denial about her Jewish
identity. In need of money for her studies, Chaya she takes a job as a
nanny for three boys in a Hasidic family. Through this experience, she
comes to understand her own identity as a Jew. Set in Antwerp, Belgium,
in the 1970s, this is a serious drama that also explores the emotional
impact of the Holocaust on both Hasidic and non-Hasidic communities in
the post-war generation. The film won several awards at the Berlin Film
Festival. (Don't worry, it's in English). I have reviewed it more depth
on Amazon.com --
use this link to read my review and order the DVD.
One problem with this movie, however, is that it has a couple of short
frontal nudity scenes that might render it unsuitable for school use.
There is now a service called CleanFilms.com
which rents and sells edited versions of films -- I have requested that
they add Left Luggage
to their list and when it's available, I'll post the info here.
Another reasonably good drama which shows some Hasidic customs and home celebrations is A Stranger Among Us starring Melanie Griffith. In this film, Griffith plays a New York detective who goes undercover in the Hasidic community to solve a murder. But for some strange reason, there is no mention of Jews or Hasidism on the box, which shows Melanie Griffith with a gun and, on the back of the video box, a couple stills from the very few scenes with any violence. (I can just hear the guys in marketing now: "Don't tell them it's about Hasidic Jews on the box, Fred -- they'll think it's one of those boring ultra-orthodox things...")
But take my word for it, it's a good film and reasonably accurate about Hasidic culture. (Although it does have a few bloopers, too, such as making a book on kabbalah read like a sex manual. Not!) But it does have some great scenes of the home Sabbath celebration and a Jewish wedding. I also like it because it shows the life of Hasidic women in a positive way. It's a murder mystery, too, although the real focus is on the multi-cultural issues. (Warning: it does have some bad language and a heavy kissing scene I could do without. It's rated PG-13.) The videotape version is out-of-print but it's available on DVD -- use this link to order the DVD. Use the scene selection option if you want to use specific scenes in a classroom without watching the whole 2-hour movie.
(NOTE: Some Hasidic reviewers thought this film was a bit too simplistic, and said that the Rebbe came across as "an actor playing a role." Well of course he was an actor playing a role -- you could hardly expect a real Hasidic Rebbe to play himself in a movie -- he has more important things to do! Crime buffs also point out that it is not that great on police procedurals -- think Murder She Wrote in that area.)
If
you prefer a documentary (not as easy to find in video rental stores
but well worth buying) try
A
Life Apart: Hasidism in America,
produced by PBS in 1997. This 90-minute
film is the first in-depth documentary about Hasidism and Hasidic
life in America. It received very good reviews and has some excellent
footage of Hasidic communities and family life today. If you are
teaching a unit on The Chosen
or some other Hasidism-related
topic, you really should encourage your school library to buy a copy of
this excellent film. Granted, 90 minutes is long for a standard class
period, but you can use excerpts or show it in two class periods.
(Again, If you
buy the DVD version, you can use
excerpts.)
It also has an interesting trailer interviewing the two producers about
why and how they did the film, the reaction of various communities to
it, etc. To learn more about the film and read reviews from The
New York Times And others, etc,
visit the film's
homepage on the PBS website. To
buy yourself a copy from Amazon.com and benefit this FAQ site in the
process, please use my links for
the VHS video or the
DVD version.
The book has both good and bad points -- I gave it three out of five stars in my Amazon review, which I interpret to mean "average." On the one hand, it's a good portrayal of how blind prejudice and misunderstanding (on both sides) can set diverse communities against each other. Both sides in this story are very insular, and know only negative stereotypes of each other. There are bigots on both sides, as well as good people on both sides. A very complex story.
The problem with the book is that the author, Stephen Bloom (professor of Journalism, Iowa State University), ended up taking sides himself, and that destroyed the objectivity of the book. Although he is himself Jewish, he's a secular Jew who came to this project very ill-prepared. He knew nothing about Hasidism before he went to Postville. In fact, he seems to know very little about basic Judaism, having never seen many practices that would be commonplace even in a non-Orthodox community. Bloom is what is known as a "gastronomical Jew," that is, he relates to being Jewish mostly through eating Jewish foods. I suspect it was his longing for good pastrami that brought him to Postville, not any real desire to understand the Hasidim.
Like many secular Jews, Bloom had an overly-idealized expectation of all Hasidim as perfect saints and sages. The disillusionment set in with his very first contact, the bombastic personality of Sholom Rubashkin (manager of the kosher slaughterhouse). Bloom takes an immediate dislike to Rubashkin because he is loud and, as Bloom later admits, "Bits of Sholom reminded me of my own father." (p. 159). This personality conflict then colors Bloom's entire view of Hasidic culture for the rest of the book. A journalism professor he may be, but an objective sociologist he is not! I found myself wondering how different this book might have been, if Bloom's first impression had been someone like Rabbi Manis Friedman, the soft-spoken Lubavitcher who first presented the slaughterhouse proposal to the Postville town meeting.
Professor Bloom was warned early on that the Hasidim in Postville do not like reporters. If he went there for his own personal learning as a Jew, the doors would be open and he could observe by participating. But if he planned on writing a story, then forget it, at least until he had earned the trust of the community. Ignoring this sound advice, he goes to Postville and stops by the newspaper office first, announcing his press connections and interviewing local people before he has even met any Hasidim. So, the word is out and the Hasidic guard goes up. Nor does he do much to allay their fears. To use a word the professor is fond of, he "stiffs" them.
On his first visit to a Hasidic home for the Sabbath, Bloom goes up to his room and writes down notes -- even though he knows that writing on the Sabbath is forbidden -- because "these are not my rules." Well, maybe not, but they are the rules of his host family's culture and he knows it, too. His violation smacks of immature rebellion. How would he feel if he invited someone into HIS home and they were sneaking around behind his back, doing things they know darned well he wouldn't approve of in his house? A good guest (in any culture) honors the wishes of his host. Bloom is big on criticizing the Hasidim for having "bad manners" but when it comes to respecting the Hasidim, Bloom's manners stink.
He ends up painting the entire Hasidic community as a bunch of loud, boorish, backward bigots. While it is true that there are prejudices among some of the Hasidim he interviews, there are equally bigoted attitudes among the gentiles. But Bloom doesn't handle this with much balance. He is able to see both good and bad in the Postville farmers, but, when it comes to the Hasidim, he reports mostly negative incidents, and repeatedly uses buzzwords like "atrocious," "primitive," and "stifling" to put down the entire Hasidic culture as bad. With the bigotry of the Iowans, however, he doesn't make such blanket value judgements. In fact, he seems to want to like them IN SPITE OF the sometimes blatant prejudices that many of them have against Jews. When asked by Postville farmers if he is Jewish, Bloom reluctantly says yes, but is very quick to distance himself from the Hasidim, lest they think he is one of "them." Is it any wonder the Hasidim distrusted him?
Bloom's research was lopsided in other ways, too. While he seems to have interviewed just about every gentile in town, he only visited a small number of Hasidic families, then extrapolated from that limited experience onto the entire community. In those few Hasidic homes he did visit (and then only briefly), he went in with a defensive attitude about his own secularism that got in the way of ever understanding the culture from its own POV. As a result, some of his statements are just plain wrong. A "Shabbos goy" is not a non-observant Jew (it is a non-Jew who helps on the Sabbath), the chant "aye-aye-aye!" in Hasidic songs is not a mystical name of God (it is a wordless song, like "la-la-la"), nor is it bad luck to name a child after a deceased relative. (The opposite is true: it is normal to name a child after a deceased relative, to keep the name alive in the family. It is bad luck to name a child after a living relative. In fact, there is an old Yiddish insult that goes, "May they soon name a child after you." In other words, "Drop dead.")
These and other glaring bloopers only serve to underscore that fact that Professor Bloom often does not know what he is talking about, and only succeeds in perpetuating further misunderstandings.
Readers of this FAQ will notice many places where the good professor missed golden opportunities to build bridges of understanding. He twice mentions the urban legend about the hole in the sheet but never debunks it. He tells about a Hasidic woman who doesn't make eye contact with a man who wants to hand her a flyer, but never gives the cultural reason(s). Ditto for why Hasidim act stern on the streets, etc. In short, Bloom did not know (or even care?) enough about Hasidic culture to bother researching these behaviors. Too bad he didn't read this FAQ first!
My conclusion: If you want a book which explores the nature of prejudice (including that of its author) and how it can divide a town against itself, then order a copy and read it. Just don't rely on it for the details and meanings of Hasidic customs or beliefs, because in that area, it frequently misses the mark.
Update 3/01/05:
Another thing to keep in mind is that Postville is a community centered
around a slaughterhouse. That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing.
However, there has recently (Dec. 2004) been a major
kosher-slaughter controversy at Agriprocessors, Inc.,
(the Postville company), which raises some serious questions about the
ethics of this particular business. These vioations are a black
eye on Agriprocessors and Rubashkin Meats, but should
not be taken as representative
of the entire Hasidic community as a whole. Nor should it be taken as
representative of kosher slaughtering as a whole. Many rabbis in both
the USA and Israel have condemned the cruelty to animals practices that
are alleged at this particular slaughterhouse. (To my Hasidic brethren:
If you eat Rubaskin and/or Aaron's Best meats, you really should look
into this kashrut controversy
for yourself. Keeping kosher is not only about slaughtering, it is also
about tsaar baalei chayim
-- not causing cruelty to animals. Today's high-speed processing plants
are not the little butcher shops of our ancestors. And the way
meat is raised today is not the "flocks of our fathers" either.)
The Wikipedia article on Agriprocessors has the entire history of this business if you are interested in exploring this issue further, including various violations and criminal convictions of some member of management. Agriprocessors filed for banruptcy in 2008 and is currently administered under Chapter 11. Shlomo Rubashkin (CEO) was convicted of fraud and is currently serving a sentence in Iowa.
![Hasidic smiley face]](hasidfaq/smiley.gif)
PART 2 covers some common questions (and misunderstandings) about Hasidic garb, customs, mannerisms, roles of men and women, etc.
PART 3 of the Hasidism FAQ has questions about Hasidic beliefs, how one becomes a Hasid, observing the Sabbath, some medical issues, Hasidic music, occupations, belief in angels, etc.
PART 1-A covers some basic background about the origins of Hasidism, some of the different Hasidic groups today, Rebbe Nachman's Breslov movement (and why Breslov is not Bratzlav), etc.
Part 1-B discusses how Hasidim are portrayed in the media, Potok's The Chosen, recommendations & criticisms of books and movies, explanations of some bloopers and misrepresentations, etc.
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by Yonassan Gershom.
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