Brooklyn, NY – The city’s ultra-Orthodox Jews took the Pennsylvania Amish on a walking tour of their world today, saying their communities are naturally drawn to each other with a commitment to simpler lifestyles.
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“It’s reinforcing to the Amish community to see us Jews living the way the Bible says Jews are supposed to live, and have lived since the time of Moses and Abraham,” says Israel Ber Kaplan, program director for the Chassidic Discovery Center in Brooklyn. “The Amish are also living their lives as the Bible speaks to them.”
Dozens of Amish residents from Lancaster County, Pa., toured a Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights – the second year in a row the community invited the Amish to learn more about their culture.
Rabbi Beryl Epstein called the tour “living Judaism.”
The neighborhood is home to an ultra-Orthodox Lubavitcher sect born about 200 years ago in Poland.
Today’s Lubavitchers wear black hats and beards of their 18th-century Russian and Polish forebears, speak Yiddish and shun amenities like electricity on the Sabbath.
The Amish also traditionally live off the land and without electricity and other modern amenities.
Residents did double-takes on the Brooklyn streets as the two groups walked side by side, touring a Jewish library and a “matzo factory,” where round, unleavened bread was being made for the Passover holiday.
Hasidic children in Crown Heights begin their formal schooling at age 3, and by age 5 are studying many hours a day. At the headquarters on Brooklyn’s Eastern Boulevard each day, dozens of men gather to pore over religious books, with little boys dashing around as their fathers fervently debate fine points of the texts – sometimes sounding more like spirited poker players than religious faithful.
John Lapp and his wife, Priscilla, brought their three children on the tour. He said the ties to the communities might be more surface than substance.
Watch some guy run over for a Brochoh! the Amisher Rebbe…..
such ahavas achim – beautiful…we are now ready 4 mashiach!
how did they reach ch – via horse & buggy?
is the pic of the Hasidic people or the Amish.
Interesting.. there are some parallels. However, some amish are heavily into working with their hands. I read a really interesting story about hirign them for construction. Pretty cool considering they don’t use nails. On the other hand, the Lubatvichers use cars, cell phones, computers, etc.
If you want to know how to tell them apart in pictures, look at the mustache. Amish shave theirs, chassidim don’t.
whoever thought of doing this should receive a Nobel peace prize.
I wonder if they spoke Yiddish to each other? Their Hoch Deutsch is very similar to our Yiddish. They respect religious people and do not attempt to prosleytize us. We should do more with them politically and commercially.
I’d love to take a tour of crown Heights seeing how Chasidim give the Amish a tour.
“He says both communities are drawn to each other because they are known for old-fashioned dress and resistance to modern amenities. “
If a Litvak would say that he’d be called anti-Chassidish.
Am I supposed to believe this???
The Amish are so not interested in other cultures.
The Amish were prosecuted by the Prussians. The Prussians had large handle-bar mustaches. The Amish in defiance did exactly the opposite; namely, grow the beard and shave the mustache.
is the picture chassidesh or amish?
i just saw them on my block! Pretty cool you have the info.
The Lubavitchers are probably the chassidic group least similar to the Amish, ironically. They should have toured Williamsburg….
This is good. In Ohio there are many Amish. Sometimes observant Jews are mistaken for Amish! A lot of them have modernized a lot, including driving cars.
The heimish meet the Amish
wHY corrupt the Amish with a visit to BP. sometimes I wonder if in 2009 we shouldnt be doing like them and going back to 100 yrs ago lifestyle…
The amish are Protestant. Their way of thinking and laws are all mixed up. They have no source or reasoning for their way of life, it was made up by people a long time ago. We have a source and reason for who we are and what we do. They are a bunch of goyim who are not similar to the jews at all, except for trying to separate themselves from the rest of the world. That is no reason to compare them to Jews. They can come into our communities and see how we live but we shouldnt do anything more with them “politically and commercially”!
very weird- I don’t see the parallel at all- assuming you can see past the beard- interesting to note, chabad doesn’t even trim mostache (even though most chassidim do) and the amish shave their mostache.
I can just see some new products springing up in Crown Heights. “Eimishe” Gefilte Fish. Does anyone know if they have their own “Lancastery Lukshen Kugel” recipe? Do the eat gebrokts? Do the Amish, mish on Pesach? I love this “Mish”ugaas – It’s so CH. What a-Mish-mash.
I have seen Amish in Crown Heights, they definitely stand out because of the goyishe zurah and the ladies’ little caps. The question is why would they want to visit Brooklyn? Rural Pennsylvania is beautiful, but Brooklyn?? Maybe the country folk just want to see the big city.
Vus tit men nisht for a little PR, OMG
Amish are Protestant Christians who have nothing in common with Jews other than the black coats and hats and the reverie for the Old German language. When I was growing up we took a yearly trip to Lancaster PA to buy everyone shoes. We saved a fortune that way. The shoes lasted forever.
How did they get here? DId they drive their Horse, or are they from the sect ( modern) that allows one to go into a car?
Amish or Hamish that is the question!
I once got into a religious debate with an Amish man in a bus terminal. They want to convert Jews to Christianity if they are given the opportunity. About 20% of their kids go off the derech and they rarely get more than an 8th grade education. They will in cars but do not drive themselves. They love junk food and many have weight problems. They are into home birth unless they are having c-sections. Just try to turn on the bathroom light in their houses and guess what- no electricity. They have propane and you have to light it. They sew and garden and raise animals. Their kids date for a few years before marriage because divorce in not allowed. They are not into shidduchim. Their kids meet at singles events while still teenagers. They let the teenagers be wild for awhile before committing themselves to Amishism and getting baptized as adults. If the girls get pregnant they have to marry the boy; otherwise they are shomer negiah. Their weddings are big, self cooked, without photographers, music , or white gowns. They don’t wear jewelry but I think they do use a wedding ring. Mennonites are an offshoot and do use cars and electricity and I went to college with a couple of them. The girls grow their hair forever. Other than the fact that they have lots of kids and have communities away from the rest of the world, and speak a language similar to yiddish, they have nothing in common with frum Jews. Years ago I showed some of them some Torah cards and they were absolutely enthralled. Getting to know them is useful if you want to hire their girls as live-ins.
Pardon me but doth thou speak English??
OY GEVALT!
Milhouse said
one more thing NOT in common with lubavitch. Sounds more like Willytown to me.
They don’t speak hoch deutsch. Germans speak Hoch Deutsch. Amish speak Pensylvania Dutch (unless I’m confusing the name of the language w the name of the religion)
Why did the AP write that Lubavitch don’t use electricity on Shobbos? Who told them that? Lubavitch love electricity on Shobbos as much as the Litvaks !!!
(repy to #15 ) just a little correction, when the rebbe was approched with the question “if we trim or don’t trip our mustache’s” the rebbe responded to ask alterer chassidim and did not define our minhag.
i watched the whole thing it was so funny!
The place of birth of the Lubavitch movement is the former Russian Empire – not Poland (not even that part which was part of the Russian Empire). Moreover, Lubavitch currently is located outside of Belarus within the Russian Federation, but this is a side point. The ignorance of some reports is just mind-boggling.
In the photo, check out their hats: the one on the left is a Lubavitcher, on the right is the young Amish guy.
I actually saw them in BP and they looked fascinated! They were looking and pointing at the little chasidishe kids riding on there bikes and playing, they looked like they were hit over the heads! They looked astonished!
i wunder do they also pay $150 foe their stylish hat?!
A big different between the tow religions, they give an option do the kids by the 16 if they wanted to stay in the religion, it’s not that you must accept it.
“Hey, reb yid, how about joining us for mincha?
“Mincha? What’s a mincha?”
everybody should go visit amoshtown you can see exactly what you shouldnt do on shabbos