A funeral in Brooklyn

[pieter]

In Brooklyn where Hasidic jews live, dress and behave like they are living in an 18th century Polish or Lithuanian Shtetl (a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe) tens of thousands of tzaddikim went out to the street to mourn the passing of rebbe (Grand Rabbi) Yisroel Avrohom Portugal (June 2, 1923 – April 1, 2019), an important rabbi who was born in Moldova. The Rabbi was the head of the Skulen (or rarely Skolen) Hasidic dynasty. Skulen was headed by Rav Yisroel Avrohom Portugal until his death on 1st April 2019. Name is originated from Sculeni (Yiddish: סקולען Skulen), a town in Bessarabia where Rabbi Eliezer Zusia was born and served as rabbi.

Yisroel Avrohom's father Rabbi Eliezer Zusia succeeded his father as rabbi of Skulen at the age of 17 upon his father's death in 1915. Thereupon he became a disciple of the rebbe of Bohush (Buhusi, Romania), a scion of the Ruzhiner dynasty. Before the outbreak of World War II, the rebbe moved to Chernowitz. He survived the war and moved to Bucharest, the capital of Romania, where he opened an orphanage for the orphans left after the Holocaust. When the Communists took over Romania, it became dangerous for him to continue to educate the children in the ways of Judaism, yet the Rebbe continued unabashed. In 1959, the Communists arrested the rebbe and his son, the present rebbe, for teaching religion and for supporting and educating orphans. The Rebbes of Sadigura, Kopishnietz and Boyan led an international effort to free the Skulener Rebbe and his son, and eventually, Rabbi Eliezer Silver at the request of the Lubavitcher Rebbe succeeded in securing the release through his connections in Washington and the Rebbe and his son were freed and immediately immigrated to the United States in 1960. Upon moving to America the rebbe continued his works helping the underprivileged and began an international charity organization known as Chesed L'Avraham. The Rebbe authored Noam Eliezer and Kedushas Eliezer, and composed many popular Hasidic tunes. He died in 1982 and was buried in the Viznitzer Cemetery in Monsey, New York. He was succeeded by his son, Rebbe Yisroel Avrohom Portugal who continued his father's work by by running the Chesed L'Avraham organization to help the needy in the Holy Land and around the world, and wrote many Hasidic tunes. The Rebbe died on the 1st April 2019 in Johns Hopkins Hospital surrounded by his family. He was Succeeded by his son Reb Shaya Yakov Portugal Skulener Rebbe. also the other sons of the rebbe lead the skulener khilas in Williamsburg Monsey and Lakewood. The Skulener synagogue is located on 54th street in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn, New York, near 13th avenue.

Sources: Wikipedia/youtube www.britannica.com/topic/Hasidism-modern-Jewish-religious-movement / www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/hasidism

[pieter]

The rebbe when he was still alive in februari

[pieter]

[pieter]

And the other side of Jewish New York. There was influx emigration in the 19th and early 20th centuries (from 1881–1945) from countries such as Lithuania, Poland, and Russia. Their congregations and businesses – namely shops selling Old World goods - firmly maintained their identity, language, and customs. Eastern Ashkenazi Jews and their culture flourished at this time. These immigrants tended to be young and relatively irreligious, and were generally skilled – especially in the clothing industry, which would soon dominate New York's economy. By the end of the nineteenth century, Jews "dominated related fields such as the fur trade." The German Jews, who were often wealthy by this time, did not much appreciate the eastern Ashkenazi arrivals, and moved to uptown Manhattan en masse, away from the Lower East Side where most of the immigrants settled. Still, many of these immigrants worked in factories owned by the first class of Jews.

"New immigration" was a term from the late 1880s that came from the influx of Catholic and Jewish immigrants from southern and eastern Europe (areas that previously sent few immigrants). Though the majority of immigrants came through Ellis Island in New York, thus making the Northeast a major target of settlement, there were various efforts, such as the Galveston Movement, to redirect immigrants to other ports and disperse some of the settlement to other areas of the country.

Source: Wikipedia

[karl]

Pieter

This was very interesting in both the historical manner and personal manner of the Jewish people and their history in making their way to New York. The Hasidic Jewish always was a confusion to my senses, for in the present, they seem to still live in a strict way of life amongst them selves, yet in the modern time.

the aerial view of such a funeral as depicted in the video is very impressive and large enough to take to task the imagination.

Karl

[Jaga]

Pieter, it was unusual to see the streets with this big black crowd and then men on the roofs almost running around, as like they were not afraid of falling off.
I did not see really women there. The women in these very traditional Jewish brands are treated not much better than in Muslim countries.

thanks for presenting the historical and cultural overview

[pieter]

Jaga,

I agree with you and think that Ultra-Orthodox Judaism and Sunni Islam are very close to each other. Strictly monotheist. They share one principle: "There is no god but God". God is one, and only that god Jahweh, Adonai, Hashem, Jehova and Allah (different names for the same 'One God' of Abrahamic monotheist religions) is to be obeyed and followed in an absolutist manner. No doubt is allowed. And that faith comes with a strict social order, way of living, family stucture and patriarchal life style. The father/husband is the boss, the leader, the authority and the wife and children have to follow the house patriarch, the father. In that culture you get Rabbinical dynasties of Great Great Grandfather, Great grandfather, grandfather, father, son and grandson. All being rebbe and thus the leaders of the communities, and cherished for their wisdom of biblical laws or "commandments" (mitzvot) (traditionally numbered as 613), their knowledge of the Torah, Talmud, Gemara, Midrash, Kabbalah, jewish philosophy and the Halakha, the collective body of Jewish religious laws derived from the written and Oral Torah.

Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant to the south; Bushwick and East Williamsburg to the east; and the East River to the west. Williamsburg is inhabited by tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews of various groups, and contains the headquarters of one faction of the Satmar Hasidic group. Williamsburg's Satmar population numbers about 73,000.

Notable Hassidic rabbies were Reb Zecharia Dershowitz (1859 - 1921), founder of one of the first Yiddish communities in America and the first Chassidus synagogue in Williamsburg, Rabbi Chaim Avraham Dov Ber Levine HaCohen (1859/1860 – 1938), known as "the Malach" (lit. "the angel") was the founder of the Malachim (Hasidic group), Rabbi Yonasan Steif (1877–1958), rabbi of Kehal Adas Yereim in Williamsburg, which had been founded by Orthodox Jews who came from Vienna living in New York, and he was known as the Wiener Rov, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, (1887-1979), founder and first Grand Rebbe of the Satmar Hasidic dynasty, and Rabbi Mordechai Hager (1922-2018), founder and Admor of the Vizhnitz Hasidic sect of Monsey for 46 years.

The funeral of another Ultra-Orthodox Hassidic rabbi in 2018




Cheers,
Pieter

[pieter]