NYT does it again. Another article about Orthodox Jews.

amother

OP ↓

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 12:50 pm

Because there is nothing else going on in America except for what Orthodox Jews do or dont do with their lives.

Quote:

For Strictly Observant Jews in Brooklyn, the Sabbath Expands
For the first time, an exception to the prohibition against “carrying” on the day of rest includes most of the borough, allowing, among other things, children to be pushed in strollers.

By Joseph Berger
Feb. 16, 2023
Updated 10:19 a.m. ET
When he moved in 2014 from an apartment in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights to a house he could afford in nearby Crown Heights, Naftali Hanau, a 37-year-old Orthodox Jewish businessman, suddenly found that, even in a secular and tolerant place like Brooklyn, the rigorous tenets of his faith now made it impossible for him to take his toddler son along to synagogue on the Sabbath.

Talmudic law derived from biblical commandments forbids doing 39 kinds of work on the Sabbath. In addition to plowing and harvesting, buying and selling, cooking by kindling a fire, writing and other obvious kinds of employment, carrying any object outside the home — keys, books, prayer shawls, canes or even babies — is forbidden. Pushing a stroller or wheelchair in public on the day of rest is also prohibited.

There is a significant loophole, however, that was developed millenniums ago by the Talmudic sages in Babylon as a way of making the biblical law compatible with the practical necessities of living and honoring the Sabbath as a day to delight in. It is known as an eruv — the Hebrew term for an artificial boundary enclosing an area and demarcated by existing walls, buildings and fencing with gaps filled in by wire, or, in modern times, translucent fishing line strung between lampposts and utility poles. According to the sages, an eruv extends the private domain of a home into the streets.

There were 10 distinct eruvim in Brooklyn at the time that Mr. Hanau moved to Crown Heights, but none of them embraced the block of his new home. He remembered that, as he left for synagogue, his son, who was not yet 2, would cry: “I want to go shul, I want to go to shul.”

“It was heartbreaking,” he said.

Mr. Hanau came up with a slightly awkward arrangement: He paid a gentile neighbor to push the stroller to synagogue and to wheel his toddler back home when prayer services had concluded. Over the years, two new eruvim were established, allowing him to push the stroller himself to synagogue, though he was always aware of its idiosyncratic boundaries.

But now, nearly all of Brooklyn is available to him and other strictly observant Jews on the Sabbath. Mr. Hanau can take his small children or visit friends in almost any neighborhood in the borough on the Sabbath.

The new eruv, established in October, makes it easier for Orthodox families like Mr. Hanau’s to move into neighborhoods like Bedford-Stuyvesant, which had never been included in the smaller patchwork eruvim. Of the 600,000 Jews living in Brooklyn, more than 300,000 are Orthodox, meaning large observant families will feel free to move beyond traditional Jewish neighborhoods like Borough Park.

The boroughwide eruv also allows Hasidim who live in Borough Park to make the trek to Williamsburg to sit, for instance, at a revered rabbi’s tische (literally table) and partake of his wisdom, singing and the symbolic “leftovers” from his meal. Younger families can now have their children spend time with grandparents in distant neighborhoods or even carry a container of, say, gefilte fish or stuffed cabbage for the grandparents to savor.

So significant was the opening of the eruv in the Orthodox community that a delegation of rabbis traveled to City Hall in November to pick up a proclamation personally signed by Mayor Eric Adams granting the Brooklyn Eruv Association “the rights to the domains” within the eruv boundaries “for the specific purpose of carrying on the Sabbath and other Jewish holidays.” For a symbolic fee of $1, the grant will last for 99 years. Officials of the city’s Department of Transportation allowed workers in a cherry-picker truck to string fishing line between poles high above the sidewalks.

There was, however, a significant exclusion to the boroughwide eruv: Williamsburg, the seat of Brooklyn’s Satmar Hasidim, the world’s largest Hasidic sect, as well as several smaller sects. Though Williamsburg has its own eruv, the chief rabbis of some sects based there, including Grand Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum, the head of a large Satmar faction, have suggested that their followers ignore the eruv and to not carry anything outside the home on the Sabbath at all.

The concept of an eruv has ancient roots and demonstrates both the rigor and the pragmatic flexibility of Orthodox Judaism. It was developed as an adaptation to the verse in Exodus 16:29, in which the Lord offered the Israelites manna but forbade them to gather and to carry any on the Sabbath. “Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day,” the verse commands.

The Talmudic sages dedicated an entire volume to the complicated subject. The impulse for constructing eruvim was to ease restrictions so Jews could honor another biblical mitzvah — delighting in the Sabbath.

But the ancient sages also had very particular restrictions; a busy roadway would be suitable for an eruv, but only one where no more than 600,000 people would pass in a day. (The number 600,000 was derived from the census of Israelite men after the Exodus from Egypt.)

Some rabbis also worried that, once an eruv had been established, people would become lax in heeding the prohibition against carrying on the Sabbath and wander into places that were not encircled by an eruv, inadvertently violating the Jewish law.

One Satmar rabbi suggested that allowing an eruv in some parts of the area would inevitably lead to transgressions. “So,” he added, “better not to carry at all.”

But Moishe Indig, the executive director of the Williamsburg Jewish Community Council and a spokesman for an opposing Satmar faction, relied on an 18-year-old ruling from an esteemed Williamsburg arbiter of Jewish law that allowed an eruv so as not to render the Sabbath a hardship for families with young children.

It took two years to assemble Brooklyn’s boroughwide eruv. Buildings had to be designated as symbolic walls, and fishing line had to be strung.

The project cost an estimated $250,000, funds that were raised from private donations, said Eli Uminer, a Hasid of the Lubavitch sect who is a member of the eruv association board. He said the association was raising money to expand into the uncovered areas of Brooklyn, including Williamsburg, and to allow weekly inspections that would assure the eruv boundary remained unbroken.

None of the features of the eruv seemed to make much of an impression on a desolate and diversely populated stretch of Coney Island last week, as Mr. Uminer pointed out a small section of his group’s creation. No one seemed to notice the fishing line strung roughly 20 feet above their heads, the barely perceptible boundary that will allow Orthodox Jews to push a stroller on the day of rest.

“Before, on a hot day, they couldn’t take a bottle of water with them on a long walk or take a jacket off,” Mr. Uminer said. “They can now.”

More important, he said, mothers of young children who were formerly trapped at home on the Sabbath can take their toddlers for a walk, or to the park. Or even to synagogue.

Joseph Berger was a reporter and editor at The New York Times for 30 years. He is the author of a forthcoming biography of Elie Wiesel. @joeberg

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/0......html

amother

Coral

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 12:52 pm

This obsession puts Jews in danger and it’s not ok. It just riles up haters. Why do they need to put us in the spotlight all the time?

scruffy ↓

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 12:53 pm

It just seems to be a human interest piece to me.

A piece that doesn't do a very good job explaining the sides of the eiruv debate.

NotInNJMommy

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 12:54 pm

Seems like a decent and appropriately thorough and relevant article.

I’d rather this take up print in the NYT than shtuss about celebrities tbh.

amother

cornflower

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 12:54 pm

What's saddest is that these articles are all written by jews!!

amother

Mimosa ↓

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 12:58 pm

I also don't see the harm in this article.

amother

↑ OP

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 1:03 pm

amother Mimosa wrote:

I also don't see the harm in this article.

If you think this article is innocent and harmless then go read the comments on the article and then come back and tell us if you still think its harmless and innocent.

Here are some examples on the comments in case you cant access it:

Quote:

"This is the First Amendment gone wild. The government and the Supreme Court have gone bonkers over accommodating the wishes of minority groups in the name of "Free Exercise". We don't need a government Establishment of Religion, but at the same time we don't need 100 different ways of a clerical state enabled by public agencies and public funds through gaming the system."

Quote:

"Any updates about the Hasidic schools and associated businesses defrauding the government to the tune of many 100’s million of dollars?

Interesting that fingers were wagged and some fines levied, but no one yet has been sent to prison.

The eruv boundary is also symbolic of the sphere of influence the Hasidic community have on politics and the criminal Justice system. Just like most non Jews barely notice the thin wire strung above their heads, they also barely notice how their tax dollars are being used to support a large religious sect and enrich some.

This fraud and special accommodations has to stop."

Quote:

"Rules made by men to control. Hiding behind religion, like most fanatics."

Quote:

"Religion is the opiate of the masses!"

Those are examples of some of the comments on the article. Now put in black or Asian or illegal aliens instead of Orthodox Jew and let us know if this article would still be acceptable, let alone written by the NYT.

↑ scruffy

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 1:05 pm

amother OP wrote:

I could have predicted that those would be the comments... that is the NYT readership after all. However the article doesn't seem to have a negative slant and I do believe they would have written a similar article about any other religious/ cultural community.

sequoia

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 1:08 pm

amother cornflower wrote:

What's saddest is that these articles are all written by jews!!

What should they have written?

amother

Oxfordblue

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 1:12 pm

amother OP wrote:

If you have are a subscriber you can flag comments that are inflammatory or hateful and they'll get removed. I've flagged antisemitic comments which were then removed.
I also agree there was nothing hateful about the article itself. BTW Joseph Berger has written there for decades probably; he's written some very positive articles on various Jewish/frum stories. He's not a hater.

justforfun87

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 1:13 pm

I will admit I skimmed the article. Is this new eruv accepted by mainstream folks?

amother

↑ Mimosa

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 2:04 pm

amother OP wrote:

TBH, where I'm from they write this about Muslims and fundamentalist Xtians as well under newspaper articles. I don't see antisemitism in it. It would be antisemitism IMHO with comments like:

Hitler didn't do his job

Jews are toxic

Jews have a monopoly on the world economy and any other conspiracy theory.

Rubber Ducky

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 2:20 pm

It's a neutral article and not anti-Semitic. The only surprise here is that the NYT is capable of printing a neutral article about Jews.

amother

Winterberry

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 2:22 pm

NYT should just leave Orthodox Jews alone please. Thank you.

vintagebknyc

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 2:23 pm

Stop it with the comments about the comments.

I have been a journalist since forever. Did you know that WE journalists do not read the comments because they come from crazy people? It’s like a mantra: “DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS” because you never know which psycho with free time is going to write them.

No good journalist I know reads the comments because they are BS. True story. You save yourself a lot of agita that way.

amother

Cobalt

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 2:24 pm

amother Coral wrote:

This obsession puts Jews in danger and it’s not ok. It just riles up haters. Why do they need to put us in the spotlight all the time?

Anti semitism and self haters behind it

Cheiny ↓

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 2:27 pm

amother OP wrote:

You’re totally right. Even if this piece isn’t anti semitic totally, it has to be taken in the context of the NYT’s history, particularly of late, to paint Jews, especially chasidim, in a horrible light.

And their goal was accomplished in even this seemingly “mild” article, when you read the anti semitic comments, as any article about Jews causes the riffraff to come out and spew their vile hatred.

↑ Cheiny ↓

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 2:28 pm

amother Oxfordblue wrote:

I don’t think any Jew should be reading their trash, much less paying them for the “privilege.”

↑ Cheiny ↓

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 2:29 pm

Rubber Ducky wrote:

It's a neutral article and not anti-Semitic. The only surprise here is that the NYT is capable of printing a neutral article about Jews.

And how about printing the anti semitic comments resulting from the so called neutral article? They accomplished their same anti semitic goal without outwardly doing so, THIS TIME.

Last edited by Cheiny on Thu, Feb 16 2023, 2:32 pm; edited 1 time in total

↑ Cheiny

Thu, Feb 16 2023, 2:32 pm

vintagebknyc wrote:

Are you kidding? Who cares if the “journalist” reads the comments? The point is the NYT higher ups sure do before they print them!!! Are you saying they just automatically print every comment without reviewing them first, and therefore are blameless, because they don’t know in advance what will be printed???