Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on July 18, 2015

OVERVIEW

The Hasidic Williamsburg Educational Walking Tour (EWT) is a three hour guided walking tour through Hasidic Williamsburg, the most devoutly Jewish urban enclave in America.

In the tour, participants witness and interact with a Haredi (a.k.a. Ultra-orthodox) community that strives to preserve as much of its 19th century European mores as possible, including its Yiddish language, strict segregation of the genders, a boycott of secular music and media, emphasis on Torah scholarship and adulation of Hasidic Rebbes and themeticulous observance of Gods commandments as transmitted and expounded by the sages and Rabbis through the ages.

DETAILS

The tour is designed to offer an opportunity for participants to learn about theexotic and mysterious American subculture called Hasidism, in an immersive setting. To that end, we start off with a comprehensive introduction of theWilliamsburgneighborhood, the story of Jewish immigration to America and the Great Awakeningof Hasidism in America in the 1950s. We discuss the successive Jewish immigration waves to America that led up to the post WWII settlement of Williamsburg by its modern-day Hasidim. We explain the origin of Haredism and the definition of Hasidism in America. We explain the contemporary Hasidic sects, including Satmar, Pupa, Belz, etc, what they stand for and how they can be told apart.Alongthe tour route, as we observea sitewe seize the opportunity to elaborate on associated topics, e.g. we talk about the function of shuls (synagogues) when we encounter a shul, and we talk about the different ways in whichmarried women cover their hair, when we pass them.

A tasting of three food items (e.g. kugel, kishkeh and cholent) from a traditional Hungarian-Hasidic menu is included in the price of the tour. The tasting is offered at a local restaurant during a 20-minute recess in the middle of the tour.

Participants will leave with a firm grip on the nature of the Hasidic community: its mores, its religious tenacity, its independentinstititions, its future aspirations, and most importantly perhaps, how this community is recently exerting considerable influence on other Jewish sectors

This tour is the first of its kind ever to be offered in Williamsburg! Participants areexposed to a very thorough survey of whos who and whats what in South Williamsburg, including the latestscoop about such matters as the Zalman-Aaron Satmar Succession Feud, various Hasidic sects and their idiosyncrasies, housingdisputes, local petty politics, economicdevelopmentand the like. Contemporary issues arediscussed with a view toward Jewish Williamsburgshistorical transformation,starting in the mid-nineteenth century when German Jews joined their countrymen on the journey across the Atlantic and laidthe basis for Jewishsettlement in Williamsburg for many years to come.

In the tour, we learnextensively about the enormous wave of Russian-Polish Jews in the 1880s-1920s, and notesome scattered remnants from that noteworthy historical epoch. We learnhow the RussianJews differed from their German predecessors and how they paved the way for the post-WWII Hasidic Jewish settlement.

We ask that female tour participants dress modestly, in accordance with the local conventions. This means that short pants and tank tops should be avoided. Discretion in this matter is advisable. The locals are generally amicable to tourists and we often see them eavesdropping on us and occasionally butt in with their own reactions and narratives. If we are lucky, we may get invited to a home.

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Hasidic Williamsburg Tour | an educational excursion ...

Category: Hasidic
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