Satmar and NY Post

New York Post got new insights in "Hasidism", by publishing February 6 an article about a former Satmar lady sharing her experiences.

The first stereotypical temptation is to start writing something like: one experience does not match the other experiences and in general the Hasidic world is kind and Torah and mitzvot-oriented. Instead I will say that I do not wonder about such an article, generally mentioning "Hadisic groups" with reference to Satmar, lacking any explanation about the specificities of this group. Does it say something about the "Hasidic Satmar" or about Hasidism or even more, about Judaism? Not at all, there are only the problems of an invididual that at the end of the day decided to date an Irish Catholic from New Orleans.

Probably, without NY Post' acknowledgement, there are many people going through the same situation and what they need is friends and family. Media exposure helps only a doubtful promotion of her memoir. 

As usual, each individual is different, with a different story and a different understanding of what we should do in our lives. I do not see in this NY Post article any understanding of such things and probably she will need a lot of time to understand that, maybe, not everything outside the religious world is tasting so sweet.  And it does not mean that I am a Satmar either.

Book Review: Creators and Disturbers. Reminiscences by Jewish Intellectuals of New York

At the beginning of the 80s, when this book was published, Jewish intellectuals continued to be an interesting topic. Nowadays, I would rather say that they might be interesting from the point of view of their specialization: writers, scientists, artists in various domains. Or not interesting at all.

The interest at the time was understandable: after long decades of fight with a system not so friendly with the Jews, the new Jewish elites were taken into consideration by the establishment.

New York was and continues to be an important hot potato for the main intellectual mainstream, hence the focus of the articles. The authors are covering many perspectives, geographical areas - Bronx, Harlem, Brooklyn - and denominations. Their origins - Russian, German - are diverse as well. Some are writing about their literary adventures (I.B.Singer) or about their stages of the assumed assimilation (Hans Morgenthau), about their connection with the other minorities (Dan Morgenstern, on the Jewish-Black connection) or the return to Jewish values after facing the precarious situation of the Soviet Jewry (Ted Solotaroff).

Overall, it was an extremely interesting intellectual trip.