The Phantom stayed in Greenpoint, Brooklyn this weekend.
Walked from a Polish Catholic neighborhood through Williamsburg, which is cheek by jowl to this Polish community and on to Brooklyn Heights.
The women at the bakery speak Polish, and some speak a little English, enough so you can order your bread and rolls, if you point a lot.
These are 20 something women. Did they just move to the States?
Or do they simply not need to learn English in this part of Brooklyn?
They live in America, but separate and apart. In a way, they are a sect, if only by language segregation.
There are Polish churches, Polish newspapers, Polish convenience stores, where you hear only Polish, spoken by old people, young people, people who look just like any other New Yorker in Manhattan or Brooklyn, blue jeans, sweatshirts, but they speak Polish.
It is easy to imagine you are walking through 1930's Warsaw, with all the Poles and Polish signs on the stores and Polish newspapers.
And, then there's the Jewish ghetto. Time travel. Flash backs.
Williamsburg is home to another sort of sect, some very cult-ish Jews. These people do not look like other New Yorkers.
The men walk around in the same black outfits they must have worn in 1930 Warsaw, the outfits which made them look so strange and foreign and forbidding to the local Catholic Poles back then, Poles who were only too happy to hand their Jews over to the invading German SS troops.
These Jews, who the Phantom was told are called "Hasidim" or "Hassidic" or "Hasids" swarm all over these Williamsburg blocks.
They look happy enough.
Women wear scarves over their wigs.
The Phantom is told the women shave their heads, or maybe not, but their wigs are very fine looking, and uniform, brown hair with no grey or blonde streaks.
The women wear what look like flesh tone thick compression stockings. The men wear white socks with their shiny black shoes and black trousers. They wear snow white shirts and white vests and some accouterments which are harder to describe, but look like white cummerbunds.
Most are very fair skinned. Lots of freckles, light blue eyes, lots of red heads.
These Jews are every bit as fair skinned and blue eyed as the Poles down the street. It's easy to imagine there was some interbreeding, possibly by rape as the Cossack stormed through during pogroms back in the 19th century, although the Phantom was told the 23 and me genetic studies do not support the idea of a lot of interbreeding with non Jews. These Jews are simply inbred and show a lot of recessive traits.
Gorgeous children. And lots of them. He wanted to take photos but the Phantom was told this might frighten people, who would think he wanted to kidnap the children. Lots of ten or twelve year old children pushed infants in strollers, presumably siblings.
The women have four to eight kids.
These Jews are all on Medicaid, but they insist on going to Columbia University Children's Hospital, because they believe that's where the best care is.
The men, the Phantom was told, do not work, for the most part. Some own businesses, like 42nd St. Photo, but many, if not most, do not work. They spend their days reading, praying and arguing about the Torah. The Torah is the first five books of the Old Testament:Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Numbers, and Leviticus.
The men often do not speak English. They spend all day every day in the religious schools. They do not fool around with trivial things like learning English or getting a job.
The Phantom is not exactly sure what they do speak. Hebrew is the language of the Bible and too holy to use in every day speech. So maybe they speak Yiddish. It's not clear.
The wives and girl children usually speak English. Women are not eligible for the study of the holy books, so they can deal with the mundane, trivial things, like learning English and shopping and cooking.
Many, but by no means all, of the men are very gaunt. It is easy to imagine they do not eat all day, while they argue about the Torah.
The Phantom is not sure exactly what there is to argue about in the Torah, although if Genesis has the story about how God created earth in 6 days and rested on the seventh, then maybe they argue about creationism vs Darwinism. The Phantom did not have the nerve to ask any of them.
The finances of these families is not clear to the Phantom. Rumor has it, the community takes care of a lot of needs through the synagogue or congregation or whatever they call it. But, for the most part, these large families are commonplace, and are wards of the state.
It was a Friday and people knew precisely when the sun set and were collecting children and headed home because once Sabbath began, they could do no work, which includes things like shopping or turning on and off electric lights.
Some men in prayer shawls stood outside smoking.
Some men in black hats talked on their cell phones.
They look a little like Amish, but they use all sorts of modern stuff, like cell phones and they drive automobiles.
Professor Google notes that the Hasids objected to the bicycle lanes the City of New York cordoned off, which ran through Williamsburg. The Hasids painted over the lanes and disrupted them. Apparently, they objected to New Yorkers on bicycles, who often dress in ways the Hasids consider sexually provocative, or at least immodest. Hipsters, who live in Bushwick, painted the lanes back into existence. The Hipsters argued you can separate yourself from the rest of the world as you please, but you do not own the streets which run through Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
*** Past Williamsburg, the Phantom reached Brooklyn Heights, where he walked along the Promenade, a walkway above the East River. He looked out at lower Manhattan and Statue of Liberty.
Brooklyn is wondrous. It's America in all its diversity and tolerance. It's not Trumpland.
It would scare Trumpfolken silly.
They would not be worried by the Poles, who look like "real Americans" even though many do not speak English. They look very white.
It's likely it's the Jews who would freak out the lumpen Trump folken. The Hassids are white, too, but they don't dress like real Americans. The Poles in Greenpoint, are actually just as un-assimilated, when you consider that they don't speak English. The Hasids, at least the women, speak English. But there's the visual thing, the optics.
The fact is, the Make America Great Again crowd, would likely have little problem with the Poles in Greenpoint. They are white and Christian. Really, that's all you need to be for that 49.9% which elected Trump.
Walked from a Polish Catholic neighborhood through Williamsburg, which is cheek by jowl to this Polish community and on to Brooklyn Heights.
The women at the bakery speak Polish, and some speak a little English, enough so you can order your bread and rolls, if you point a lot.
These are 20 something women. Did they just move to the States?
Or do they simply not need to learn English in this part of Brooklyn?
They live in America, but separate and apart. In a way, they are a sect, if only by language segregation.
There are Polish churches, Polish newspapers, Polish convenience stores, where you hear only Polish, spoken by old people, young people, people who look just like any other New Yorker in Manhattan or Brooklyn, blue jeans, sweatshirts, but they speak Polish.
It is easy to imagine you are walking through 1930's Warsaw, with all the Poles and Polish signs on the stores and Polish newspapers.
And, then there's the Jewish ghetto. Time travel. Flash backs.
Williamsburg is home to another sort of sect, some very cult-ish Jews. These people do not look like other New Yorkers.
The men walk around in the same black outfits they must have worn in 1930 Warsaw, the outfits which made them look so strange and foreign and forbidding to the local Catholic Poles back then, Poles who were only too happy to hand their Jews over to the invading German SS troops.
These Jews, who the Phantom was told are called "Hasidim" or "Hassidic" or "Hasids" swarm all over these Williamsburg blocks.
They look happy enough.
Women wear scarves over their wigs.
The Phantom is told the women shave their heads, or maybe not, but their wigs are very fine looking, and uniform, brown hair with no grey or blonde streaks.
The women wear what look like flesh tone thick compression stockings. The men wear white socks with their shiny black shoes and black trousers. They wear snow white shirts and white vests and some accouterments which are harder to describe, but look like white cummerbunds.
Most are very fair skinned. Lots of freckles, light blue eyes, lots of red heads.
These Jews are every bit as fair skinned and blue eyed as the Poles down the street. It's easy to imagine there was some interbreeding, possibly by rape as the Cossack stormed through during pogroms back in the 19th century, although the Phantom was told the 23 and me genetic studies do not support the idea of a lot of interbreeding with non Jews. These Jews are simply inbred and show a lot of recessive traits.
Gorgeous children. And lots of them. He wanted to take photos but the Phantom was told this might frighten people, who would think he wanted to kidnap the children. Lots of ten or twelve year old children pushed infants in strollers, presumably siblings.
The women have four to eight kids.
These Jews are all on Medicaid, but they insist on going to Columbia University Children's Hospital, because they believe that's where the best care is.
The men, the Phantom was told, do not work, for the most part. Some own businesses, like 42nd St. Photo, but many, if not most, do not work. They spend their days reading, praying and arguing about the Torah. The Torah is the first five books of the Old Testament:Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Numbers, and Leviticus.
The men often do not speak English. They spend all day every day in the religious schools. They do not fool around with trivial things like learning English or getting a job.
The Phantom is not exactly sure what they do speak. Hebrew is the language of the Bible and too holy to use in every day speech. So maybe they speak Yiddish. It's not clear.
The wives and girl children usually speak English. Women are not eligible for the study of the holy books, so they can deal with the mundane, trivial things, like learning English and shopping and cooking.
Many, but by no means all, of the men are very gaunt. It is easy to imagine they do not eat all day, while they argue about the Torah.
The Phantom is not sure exactly what there is to argue about in the Torah, although if Genesis has the story about how God created earth in 6 days and rested on the seventh, then maybe they argue about creationism vs Darwinism. The Phantom did not have the nerve to ask any of them.
The finances of these families is not clear to the Phantom. Rumor has it, the community takes care of a lot of needs through the synagogue or congregation or whatever they call it. But, for the most part, these large families are commonplace, and are wards of the state.
It was a Friday and people knew precisely when the sun set and were collecting children and headed home because once Sabbath began, they could do no work, which includes things like shopping or turning on and off electric lights.
Some men in prayer shawls stood outside smoking.
Some men in black hats talked on their cell phones.
They look a little like Amish, but they use all sorts of modern stuff, like cell phones and they drive automobiles.
Professor Google notes that the Hasids objected to the bicycle lanes the City of New York cordoned off, which ran through Williamsburg. The Hasids painted over the lanes and disrupted them. Apparently, they objected to New Yorkers on bicycles, who often dress in ways the Hasids consider sexually provocative, or at least immodest. Hipsters, who live in Bushwick, painted the lanes back into existence. The Hipsters argued you can separate yourself from the rest of the world as you please, but you do not own the streets which run through Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
*** Past Williamsburg, the Phantom reached Brooklyn Heights, where he walked along the Promenade, a walkway above the East River. He looked out at lower Manhattan and Statue of Liberty.
Brooklyn is wondrous. It's America in all its diversity and tolerance. It's not Trumpland.
 |
| Greenpoint townhouse entry |
It would scare Trumpfolken silly.
They would not be worried by the Poles, who look like "real Americans" even though many do not speak English. They look very white.
It's likely it's the Jews who would freak out the lumpen Trump folken. The Hassids are white, too, but they don't dress like real Americans. The Poles in Greenpoint, are actually just as un-assimilated, when you consider that they don't speak English. The Hasids, at least the women, speak English. But there's the visual thing, the optics.
Phantom,
ReplyDeleteLove these photos. I've wanted to visit Brooklyn for a long time, but the few times I make it to NYC, I never seem to get out of Manhattan. Brooklyn seems so charmingly livable-and yet diverse and interesting. Different from Manhattan, which fascinating as it may be, has a lot of large cold swatches I'd never want to call home..
Interesting observations of the Hasidic Jews. It doesn't seem right, if indeed so many are indeed "wards of the state", that the men choose discussions of the Torah over work. By all means pursue religion all you want-but one would think that would be on your own dime.
Maud
Maud,
ReplyDeleteReading more about the Hasids on line, it becomes a much grimmer picture. I saw the sunny side of their sect and their life, but there are some pretty repulsive aspects of which I hadn't been aware, mostly having to do with members of this sect regarding non Hasids as not fully human.
It's a study in an extreme mindset--although I suppose you could argue no more bizarre than Catholic priests who abuse children.
Phantom
Phantom,
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Extreme religious views a grim development regardless of the particular sect or religion that holds them...
Maud