Book Review: A Fortress in Brooklyn: Race, Real Estate, and the Making of Hasidic Williamsburg

 

When the outside world is approaching the issues regarding Hasidic communities, in most cases the sensationalist and sometimes exhibitionist - see the fascination with they traditions associated with the mikve, among other things - prevails. From the secularist point of view, what really matters is the alien and extreme nature of the Hasidic groups, that are mostly thrown in the same hat and never separated based on their various histories and ideological backgrounds. But what about not only considering Hasidism as a part of American history, but also put the different movement in a larger Jewish context, especially after WWII, and the overall social American history?

A Fortress in Brooklyn: Race, Real Estate and the Making of Hasidic Williamsburg by Nathaniel Deutsch and Michael Casper the book makes a historican tourning point in approaching the Hasidic development in NYC, particularly the Satmar community. It examines the various evolutions of Hasidic Williamsburg based on real estate expansion and development. Thus, it enlarges previous researches on the topic by a larger analysis which does not necessarily focus on Hasidic life and thought, but uses it as an intellectual matrix to understand the current state of affairs.

Take, for instance, the controversy regarding the creation of bike lanes crossing Bedford Avenue and other parts of the area. The dispute goes beyond the morality which is however part of the problem, but only one of them. It has to do with expanding boundaries and facing the outside world as a threat to the global mindset of the Hasidic groups like the anti-Zionist Satmar. A frame on the ´anti-Zionist´ part because as they do not consider Israel as their home by choice - as most of the Hasidic groups, excepting Belz, for example - creating a home in the galut (diaspora) is an existential challenge. Thus, the tendency towards creating more stringencies among the post-WWII communities recreated in America by the Shoah survivors from Central and Eastern Europe.

But on the other end of the survival line, there is a shift taking place within those communities who cannot remain completely isolated from the outside world. Due to the mobility, the gentrification, the real estate expansion, including by Israeli players on the market, there is a new world in the making. This has to do not only with the ´Artisim´ - the artists - and their liberal customs, but with the openings of other Jewish groups as well - the dissent between Satmar and Chabad perceived as more ´liberal´, especially when it comes to women modesty standards. 

The book is mind-opening and very interesting and can be easily used as an example of sociological/anthropological analysis applied to various ethnically and religiously mixed neighbourhoods. At the same time, the books offer valuable insights into the modern shifts affecting Hasidic communities in America, particularly the Satmar group, within the complex net of local dynamics.