An episode discussing Hasidic/Orthodox Anti-Zionism in depth, with historian David Biale. There has been quite a bit of public conversation about Hasidic Anti-zionism. In one well-circulated tweet, critics of Zionism touted a gathering of 40,000 Satmar Hasidim as an event that proved the Jewish solidarity with the secular anti-zionist movement. But Satmar was quick to tweet back that they were in no way expressing any kind of collaboration or sympathies with the secular anti-zionist...

For the YouTube version click here: https://youtu.be/_uxPKgA6hVU You might have heard a bit about the Hasidic Jewish music scene from my previous videos or from browsing YouTube. It’s a wonderful world, and Yossi Desser is a wonderful part of it. He’s a Satmar Kiryas Joel native (like me) who has a deep love for special kinds of Jewish songs like Rabbi Yomtov Ehrlich songs, old Yiddish theater songs, the stories around Hasidic niggun and the adaptations of Christmas carols to Yiddish...

Here's the link to the youtube video version: https://youtu.be/9GcRIbVEt8c?si=2TmJgN8QtvUvVa6y

This is a very, very special episode of a never before seen, very candid conversation about the marriage customs of the insular Jewish Hasidic Jews of the Satmar sect. Pearl is a Satmar Hasidic woman who has been married for fifty-six years. Her marriage, and the marriage of her children and grandchildren, were set up according to Hasidic customs. Pearl shared very candidly how her marriage was organized and graciously answered all of my questions about dating, attraction, sex education,...

You might have heard that Hasidic women shave their heads. You might also have heard that when someone leaves the faith, their family shuns them. I asked the lovely Pearl, a Satmar Hasidic woman, to speak about these topics. Pearl practices the custom of shaving the head - as is common in the Hasidic community. In this video, she talked about what it meant to her and what she thought of the portrayal of the custom in the show Unorthodox. Pearl also has a son who left the faith. I asked her...

For the video version of this conversation, see here. *UPDATE:* After we filmed this segment, as I was about to share it, Izzy's young mother passed away in a tragic car accident. I am so heartbroken for Izzy and his terrible loss. He has been writing on his Twitter and his website about his grief for his mother and he shared a few words about her in this updated version. She was such a loving and wonderful woman. If you'd like to read more of Izzy's writing on grief and his complicated...

What are the rules of expectation for Satmar Hasidic girls? In my most recent documentary on Hasidim and the internet, I showed a few pages of the Satmar Girl's school rulebook. This is the rulebook that contains a great many rules that the school has for its students. Among them are rules on modesty, vacationing, technology, college education, and more. Some people asked to see more of it, so I am here sharing the first half. I hope to share the second half whenever I can.

This is the story of the Hasidic Jews and the internet. In this documentary, I chart the dramatic saga of how different people in the Hasidic community first reacted to the internet, and how the community slowly coalesced on a solution for dealing with the web. Yes, many Hasidic Jews have now accepted the inevitability of the web, and many of them are online. But this is not without caveats and the community's own inventions. Join me for this long-form documentary to learn more. How are...

Leah Forster spent many years delighting Orthodox female audiences with her comedy. It is hard to overstate her success: she produced CDs, musicals, a ton of live acts, and was a household name among all Hasidic women. She was not only very funny and booked for major women's events, she was also an English teacher in Bais Yaakov for ears. In the last few years, Leah has been on a different path, as she was outed as gay and her place in the community fell apart. In this video, I ask her about...

Moshe Krakowski American Haredi education and culture, focusing on the relationship between communal worldview, identity, and education. He also works on curriculum, cognition, and inquiry learning in Jewish educational settings. He has written extensively about the Hasidic boys' education controversy, often representing the community from a more favorable perspective. He visited many Hasidic boys' schools for his research, so I invited him on to share with us what he saw. For Youtube video...

Most Hasidim don't have pets. Many of us who leave the Hasidic community, like myself and Naomi Seidman, adopt animals and come to love - deeply! - our furry friends. In this long-form conversation, I talk to Naomi about why we grew up without pets, our attitudes towards animals in the past, and how that has changed. Naomi draws from her recent research into Freud and Max Weinreich to look at the historical relationship between Jews and dogs, and how that might shed light on our own pet...

You might have wondered: do Hasidic Jews get shunned if they leave the faith? Does their family sit "shiva" for them -- meaning, does their Hasidic family consider them as if they are dead, and perform the rituals of mourning? In this long-form interview, I talk to Zalman Newfield. Zalman is a professor, researcher, and fellow exiter from Hasidism. For his research, he set out to answer the above questions and many others. Zalman interviewed 74 people who left the fold and his findings tell...

If you are new - welcome to my channel! ▶▶ Please subscribe and like! ➡Leave a comment with your thoughts! ❤ This conversation for my long-form series is with my video editor Steve Milligan. We had a good time chatting about the behind-the-scenes, the making of, and a bit of an introduction to Steve, who has done such wonderful work to make this project come to life. Steve's website is https://www.cliquemojo.com/ and you can follow his youtube work at @shootitsteve or on Instagram at...

In this long-form conversation, I talk to Sara about her life journey, from secular Holland to NYC, where she became deeply involved in religious life. She was drawn to the insular Hasidic sects like Satmar, became close friends with families in Kiryas Joel, and her wedding was attended by, among other dignitaries, the Satmar Grand Rabbi's wife Sosha Teitelbaum. Sara was extremely forthcoming in sharing what drew her to the community, the challenges and joys, and how her family reacted to her...

Eli Spitzer is a headmaster of a Hasidic boys' school and a columnist for Mosiac Magazine. In this long-form interview, we talk about the Hasidic boys' controversy, which was recently covered extensively in the New York Times. The issue relates to the very limited secular education Hasidic boys receive. I talked to Spitzer about these big questions and on some other topics in our lengthy Thursday night talk. I know that this topic ignites a lot of intense and animated debate, and I invite...

In this long-form (podcast-style) interview, I talk to Steve Nolt about Amish life. So many people compare Hasidim to the Amish, and I've known so little about the Amish. This conversation brought so many differences into sharp contrast and left me with a sense that these two insular societies are different in very profound ways. There are also some interesting similarities in regards to modifying how modern society is negotiated and more. It left me hungry to visit the Amish world and learn...

This is a long-form zoom conversation with Naomi Seidman, host of the wonderful "Heretic in the House" podcast. You can find the podcast here: https://www.hartman.org.il/program/heretic-in-the-house/

Gerry Albarelli wrote one of the most unique books on the contemporary Hasidic community. It's on the subject of his experience as a secular studies teacher in the Satmar Hasidic boys' school. His book tells the story of how Gerry, as an outsider, navigated the chaos and challenges of teaching Hasidic boys' a bit of math and spelling. Unlike most conversations on Hasidic boys' education, his book isn't a commentary on the moral question of the state of Hasidic boys' education (which is...