August 2011
16 posts
An attempt to clear up this confusion, once and...
I recently referred you to a forum ostensibly hosted by an ex-satmar woman who claimed she had left the community at age sixteen and had since gone on to complete her Ph.D. and become a professor.
It is a very long thread, and although I had read many parts of it, somehow I missed the crucial point where the author claims that, in the satmar community, woman start to cover their hair and go to...
Anonymous asked: In the thread about growing up satmar, the ex-satmar said she covered her hair and went to the mikveh before marriage. Did you ever hear of anything of the sort?
In her radio show, Dr Laura Schlesinger said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22, and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The following response is an open letter to Dr. Laura, penned by a US resident, which was posted on the Internet. It’s funny, as well as informative (credit to Sharona Guggenheim.)
Dear Dr....
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Pretty funny Q & A about Satmar Hasids on this... →
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The anonymous author of "Hush" echoes my thoughts... →
“Everyone should carefully observe which way his heart draws him, and then choose...”
– Hasidic saying (via fireintheheart)
WatchVenturing Beyond the Ultra-Orthodox World: NPR interviews Sam Katz!
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A letter from my Hasidic Uncle in response to my...
I would like to thank my uncle for sending me this letter because it came as a very timely reminder as to how lucky I am to have escaped the dysfunctional abusiveness of my hasidic family and culture. Read on to see what he wrote (spelling mistakes are his, not mine) and my brief response:
“Hi and a very good morning , it’s nice to hear from you. after such a long time. Did not know your...
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Divorce, Hasidic Style
It took six months for Eli to ask me to come back, the first time. Then four months later he tried again. His argument was that, of all the couples in our community, we had been the least unhappy. We got along better than everyone else, he reminded me, adjusting his black velvet yarmulka on his newly shorn head. I wasn’t the only rebel in our...
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Fashion, the Old-Fashioned way: A rambling...
When I got married at the age of seventeen I knew very little about my prospective husband, but if there was anything I could be sure of, it was that he knew how to dress. At the wedding he wore a shtreimel as tall as two beer bottles stacked on top of each other. It was fashionable to wear a shtreimel that was high and made of very dark, stiff, and shiny fur. Also, I noticed that his...
