Der Juden (The Jews)

This blog's Confederate readership asked about Hasidic/Haredi Jews and said we compared them to the Muslim Brotherhood.

A better comparison would be to the Amish, an urban version of the Amish. Being from Delaware Mrs. Stroock had some dealings with them (it's not too far away from Pennsylvania Dutch country). Her parents were once in a car accident with an Amish buggy, the horse was fine.

Anyway, Hasidic Jews are the guys you see on TV with the white shirts, black coats, prayer curls, funny hats, etc, etc. Note, not all of those guys are Hasidic, some are just Orthodox. Hasidic Jews come from Poland, Hungary and the Baltic states (see the film Yentl). It's a movement that sprang up in the 16th century, we think. These are the hardcore Jews, roughly equivalent to Muslim fundamentalists. The difference is these people are very insular and want to be left alone, mostly. The Hasidic community in Rockland County New York has been steadily taking over local school boards. In our experience they're kind of jerks. Many of them are anti-vaxers and as previously noted, the cops keep having to break up Hasidic religious gatherings.

Former Senator and Vice Presidential candidate Joe Liberman was Modern Orthodox. The Stroocks were by tradition Reform Jews. These are the Yankee Protestants of the Jewish world. Mrs Stroock's mother (for whom our oldest is named) was Conservative leaning toward Modern Orthodox. She spent her summers in an Orthodox Synagogue on Tremont Avenue just off the Bronx's Grand Concourse (best way to get to Yankee Stadium from Westchester), now an AME Baptist church. Today the Stroock's are Conservative Jews. It's complicated. Maybe we'll do a few more posts this week on the subject.