Do ex-Hasidim serve themselves well by establishing a community? Or does that only amplify the narrative of struggle and displacement, inevitably confining them to the fringes?
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Despite being one of the most conspicuously Jewish Jews--a Chasid, the Jewish identity quandary that so many struggle with is not an issue for me.
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Put away the book. Put it away and listen to Kiddush. Stand up, your father’s waiting. Shhh. Come on. Nu. Nu!
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Rievi and I sit on rocks near the shallow stream as the water cascades over tangles of rocks, branches, and fallen tree trunks. It is now only Rievi and I, and I cherish each moment.
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The message sent a shudder down his spine. It read: "The Vaad wants to see you, tomorrow 8:30."
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I have been in front of the Rebbe twice before, standing for hours in a line that shuffled forward, his eyes, in that moment, searing my soul. But this time it is different.
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There is a lot of piety around me in this shul. Some of it is hopeful and some of it is real, but all of it makes me feel alone. I feel like I need more space.
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We like to do it, talk about it, and hear about who’s doing it with whom, illicit or otherwise. But it isn’t the be all and end all of human experience.
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Chasidishkeit manages to take everything exciting in life - food, sex, adventure, travel - and mangle it to a point where there's little left of their original allure. And it has a particularly vicious stranglehold on sex.
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I.

his hands were speckled in cheerful red polka dots
and Cain thought (just as he reached the end
of his psychonautical journey)
that he’d become a clown, a happy change
from his goddamn law career, the stiff tweeds…

Al Pacino, noted actor from the Godfather trilogy, showed up this week at a Borough Park synagogue to observe the prayers, and was later invited to the home of a local for some coffee and …

"Shechinala, Shechinala!" God called to the Holy Ghost with a sweet voice, and because he likes her, he said her name twice. "What now?" came the impatient response.
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“How could you let one of your own go, without support and without love?” the cop asks the rabbi. The rabbi replies, “In our lives it is never about the individual. It is about the community.”
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An overview of anonymous and pseudonymous writing in the Chasidic world.
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Another incident of Charedim in Mea Shearim getting angry about something or other and turning the streets into a war zone. This time it’s over the arrest of a Charedi organizer of violent protests in the past…

Volf is a quiet person, shy, the kind you see and recognize, but in a moment so fleeting that it barely registers.
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The bus is empty of passengers, it’s just us and the driver, until a large group of black kids file in.Everything is quiet for a bit until one of the kids begins to sing. Silent night, holy night . . .
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It was a large place with many stones and it never looked good. It looked worse in the dark.
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The rabbinical head of a Jerusalem Yeshiva was so incensed at hearing of a student engaged in criminal behavior, that he took out a gun and shot the student twice. So claims an indictment issued against Menachem …

I come

to my daughter’s place

invitation in my purse

among my to-do lists, my half-read book,

my nibbled-on snack, my nearly-gone drink.

A Jewish tradition

A superstition

inviting the dead to their loved ones’ weddings.

My daughter is …

“I totaled my truck last week,” he said. “These two Mexicans and a black guy. Came around that gas station down on 11th,” he said, motioning vaguely behind him.
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"I’m not looking to publish on blogs," he says. "It’s not a blog," I say, "it’s an online journal." "Whatever," he says. "It’s not the kind of thing I’m looking for. You understand?" I understand.
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