Three students put their reaction to print of their first visit to Crown Heights.On a late Friday afternoon, we began our walk in hopes of learning about the vast and diverse culture of Jewish consumers. The day happened to be an important one because it was on the eve of the Sabbath and the last two days of Passover. On the Downtown 3 train towards Brooklyn, we had already noticed some Jewish men and women. As the train got closer to Brooklyn, there was a mix of blacks and whites, obviously religious Jews. Some wore black hats, white collar shirts and black pants. Others were more casually dressed with yarmulkas and striped polo shirts. However, regardless of their casual clothing or black pants/white shirt, all the men had beards and tzitzit. (White fringes hanging out of their pants) Nehama was able to identify the religious women more easily as she’s accustomed to recognizing shaitels. (A type of wig they were wearing) Regardless that their clothes were modest, they were still stylish and blended in pretty well with what we’re accustomed to seeing.
Getting off the subway at the Kingston Avenue stop, we walked up the steps to the street level and were surrounded with a display of flowers sold by a man sitting on a park bench. Because of the upcoming sabbath, and the holiday, many of the corners of the main street, Kingston Avenue, had vendors selling flowers.
We exited the subway to the left which brought us in front of the Jewish Children’s museum. While we couldn’t enter the museum, we instead spent our time observing a large mosaic on the outside of the building. The mosaic was a huge mural of children’s faces. The sign next to it dictated that upon closer observation of the mural, one could see 1,408 different faces. All of the different faces combined make up the face of one child. The interesting thing about this mural is that not all the faces were of Jewish children. Also, outside of the Jewish Children’s museum was a sculpture of a large metal dreidel. The dreidel was artistically sculptured while retaining cultural accuracy. Far across Eastern parkway, (which compiles of 4 main lanes, two service roads, and two islands with walking area and bike lane) Nehama pointed out a Hebrew sign for a massive book publisher and store called Kehot.
Crown Heights is the base of one of the largest Chassidic groups who follow spiritual leader Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Schneerson is the 7th in a dynastic line of Rebbe’s leading a Chassidic group that call themselves Lubavitch. Upon Schneerson’s death in 1994, Lubavitchers split into two competing groups which will be pointed out later.
Our next stop, the small brick building of 770, was located on Eastern Parkway. 770 is a significant place because it’s what is considered, “The Rebbe’s shul.” It is the site where the Lubavitcher Rebbe used to daven/pray. Chabad, (Which can be interchangeably used with the word Lubavitch) bought the adjacent building to 770 which is on the corner of Eastern Parkway and Kingston Avenue. The synagogue itself is in the basement, and after seeing the outside of the building, we decided to go inside the synagogue portion.
In the Orthodox Jewish world, men aren’t supposed to pray where they can see women. In this regard, synagogues contain structures called “michitzas” which are dividers used to separate the men and women whilst praying. In 770, however, instead of a divider, the women’s section was on the second floor shielded by a black one-way Plexiglas with a view of the men’s section. It extends along the perimeter of three of the sides of the men’s section. Because our group was mixed, Nehama took us into the women’s section upstairs where it is not a problem for boys to enter.
The entrance to the upstairs women’s section provided both stairs and marble ramps with rubber horizontal strips for stroller friendly access to the synagogue. With the community being made up of families on the larger side in the range of 7-8 children, a stroller friendly entrance serves as great convenience. Once inside the building, we looked at an area where literature and flyers were displayed. Some of it was in English, some a mix of Hebrew and English, others in Yiddish, and one item was in Russian. Next to this was a book case full of siddurim. (Prayer books) The books were well worn-out with black duct tape reinforcing the bindings on most of them. The painted wood benches leading up to the Plexiglas partition were well worn-out from constant use. The floor tile was so worn in spots that you could see the wood underneath.
Looking down on the men’s section, it appeared fairly empty. Nehama pointed out a red arm chair in the corner of the room on a raised platform. This chair was where the Rebbe would sit when he came to pray. There were three pairs of men intently learning some kind of sefer. (Holy book) Nehama also explained about the split in Lubavitch. Overall, they believe they are currently in exile and that Moshiach, (the messiah) is coming to redeem them. The problem arises from the fact that the Rebbe died in 1994 with no succession. While they still follow his teachings, one group claims that he is not really dead. They believe that he only went up to heaven and will come back down. They have sources to back up their belief. But as with any group of people, there are radicals in this group that take the belief to an extreme. In effect, the other group who believes that the Rebbe could’ve been the messiah and still believe that Moshiach is coming, remain wary of the first group. Today, much controversy is sparked from debating over the things that the Rebbe actually said. Nehama pointed out a huge sign hanging up in the men’s section that read in Hebrew: “Yechi Adonanu Moreinu Virabeinu Melech HaMoshiach L’olam Va’ed.” Translated this saying means, “long live our lord master, Rebbe, king of the Moshiach, forever and ever.” The group that believes the Rebbe is still Moshiach regardless that he’s dead often say this phrase, antagonizing the second group. In 770, the sign was hung while the Rebbe was still living. There has been much fighting since his death on whether to keep the sign hanging or to remove it.
Continuing our observations from above, we saw a man in his early 20’s (it’s hard to tell with the beards) distributing pink pamphlets on all the benches that read “Yechi Hamelech” on the cover. We assumed that it was a controversial pamphlet because the title translates to mean “Long live the king.” We also saw a bima, which is a kind of extra wide podium where the Torah is placed on and unrolled to be read and the ark where they’re actually kept. In the women’s section, prayer books were left haphazardly on the benches. One of the books was a Chitas. The Chitas combines five books and is made of very thin pages to make it extremely compact and portable. The five books are, the Chumash, (Torah in a book) Tehillim, (Psalms of David) Tanya, (A guide to Jewish spirituality and psychology as based on Chassidic teachings and the Kabbalah) Hayom Yom, (a daily saying written by the Rebbe) and the siddur. (Jewish prayer book)
As we advanced towards the exit, a lady approached and asked us if we were Jewish. Chabad is well known for their outreach work in the Jewish community and this was just another branch of it. Upon finding out that Nehama was the lady offered her a shabbos candle and someplace to stay for the holiday. Leaving 770 we began our walk down Kingston Avenue toward the center of Lubavitch life in Crown Heights. Many stores were closed either because of the Sabbath or Passover. (The bagel store, the pizza place, bakery etc.) A few stores who were open were the dry cleaners, flower shops, or liquor stores. (Alcohol plays a big part in the holiday of Passover and on the Sabbath)
On Passover Jews can’t eat or even own unleavened bread. Except for Matzah, everything with grain in it and certain other ingredients are called chometz. (Refers to food forbidden on Passover) Because they can’t own chometz, the Orthodox Jews “sell” their chometz to non-Jewish persons. It’s not a real transfer of goods, but it’s worked out through a Rabbi where a legal document is signed and a non-Jew actually “buys” the chometz. All possible chometz products are then put away and left unused until after Passover. After Passover, the process is reverted and your chometz is “bought back.”
At the first grocery store we observed called Kahan’s, one could see the sold-off portion of the store sealed on one side. A “Pesach store” version was open with an entrance to a back room. Since Passover has more food restrictions other than just kosher, the store contained only Passover approved food items. Most of the items were labeled with the kosher symbols followed by a P, meaning ‘Kosher and Passover approved’.
While Nehama deemed it ordinary, we found it interesting how at first glance the products in the store resembled items one would normally find in an everyday grocery store. Looking closely, however, while the container shapes were similar, all of the items being sold were by Jewish brands we’d never heard of. Products were also priced much higher then the normal range. Nehama explained that for Passover everything is more expensive. Products also had multiple languages on the labels. Usually English and Hebrew, but sometimes the labels had a third language like Swedish or French. Because labels have to be changed for Passover versus the regular year, it is financially advantageous for companies to combine labels to save themselves the cost of printing each individual label in its own language as approved for Passover.
Continuing on Kingston Avenue, we saw a store that sold silverware called “Elite Sterling”. Although the store was closed, in the window display was a silver ke’ara, (Passover seder plate) candlesticks, candelabras, kiddush cup, washing cup with matching basin and more. Across from the silverware store, we saw “Raskin’s Fish Market.” A big sign read “free delivery”, which was a service offered by most of the stores in Crown Heights.
Telephone and street poles were covered in flyers. Some of the flyers advertised a puppet show at the Jewish Children’s Museum which had taken place on the intermediary days of Passover. Other signs advertised different Rabbi’s speakers. One sign was warning people that even though they might think electric shavers were okay to shave your beard with, they were forbidden to use.
On the corner of Carroll Street and Kingston Avenue, we saw a garment store, which had no name. In the window of the store we saw two types of head covering garments. One head-covering garment was a snude, which kind of resembles a snowcap. The second type of head covering garment was kerchief called a tichel. The kerchief looks like a fancy scarf and is tied in a bandanna fashion. After a Jewish woman is married, she must either wear a wig or something that would cover her head for modesty reasons.
We passed hat stores, and hosiery stores selling stockings. We passed a couple of women’s clothing boutiques which sold expensive clothes fitting the modesty dress code. These clothing stores are interesting because while they offer the clothes Jewish women need, they offer it at prices that large Chassidic families are unlikely to be able to pay for. So while they do fill a much needed niche, they’re not filling it in the most economic way possible. We also passed by the Crown Heights Beit Din which is the local Jewish court.
We stopped outside of Weinstien’s, a house-ware store. They were closing for the Sabbath so we didn’t go in, but there was a lot to observe just from the outside. They had huge rolls of contact paper on a wheeled rack that was set up outside the store. Because of kashrus (the keeping of kosher), when religious Jews move into a new apartment or house, they don’t know if the surface areas in the kitchen are kosher. (Or what has actually gone on the surfaces) Because of that they cover the surfaces of the kitchen cabinets where food will rest with contact paper. Also, on Passover, they cover all cooking surfaces of the kitchen with contact paper or aluminum foil because even clean the surfaces have been in contact with Chometz. With this in mind, they also sold plastic sink inserts which were plastic tubs of different sizes with a drain hole on the bottom to be put into your kitchen sink which has been used for chometz, taped in place, and for the 8 days of Passover used as a temporary sink.
In the display window of Weinstien’s were a lot of color coded kitchen utensils. There were red and blue soup ladles, vegetable peelers, knives, kitchen mitts and some other things. In keeping kosher, Jews have two sets of all kitchen appliances in their kitchen because they can’t mix meat and milk. To help make things easier, some marketing person came up with the idea to color code items with red indicating meat and blue milk. Not everyone uses these but for those who do it makes things a little less complicated.
We were surprised, not to see much police or Shomrim activity. (Shomrim is the local Jewish community voluntary patrol group) The Crown Heights news was reporting a lot of racial tension and fears of city officials of another riot similar to the one in 1991 rising between the Jewish and black communities living in Crown Heights.
Throughout our walk we did not see many women. This could be attributed to the fact that it was two and a half hours before the start of Sabbath. All work ceases on the shabbos so women were home cooking for the upcoming meal.
Overall we learned a lot about Jews, Orthodox Jews, and specifically one group of Chassidic Jews. This area of Crown Heights has been centrally located to cater towards all the religious and cultural needs of their community.
