One could live there trying his best, not being called a dirty Jew whenever he met a gentile. Well, it was not every time you met a gentile, but that was an exemption, a rare thing. In short, that was almost the shtetl of your dreams. Just replace the small apartment on a dirty street with a little house on a dirty street, but with somewhat more air and add a cow or two, and a goat with a few chickens, and you are there. That’s the shtetel of your dreams, and no Goyem (non-Jews), please. That’s as close to Paradise as you can get so far from home. Still, this was your home, even if it was the way away from your home. There, one could adapt and prosper; just try a little harder.
Many, most of the Hasidim from Eastern Europe met in America and settled down in Williamsburg, Brooklyn of New York. Well, they saw right away that Williamsburg was not exactly Eden or even close. It even was not in the same hemisphere as Eden. So, what? It was by the river, almost like back home. It was the Hasidic paradise with not too many Goyem (non-Jews) to call you a Zhid (Polish for a Jew used in Eastern Europe as an insult), or the Russian Tsar to order them around. You were free to live as you wanted, well, almost as you wanted, and the abuse and the pogroms were not in the cards or even possible. And, that was: a shtik naches (a great joy) already, just by itself. What else would you like, would you want, would you need, from your life? A little food (just enough) on the table. Some clothes (nothing fancy) on your back. A place (just a roof and the walls) to call home. A happy wife (one is more than enough), and the kids (as many as you can have). Was that too much to ask? When you prayed, you wished it to everyone so, why not a little bit for you. That would be just right. Now they, the Hasidic Jews, could live almost as they wanted (within the boundaries of one neighborhood in America), and that was not just the Mein Bubbe’s Tahm (my grandmother’s chopped herring). It was the Zol zion mit Mazel (a load of good luck)! That felt so good when early in the morning, you had a breakfast of a freshly baked bagel and a cup of strong tea and went to a job that could last for a while. It paid well, and you were so proud to have a job. You were a working man supporting the family. That meant so much. Or, when you opened the doors of the little shop on the corner where you could do your best serving the neighbors and providing for the family. Did it matter what you served in the shop: food, goods, tailoring, locks, or carpeting? It was small and did not make a lot of money, but it was yours and made almost enough. Yes, it could be more, but you survived, and your children did not go hungry. May your children bring you much naches (joy), and they often did. Oh, if only they knew what they wanted, but who complains. Wanting was great. Wishing was super great. Getting it was another story. Still, one should keep trying. After all, in America, one was as close to paradise as one could.
Selling the Girl Scout cookies was illegal in Williamsburg. So was to be a Girl or a Boy Scout. The sport was not really promoted in the religious schools, and the kids from the righteous families did not play basketball in a little park there. Did you know that? I did not. Cookies? Girl Scouts? Boy Scouts? Basketball? Baseball? What a shock for the system. That was a system by itself. What a shock for the Girl Scout cookies, and that’s the way the cookie crumbles. Good advice: keep your cookies well protected when you enter the Williamsburg area of New York. It could be important one day, I mean the cookies well intact. Yet, be gentle with the locals. They are not like you. They had been chosen within the chosen, and they may see the world in a somewhat different dimension from you. It is entirely possible.
Williamsburg is one of the most desirable areas to live in the present Brooklyn and New York City in general. What a location and so close to Manhattan. Manhattan is a short walk away, just over the bridge, on the other side of the river. But, you better be a Hasidic Jew. If you are, you will fit in better, and the surrounding may be suitable for your lifestyle, taste, customs, and the general constitution. It takes the right one to understand the rest. After all, the right blood leads the way of the religion, and that is why they and you were chosen. Most likely, you have related already in one way or many. Take the small number of people in the first place and multiply it by thousands of years and the closed society, and there you are. The paths of every bloodline in the nation probably had crossed here and there and for so many times. That’s where your genes may play a more important role than you think. That’s where your existence meets your genes. You are one of the same, only you are dressed differently. Neither you pray as much and keep kosher. How important is that in the twenty-first century in America? Does God really want us to spend so much time praying? Is not he busy already and maybe not listening? What are you going to tell him that he does not know?
Going back to Williamsburg, have you seen the streetlights there? These are the rarest and the most unusual lights in the city. These are the streetlights from the 20s, 30s, 50s, and even the 70s, and almost none from today. It should tell us something. Does it? What could be unusual about modern streetlights? That they work… Well, is not that what they supposed to do? Go and see for yourself. The rare streetlights are everywhere. You’ll be amazed and in a good way. Crime in Williamsburg was practically zero, less than a zero. Jews were powerful, rigid to changes, and unforgiving to misgivings. Well, everything was forbidden unless you really want it and do privately. That’s the ethnic trade. Is anything wrong with it? The cost of the rent and the real estate were much less than in the low and the upper East and West Manhattan. And, there was a reason for that again. Everyone, every Jew, should be able to pay for the place to live so, it should be reasonable, affordable, acceptable. Was it logical? It was definitely considerate.
The Italian, Irish, Chinese, and the other neighborhoods in Williamsburg (and there are a few) were full of the nicest and very tolerant people. What a compliment that is to New York City. Was it even possible there considering everything to consider? If these people could live together and in such proximity to the Hasidim, their strange looks, beliefs, and the customs, and not to express the disapproval and the hatred too loudly, they must be the most outstanding citizens of the United States of America. That is not mentioning the entire world or even New York City that was as strange as the strangest people living there. What an interesting group of persons. Strange, stranger, and even stranger than that, and all in the same place and that close to each other. They often lived next door to each other. Almost none of them behaved like that back home; back in the corners of the world where they or their ancestors came from. If that was not true, why do you think Jews ever left the Russias and the Ukraines, and the Polands with the Germanies in the first place? What do you think of the Spanish Inquisition? Was it because of the climate change, proximity to the sea, or the quality of the ice cream served in the local ice cream parlor? Why do you think Jews for more than a thousand years were blamed for anything and everything? And, every blame was successfully resolved with rich payments in the blood of whatever number of Jews the mighty hands of the locals could reach in the shortest possible time? And they were in a hurry. The officials could show up eventually and stop the disorder. You see, it did not look good, and the undesirable gossips could spread. There should be order. Yet, that was there and then, and this is here and now. People were smarter, better educated, and the location was full if not the immigrants, but the refugees that saw it all and left. They did not want to see again what they already saw before. What difference did it make how you looked or prayed or your customs for as long as you were a decent person? I’ll leave you be what you are, and let me be what I am. That works and quite well. What a difference in the approach to the same problem, and it’s been lasting for a few hundred years already. Yes, in America, only in America. Yes, in New York City and some other cities blessed with diversity. Jews, and the Gentiles… Living in the same neighborhood, on the same street. Being in the same place and at the same time. Have you seen the Gentiles stuffing their faces in the Jewish Deli? How about the Jews in a Chinese place or an Italian? Fascinating, is not it? What an unparalleled nation, this, the American one. This is the nation of the acceptance, tolerance, and, if not always love, but the respect and the values. Today, it is not better for one than for another. Well, maybe for some, but everyone has an equal chance, and anyone can make it. We have a chance, and we offer one as well. Just try and keep on trying. Who said it should happen on the first try. It may or may not, but you do have a chance. There it is. Take it. And, keep on working, and you’ll succeed. I promise.