Two weeks ago, the City removed bike lanes in South Williamsburg, a primarily Hassidic community. Influential parts of the Hassidic community have been vocally unhappy about the lanes attracting scantily clad women bikers and bikers who don't follow traffic laws. Simon Weisser, a member of Community Board 1, tells the Post, "I have to admit, it's a major issue, women passing through here in that dress code. It bothers me, and it bothers a lot of people."

Last week, two self-identified "self-hating Jewish hipsters" were arrested for repainting and stenciling the bike lanes back onto Bedford Ave. These Jews represent the thousands of secular (or simply less observant than Hassadic) Jews who are part of the flux of hip, scantily clad  and cost-conscious people moving into areas that are historically Hassadic enclaves. The lane removal has prompted outcry from bike activists and there have been lots of jabs made at the Hassidic community. Moshe Goldberger, a Hassid, complained to the Post that "unauthorized painting on New York City property is unlawful, but that is overlooked because it's committed against the terrible Hasidim."

The battle between two of Brooklyn's most controversial and discussed subcultures- hipsters and Hasidim- leads me to ask questions that I don't have answers for. First, what public actions and statements are considered Jewish? In all articles I saw on the story, only the Hasidim are written about as Jewish and their perspective is presented as the Jewish voice about the subject. What would it mean if the bike lane advocates did re-paint the streets not as "self-hating hipster Jews", but as proud Jewish rabble-rousers, who might be less observant but saw their protest as Jewish? Second, how can progressive Jews lovingly challenge Jews from all observance level, ethnicity, country or class, while acknowledging nuance, i.e., the right for community control vs. sustainable transportation?

 

This post originally appeared on JSpot.org and is reprinted with permission. 

When the Shaindy.com epidemic broke out, The Jew Spot had to get in on it. Lucky for us, founder of Shaindy not only gave us an interview, but VIP access. Little did we know we’d find ourselves in a website equipped with a dating expert, a pro-cheating column, 13 new messages from men who all want to chat with me, and oh yeah, pornography. Did I mention most of the members on here are “Religious,” i.e. Orthodox or Chassidic?

But before you jump to conclusions, Jerry (the founder’s pseudonym for safety purposes) said he was simply addressing a need - and the numbers prove it. Only a two month site and there are nearly 2,000 members, 12 of which signed up while we were chatting. All he had to do was go on Craigslist to see the religious Jewish community putting personals up for affairs to understand there is a market for this. And it doesn’t hurt that his wife is all about it, too.

So what happens on this site and why has it become so popular in the religious community? Read our interview with Jerry here.

Thanks for taking the interview. Can you tell us who Shaindy.com is made for?

Well Shaindy is basically for married people who want an affair or just a listening ear from other people "to vent" or "distress." The idea was there is NO such venue in the Jewish community.

Every day I would see on Craigslist ads from the "frum" community. We [wife and I] started talking to them and realized there was a big need for it.

We have all kind of people in here – Chassidic, Modern Orthodox, Conservative, Reform. It’s fair to say it’s for Jewish people.

What surprises me is that especially for the Orthodox community, they are very tight knit. There must be a fear in meeting someone who they already know.. or know their rabbi? How is that addressed?

Over here you can chat with someone for a while before you open up and you make sure you chat with someone who has the same beliefs as you have.

Why do you feel that people who are looking to have an affair want someone with the same beliefs, especially same religious beliefs for those more religious on the site?

When people have the same issues and problems it is much more comfortable to connect with those kind of people. It’s more of a challenge to get a girl or guy from your background. They will UNDERSTAND you way more because they are in the same situation.

Obviously there is a need for it. I am checking the stats on my site as we speak and there are over 3000 chat/messages between members on a daily basis.

Continue reading...

Skeleton asks: "Have you ever noticed, that Hasidic rebellious teenagers, like secular teenagers, have no ambitions beyond scoring weed and women?"

The answer is two pronged but first; I find it disheartening that someone like Skeleton, a person very much capable of critical thought and inquiry before accepting dogma would not realize that her statement is seeped in the ignorant widespread belief of the Orthodox community, belief that if isn't intentionally misguided, still is necessary to keep their other beliefs intact.

It wouldn't be the first time I hear this statement, and while it isn't directly directed at me (not because I have never occasionally experimented weed, but because I'm not officially OTD, and am no longer a teenager), I take offense in the name of truth.

First, scoring weed and woman is not as frightening as they set it out to be. There's a strong biological drive for a healthy human to copulate - otherwise we wouldn't survive beyond the first generation. Weed, a recreational drug, less harmful and less addictive than alcohol isn't all that great it is made out to be by myth in the Chassidic yeshiva ("A drug that makes you forget all your problems - you feel as if you're in Gan Eden"), in fact I find it sickly and it induces paranoia and irrational scares. But some, arguably, take real pleasure in it, while others relish its sacredness, or illicitness. So, seeing someone actively perusing one the above and thinking what he would do otherwise, as a yeshiva bocher - had he stayed one, the conclusion must be "good for him".

Yet, the generalization of the statement, the fact that most people within the confinement of the Chassidic ghetto think of all the OTD'ers as "drug addicts" has nothing to do with the real facts. It is just as valid as the statement concerning "secular" youngsters. While many are definitely not the scholarly type, not only secular kids, but most kids in general, including Chassidisher kids, there are countless brilliant kids who attend some of the greatest schools in this country. (Yes, most seek carnal pleasures in their spare time too, and there's nothing wrong with that.) And of course, there are some, if not many, young teenagers who believe that they will conquer the world, they will be the next Einstein, they will cure cancer, or reconcile science.

The make up of these kids in college is probably more than its share in Chassidsher yeshivos, only for the reason that teenagers who aren't interested in higher education in the secular world, for the most part, won't go to school. They have no shiduchim fear, or "past nisht" fear.

(After writing it up I get the feeling that Skeleton was kidding, and meant something that I must have missed, in which case I apologize.)

Cross Posted at A Hasid and a Heretic. 

A pet cause of the Breslov chassidic sect -- reputed to be a permissive, new age, gleeful, alternative to the other Hasidic orders -- is sexual restraint. Specifically, followers of Breslov Hasidut focus on the widespread eradication of sexual thoughts, and especially any self-abatement of resulting urges. Accordingly, there have been some robust Web efforts at plugging the sexual dam.

Rebbe Nachman was the founder, or 'patron saint' of Breslov Hasidism, and was the grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, who himself was the founder of all Hasidic Judaism. Nachman placed great emphasis on exuberance, and joyful worship of God. He believed that there is "no despair in the world", and that one should constantly be in a state of jubilant exultation of the creator.

For this reason, one faction of Breslovers maintains a small fleet of GMC vans, which they drive around Israel blasting religious music -- often featuring the mantra "Na Nach Nachma Nachman"-- and roping passersby into dancing and singing with them, sometimes on top of the vans. This faction may also be recognized by their honking white yarmulkes, with the mantra "Na Nach Nachma" printed on them -- which have become an Israeli kitsch collectable. The Jerusalem Post estimated in 2006 that there are 80 families belonging to this faction of "Na Nachmanim," most of whom are of Mizrachi origin -- many with a history of substance abuse -- and were only recently swayed to Breslov Hasidism, or affiliated one generation back. Despite being only a small fringe of the mainstream, they are the more public face of Breslover Hasidut, relaying an image of hippy laxity.

The more prevailing group of Breslovers can trace their ancestral ties closer to Rebbe Nachman's original followers, and the rift from his grandfather's Hasidic establishment. Breslover Hasidut was birthed in the town of Bratslav, Ukraine at the turn of the 19th century after Nachman's followers were detached from the larger Hasidic community, because of their cultish adulation of Nachman -- an adulation that still continues today. In-fighting for control of the Baal Shem Tov's Hasidic dynasty between Breslovers and early Lubavitch also caused a rift. Today the Lubavitch and Breslov community still compete -- but now in their outreach initiatives, not for control of the Hasidic movement.

One of their biggest campaigns has been against the 'wasting of seed', or hotza'at zera levatalah. Though the prohibition is not explicitly mentioned in the Torah, it derives from the Biblical story of Onan, who was asked to sleep with his late brother's wife, Tamar, in order to produce an heir. Onan and Tamar did sleep together, but Onan disengaged, electing to spill his seed on the ground. God killed him.

From this, Biblical commentators deduced a Divine prohibition against extra-uteral ejaculation -- whether in the audience of a partner, or alone.

It should be noted that sex for the purpose of recreation, rather than mere procreation, is perfectly kosher. Also, the (explicit) prohibition against self-satisfaction in Judaism, as opposed to most Christian sects and Islam, does not apply to women.  

Breslover Jews are particularly fearful of the spiritual ramifications of Onanism. Rebbe Nachman himself purportedly married soon after his Bar Mitzvah in order to avoid cowing to his urges. He also compiled ten psalms for incantation (in this order: Psalms 16, 32, 41, 42, 59, 77, 90, 105, 137, and 150) for what he called the "general fix", which (among other sins) constitute a special spiritual remedy for nocturnal emissions.

To be sure, the mainstream ultra-Orthodox community is staunchly against masturbation. However, for penance, most modern rabbis would recommend Torah study and charitable donations rather than the 84 fasts for each one session demanded by one of Talmud's sages.

The esteemed Orthodox rabbi, Abraham Danziger was a contemporary of Rabbi Nachman. Danziger contended in his influential work Chayei Adam, that though the spiritual ramifications of  masturbation are tantamount to murder, if a fellow can't restrain himself, then self-amusement is a preferable alternative to bedding a prostitute, a menstruating woman, or another guy's wife.

Breslovers and Lubavitchers maintain that it is the worst sin one can commit. Often, they cite a passage in Tanya -- a sacred Lubavitch text based heavily upon the Zohar -- which indicates that even incest is less heinous than male masturbation. The Zohar refers to spilt semen as "wasted [blood]"; The heft of the sin is attributed to the frittering of sperm, which has the potential to beget life.

Even though Tanya is a Chabad text, it is Breslovers who obsess over the prohibition. Sociologically, this is likely tied to Rebbe Nachman's philosophy of Halakhic observance; pick one mitzvah to observe obsessively, and observe the rest with moderate vigor. Breslovers usually pick the mitzvah of self restraint, because of the grave way the Talmud and Tanya treat masturbation; It reads like the worst sin, and so -- very ambitiously -- most pick that prohibition to adhere to fanatically.

I live in an apartment of Jewish hipsters in Brooklyn who despise, and are despised by, their Hasidic neighbors. This is the Jewish-American way: the secular have no time for primitive traditionalists, and the pious no time for Godless narcissists. As a twenty-something Aussie living in the U.S., I’ve learned that American Jewry is less a “community” and more a pissing contest between two factions.Hasidic Hipsters: Author (right) with Torah scholar and comic book artist Sammy ...