Boorie Deutsch Learns a Hard Lesson: Customer is ALWAYS Right
OPINION Our own Boorie Deutsch, protagonist in the Weberman sexual molestation case that has become a cause celebre topping the news this week in the hood, may have erred in his headstrong belligerence against the Hasidic Williamsburg establishment. Is is now reported that R. Shmuel Berger, a notable kashrut endorser in Williamsburg, has revoked his kashrut certificate from
Weberman Sexual Molestation Case Drives Wedge in Community
As the fundraising event gets underway this evening for Nechemiah Weberman’s defense against allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor, deep rifts are laid bare in the Hasidic Community of Williamsburg. There is far from consensus in the street opinion as to whether Mr. Weberman is innocent or guilty. Informal polling of community members regarding
Anti-Internet Rally Floundering Amid Apathy and Counter Rally
The Ultra-Orthodox Anti-Internet rally organized by the “committee for purity in the camp” scheduled to take place in Citi Field on May 20 is floundering amid general apathy by the Hasidic community and an inability to secure high-level endorsements in many Hasidic courts, including Bobov and both Satmars. R. Aaron Teitelbaum, Satmar Rebbe in Kiryas
Footsteps Steps Up Its Pace
Footsteps, the organization famous for its aid to those in haredi communities who seek to migrate to the mainstream, released its annual report last February. Most striking in the report was its astonishing growth over the last two years — especially in the proportion of women– in its intake figures. While overall new membership rolls grew from
Planned Citi Field Anti-Internet Conference Fraught with Internecine Rivalry
Major media outlets such as Jewish Daily News, The Jewish Press and The Huffington Post finally picked up the Haredi Anti-Internet Conference story (it may have been picked up from our original report on March 13 in which we initially erroneously named the venue “Shea Stadium” — hence the same error persisted in their original reporting). By now, however, some
Satmar Brothers Dueling Over Summer Camps — 3,500 Zalmanite Kids Hang in the Balance
The Satmar Brothers Aaron and Zalman are once again at each other’s throats, this time over who would get to use the four summer camps in Ulster County, New York. David Rosenburg has administered the camps on behalf of Congregation Yetev Lev (CYL) of Satmar for many decades. After the Satmar Succession Feud erupted in 1999,
Libby Pollak: A Star is Born — And With It A Revival of Hasidic Yiddish
Libby Pollak is no ordinary woman. Three years ago she was a newly hitched young veibele in Williamsburg, lost in the shuffle of thousands of Ultra-hasidic couples who get married and settle there annually. Now her star is rapidly rising with hordes of followers from the Hasidic community devouring with relish every word she utters
Congressional Redistricting Will Shake Up Jewish Neighborhoods in Brooklyn
Since 2010 census data show that the New York State population did not proportionately grow as rapidly as that in other states, it is forced to forfeit two representatives. Accordingly in the new congressional elections to take place this fall everything will be shaken up and congressional lines redrawn. In other news pertaining to the
Polar Reversal of Ultra-orthodoxy in America Well Under Way
The signs are ominous. Decadence is omnipresent. The jadedness irreversible. Ultra-orthodoxy has seen better days. Like the economy, it’s hard to detect its heyday before it’s already over the top and perhaps on a precipitous decline into the abyss. I don’t think that Ultra-orthodoxy in America will plummet as sharply as our economy but we can now see
State Rebuffs FOIL Request on KJ Penisgate
New York State Police issued its final rebuttal on Apr 6 to HN’s request to obtain police reports relating to the Johanan Cohen death case, about which rumors circulated at the time of death in January 2007 that the boy’s body was found with a severed penis by the Hatzalah, the volunteer ambulnace corps in Kiryas
How to Outfrum your Opponent? No Congregational Coffee for Passover!
The Zallies have figured out a way to give — or should I say NOT give– the people what they want and at the same time bolster their ranks and popularity: no coffee in shul for Passover. “Frum” means religious; frumkeit is the noun — the quality of being frum, and the more the merrier.
New TV show on ex-Hasidic Divorcees in the Works
A new reality TV docu-drama show is in the works, this time bringing the obscure Ultra-orthodox culture and lifestyle to the bedrooms of mainstream Americans from the perspective of rebels. The cast is currently led by our very own Perry Reich, who is waging a public battle against her Hasidic husband for custody over her
