The Hasids and the Hipsters...

Sounds like the name of a movie.. The Hasids and the Hipsters...

The NY Magazine ran an article, entitled "Clash of the Bearded Ones", on the fight in Williamsurg about the bike lane, and more so about the change that is going through Williamsburg with young hip people moving in to the largely Satmar hassidic enclave and how it is throwing the hassidim for a loop... and perhaps even more so about a trend they pick up on, whether it is as rampant as they indicate it is or not I dont know, of the young generation of hassidim having had enough with the older generations ways and them finding alternative culture to enjoy in quasi-secret.

The article is very long, way too long for me to just quote a paragraph or two and do it justice, so I will just say you should go read it for yourself. Personally, I found page 3 the most interesting and shocking of the whole piece.

Total rejection might have worked for keeping out the bad (or at least allowing you to think it has been kept out) in some previous generations, but today total rejection is no longer working. If energy would be expended in finding new methods, instead of clinging to the old methods even more vigorously, and ways of embracing the younger generation and drawing them in, perhaps they would not be so rejecting in return. This touches on what I found to be an important message in the parsha we read yesterday...