Sarah
07-16-2004, 09:48 AM
Brooklyn Jews raise alarm over 'hipster' invasion
By Marcus Warren in New York
(Filed: 16/07/2004)
Thousands of Hasidic Jews have attended rallies protesting against an invasion by "artists" with immodest lifestyles and its impact on their neighbourhood and its property prices.
Some of the language used by the Hasidim to express alarm at the intruders in Williamsburg, a slice of Brooklyn overlooking the East River, has been apocalyptic in tone.
"How long did it take the Twin Towers to fall? Eight seconds," said one Yiddish leaflet, showing the World Trade Centre. "How long will it take to save Williamsburg from the artists? God forbid."
A prayer in Hebrew circulated at one demonstration called on the "Master of the Universe" to "remove from upon us the plague of the artists, so that we shall not drown in evil waters".
It also appealed for help in banishing "these immoral antagonists" and sparing locals "the excruciating tests and the sight of the impurity".
The juxtaposition of devout Hasidim and "hipsters", some artists but most just young exiles from the more expensive fleshpots of Manhattan, has long amused New Yorkers.
Both belong to tribes out of sympathy with the modern world, favour the colour black and tend to wear strange headdress - Hasidim broad-brimmed hats, hipsters trucker caps, the joke goes.
All speak quaint languages, Yiddish or a dialect of English enriched by use of terms such as "dude" or "sweet".
The two groups co-existed in peace, largely by ignoring each other, until the trendy newcomers breached an informal boundary and established a beachhead close to the other's stronghold, nicknamed the "West Bank".
A former guitar factory, the Gretsch Building, now being converted into flats for people such as the rapper Busta Rhymes and the actress Annabella Sciorra is on the front line of a form of urban war.
Banners expressing neighbours' hostility to the development now surround the site and its enemies have filled the streets to make their voices heard more than once.
"We must stand up for the rights of those who struggled when nobody wanted to live here," said Rabbi David Niederman, head of the United Jewish Organisations of Williamsburg. He denied the conflict was one of "them and us", Jews versus non-Jews.
telegraph.co.uk (http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/16/wbrook16.xml)
By Marcus Warren in New York
(Filed: 16/07/2004)
Thousands of Hasidic Jews have attended rallies protesting against an invasion by "artists" with immodest lifestyles and its impact on their neighbourhood and its property prices.
Some of the language used by the Hasidim to express alarm at the intruders in Williamsburg, a slice of Brooklyn overlooking the East River, has been apocalyptic in tone.
"How long did it take the Twin Towers to fall? Eight seconds," said one Yiddish leaflet, showing the World Trade Centre. "How long will it take to save Williamsburg from the artists? God forbid."
A prayer in Hebrew circulated at one demonstration called on the "Master of the Universe" to "remove from upon us the plague of the artists, so that we shall not drown in evil waters".
It also appealed for help in banishing "these immoral antagonists" and sparing locals "the excruciating tests and the sight of the impurity".
The juxtaposition of devout Hasidim and "hipsters", some artists but most just young exiles from the more expensive fleshpots of Manhattan, has long amused New Yorkers.
Both belong to tribes out of sympathy with the modern world, favour the colour black and tend to wear strange headdress - Hasidim broad-brimmed hats, hipsters trucker caps, the joke goes.
All speak quaint languages, Yiddish or a dialect of English enriched by use of terms such as "dude" or "sweet".
The two groups co-existed in peace, largely by ignoring each other, until the trendy newcomers breached an informal boundary and established a beachhead close to the other's stronghold, nicknamed the "West Bank".
A former guitar factory, the Gretsch Building, now being converted into flats for people such as the rapper Busta Rhymes and the actress Annabella Sciorra is on the front line of a form of urban war.
Banners expressing neighbours' hostility to the development now surround the site and its enemies have filled the streets to make their voices heard more than once.
"We must stand up for the rights of those who struggled when nobody wanted to live here," said Rabbi David Niederman, head of the United Jewish Organisations of Williamsburg. He denied the conflict was one of "them and us", Jews versus non-Jews.
telegraph.co.uk (http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/16/wbrook16.xml)