Thread by @PosenIzzy

Here's the thing. For the first time in forever the chassidic culture has a solid presence online. Do you guys understand how huge this is? The western world is about to get an intimate glimpse into one of the most secretive and insular cultures to ever exist in its midth.

Here is what we're gonna do. I will use my intimate knowledge of this community (I grew up at the very centre and in the elite of this community and lived there for 20 years) to comment live on the things happening in the community that make it online.

We're gonna look at examples in real time and together we're going to learn and discuss this culture. I invite scholars, anthropologists, lovers of chassidic culture to join me in starting to study this society, its rich culture, its unique way of life.

Let me explain how significant this moment is. The chassidic community is literally one of the very last societies in the west to join the internet. They have until literally 2-3 years ago been virtually offline, their way of life completely out of view to anyone on the outside.

We are now in the midst of a really rapid acceleration of internetisation of that culture. And this is happening fast. Super fast. You can see the acceleration by the day.

COVID is obviously the prime suspect here, having interrupted this tightly controlled society's way of life for the first time since the holocaust. Not for nothing were its leaders so opposed to lockdowns. They knew its disruptive power. They said this on record.

For the 1st time in 3 generations did Jews not have to go to the synagogue 3 times a day, were men* "bored at home", stuck without the constant social-communal way of life which exerts so much control/cohesion: simches (celebrations), prayer, study, work.

* I say "men" i.e. males. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Don't expect to see me talk about chassidic culture in a gender-balanced way, giving both men and women equal air time. Chassidic public culture is exclusively male dominated. Literally.

Women's faces are not even seen in newspapers. If you like the word patriarchy, this is a paradigmatic example of one and not in the hyperbolic sense in which white middle class feminists use it.

The reality is that currently to study chassidic culture is to study mostly the behaviour of men. For 2 reasons. 1st: formal power lies exclusively in the hands of men. 2nd only male culture is currently permeating through to the internet. Expect it to be this way for some time

Btw, just so you know, in my commenting on this community, I will refrain from making moral judgements as much as possible. There is a big place for such discussion and there are others who do so capably, but I will focus on appreciation of the culture on its own terms.

For 2 reasons. 1st I think that something scholarly interesting is lost when you can't stop to appreciate a culture because you're hurrying to judgment. 2nd whether this is obvious or not, I hate confrontation.

I have my views on how to judge this community morally and they are still evolving. It is genuinely one of the most complex philosophical questions that I have ever thought about. This is a question that literally keeps me up at night.

But my current views are most closely aligned with cultural-relativism (although I'm not fully comfortable with that either). Experience has taught me that CR can be quite emotive to people - as discussions about morality and justice and activism usually are.

I don't like emotive arguments and confrontation, so I'm not fully comfortable yet articulating my views in public. Perhaps here and their my views will trickle through, but my focus will be on appreciation of the culture on its own terms, leaving others to judge and critique.

Anyway, I digressed. One of the West's most isolated societies is now in the very midst of joining the rest of us online. Increasingly by the day you can see snippets of daily chassidic life shared and displayed online by a community increasingly comfortable with the internet.

Outside admirers/scholars of chassidic culture can now for the 1st time get an intimate glimpse of this culture. I will help you with this, using my insider knowledge to share and comment on what is happening & discuss together! I'll be happy to take any questions and elaborate.

Just to be clear: I don't claim to know everything, always have it right, never make mistakes. I'm not going to reference every claim I make with statistics and hard evidence. I have 20 years worth of deep insider knowledge.

You know things even if you can't always back it up. Sometimes you make mistakes. Nor do I expect people to accept everything I say. I'm sharing my knowledge and my perspective, not writing an academic paper.

For now I'll be using the thread format. I'll pin to my feed a meta-thread collecting all other threads. I prefer twitter over a blog, as feels more informal, can do it on the go, tweet by tweet. The brilliant @threadreaderapp will help me make threads more presentable.

By the way, in terms of my style, I see myself more as an educator/sharer of knowledge, than a journalist. Maybe a bit of a commentator/scholar as well. I take great pleasure in sharing my knowledge and culture with others. Yes, MY CULTURE.

I may not look chassidic, observe all chassidic customs and laws etc. But chassidic culture is MY culture. My language with my most loved ones is chassidic Yiddish, my most natural mannerisms and comfortable social norms are chassidic (with lots of western influence).

You don't just leave the culture of your upbringing and become a born again middle class, liberal secular Jew. The intense experiences of your upbringing stay with you. You can lament it or celebrate it. I choose the latter.

I'm lucky to have lots of happy memories from my youth alongside some very traumatic memories. But I don't let the bad cancel out the good. Nor does the bad cancel the good. But I choose to put emphasis on the good because I want to amplify positivity in myself and in the world.

I know we live in a climate now of unease when it comes to talking about minority communities. This is very weird and, frankly, very white middle class. People who grew up in minority communities are very comfortable having cultural and ethnic discussions.

The misguided anti racism of the educated white middle class has made all discussions about or across minority cultures taboo, charged, politicised, moralised.

So I ask you to get comfortable talking and discussing chassidic culture especially with us chassidim.

Ask questions, be curious, don't be afraid to speak your mind. If you're uncomfortable saying/asking in public, message me privately. I won't always have time to answer, but I'll never be offended. Obviously don't be deliberately offensive. (Goes without saying)

A chassidic friend (male) messaged me in disagreement about this. I post his comments with his permission:
Here are his links: imamother.com

glamour.com/story/orthodox…

vogue.com/article/agunah…

instagram.com/p/CXB4o9fL7rA/…

I'm not sure Twitter is the best platform for my microblogging needs. I need a blog site that I can use on the go to blog short things and add to them later (I don't have time to sit down and right full blogs in one go). Twitter seems alright, but difficult to organise.

Let me know if you know of anything better.
One more thing. I'm gonna be using a lot of chassidishe terms in my writing. Get used to shabbes instead of shabbat. If you want to understand chassidish culture, you have to get comfortable with some Yiddish.

@threadreaderapp unroll

An article a wrote some months ago outlining a somewhat withheld version of my views on the matter:
blogs.timesofisrael.com/my-unorthodox-…

Apparently there is much more female chassidic culture online than I realised. Just goes to show that your perspective really is limited by your experiences. I hope women commentators - and commentators in general - will complement my knowledge-gaps:

Another fantastic example. Thanks for an anonymous friend for bringing to me attention.
instagram.com/reel/CVjB4yIAP…