Shtetl

Jul 30, 2024 | shtetl.org | Shalom Auslander

In his new memoir, Feh, which was published last Tuesday from Penguin Random House, Haredi misfit author Shalom Auslander looks back at his time as a child at Yeshiva of Spring Valley in the 1970s. Auslander, whose previous memoir Foreskin’s Lament also explored his Orthodox background, centers his new book around the idea of “feh.” This Yiddish interpolation stands for Auslander as the story, which he says he first heard as a child, that says everyone sucks, especially himself.

Apr 3, 2024 | shtetl.org | Lauren Hakimi

A Hasidic boy in Williamsburg died by suicide after his father was prevented from attending the boy’s bar mitzvah, the Israeli Haredi news site Kikar Ha-Shabbat reported. The New York Police Department confirmed the boy’s death in an email to Shtetl, saying officers responded to a 911 call and found the 13-year-old boy unconscious and unresponsive on March 20. The New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner determined the cause of the death to be suicide, according to an email to Shtetl.

Mar 28, 2024 | shtetl.org | Lauren Hakimi

Judges from the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division heard oral arguments in Albany on Thursday on a case being closely watched across the Haredi world, and which may determine what Haredi schools must teach for years to come. Prior to the session, leaders across a wide spectrum of the Haredi world issued dramatic calls for communities to mark the day with special prayers, seeing in this case an unprecedented threat to the Haredi way of life.

Mar 21, 2024 | shtetl.org | Lauren Hakimi

A Haredi rabbi from Monsey has sued the Town of Ramapo and its supervisor Michael Specht for displaying an Israeli flag outside the town hall. Leibish Iliovits, described in the lawsuit as a Satmar Hasidic rabbi, said that the town’s display of the flag violates state laws about displaying flags of foreign countries at public buildings. He also said the display violates his first-amendment rights to expression and religion.

Mar 5, 2024 | shtetl.org | Lauren Hakimi

Women filming a movie on the streets of Borough Park. Williamsburg moms learning dance moves inspired by modern jazz, Zumba, and mambo. A Hasidic woman from Flatbush singing songs by Barbra Streisand and Whitney Houston on Instagram. Just a decade ago, these scenes would have been hard to come by, according to scholar Jessica Roda.