Posted to Crown Heights News on

When the ‘Aimish’ meet the ‘Heimish’

CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn [CHI] — Several dozen Amish residents from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, started the tour earlier Tuesday of Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood with members of the Chabad-Lubavitch community.

More pictures and video in the Extended Article!

Rabbi Beryl Epstein calls the tour “living Judaism.” He says both communities are drawn to each other because they are known for old-fashioned dress and resistance to modern amenities

The tour began in the basement of a the Levi Yitzchok Library, as Epstein explained what he saw as the similar ties the communities have. From there they walked down Kingston Avenue and stopped at HaSofer, where they saw how Teffilin and Mezuzos are written. They learned about the Shabbos siren on Kingston and Montgomery, and a final stop was at the Crown Heights Matzah Bakery.

“It’s reinforcing to the Amish community to see us Jews living the way the Bible says Jews are supposed to live, and have lived since the time of Moses and Abraham,” says Israel Ber Kaplan, program director for the Chassidic Discovery Center in Brooklyn. “The Amish are also living their lives as the Bible speaks to them.”

Residents did double-takes on the Brooklyn streets as the two groups walked side by side, touring a Jewish library and a “matzo factory,” where round, unleavened bread was being made for the Passover holiday.

This is the second year that the community has invited the Amish on a walking tour it offers to the public.

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39 Comments

  • anonymous

    The beautiful thing is how truly eidel and modest these people look – especially the women. It’s kind of sad and ironic that they look more like the old-time chassidim than our own people do walking down Kingston Avenue.

  • qkfngers

    they blend right in. years ago i was a summer counselor in philly. at the local zoo there were Amish people. my campers said, “aren’t they hot in their long shirts and skirts,” without even realizing we were dressed the same way!

  • EMBARRASED

    qkfngers wrote:

    they blend right in. years ago i was a summer counselor in philly. at the local zoo there were Amish people. my campers said, “aren’t they hot in their long shirts and skirts,” without even realizing we were dressed the same way!
    THE PROBLEM IS WE DONT DRESS LIKE THAT
    OUR WOMEN SHOW MORE SKIN THEN …..

  • cccm

    i thought amish didn’t like to have their pictures taken. and howd they get to crown heights? walk? horse buggys? are they supposed to ride in automobiles?

  • Milhouse

    They have no objection to other people taking their pictures, or to riding in other people’s cars. They do not believe in having pictures of themselves and others, because it leads to gaavah, and they’re against owning cars for much the same reason that most yeshivos don’t allow bochurim to own or rent cars. (When some Lubavitcher yeshivos started allowing it for mivtzoim it caused all kinds of problems.)

  • Shmuli

    To Quote:

    “both communities are drawn to each other because they are known for old-fashioned dress and resistance to modern amenities”.

    I have an interesting comment to make. I assume that when it says that we both don’t use ‘modern amenities’ it means amenities such as exercise machines.

  • Just wondering

    BH

    Anyone have a problem with them walking around that cramped Matzo Bakery, where time is of the essence to get the Matzohs in “Oiven Arayn” and there is no place to move?

    Just a thought!

    Moshiach Now!

    Oh ,a dn Berel Epstien is the greatest.

  • Dinah Abrahamson

    B“H
    To see this means we are fulfilling the command ”To Be A Light to the Nations”
    Very cool!

    D.A

  • explanation

    It is my assumption that these individuals are not Amish, but are Mennonites — a closely related “off shoot” of the more stringent Amish. Both are Annabaptist Christians.

  • xyz

    to confused:
    the ones with the mustaches are heimish and the ones without are amish.

  • **

    B“H
    i take great offense to the comments about tznius, how can you make general comments about ”OUR WOMEN“ (just because the ones you notice are not tznius…) –B”H there are many that are!

  • qkfngers

    to respond to the person who did not understand my note:
    my frum, tznius campers were dressed with long sleeves and long skirts in the hot sticky summer, but didn’t think anything of it. but when they saw these amish women/girls they were surprised at how they were dressed and weren’t they hot.
    and by the way, this is many years ago (19 to be exact) when lubavitch women and girls even in the summer were still tzinus.

  • nechama leah huber (epstein)

    GO UNCY BER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    THAT IS SO COOL THAT YOU GAVE A TOUR TO THE HEIMISH!!!!!!! :)
    MORDY AND I ARE GETTING A KICK OUT OF THIS!!!

  • anon

    Please tell, what is similar about us and them. Dress, ok on some level, anything else??? Resistence to modern amenities??? Huh?

    Anyway, their religion was started on the theory that a person must choose their religion so their kids are given a period of time a couple year or so to decide if they want to be baptized. This is the opposite completely from our religion- Hashem held the mountain over us and said you have no choice. A jew can do anything, he still has no choice, it’s what you are. And, like the lady said, um, they believe in JC.

    Cool that they are interested to see CH, but similar? nope.

  • Dovid

    they may have Nishumas. also, it is interestng to see that they like chabed more than any other people. lichiam!!

  • We need more public parking in CH!

    Where did they park their horse and buggies????

  • chossid

    what is the purpose of showing GOYIM jewish things?

    What does this accomplish???!

  • An Amish realtor

    Affordable living, No NYPD tickets, plenty of fresh air!
    Lancaster County, ELIZABETHTOWN, PA 17022
    $169,900
    4 br, 2 ba
    1936 sq. ft., 0.14 acres
    Built in: 1989

  • CA

    I really don’t see any deep similarity between Judaism and, lehavdil, Amish. It’s a nice cute little thing, this tour, but don’t read deeper into it than necessary. Lubavitcher don’t shy away from “modern amenities”, nor is there any reason for them to look “traditional’’. We don’t dress “traditional”, we dress in a way to have hiskashrus to the Rebbe.

    Actually, Amish are closer to Chareidim. Internet is a problem? Ban it. Cars are a problem? Don’t use them. This is not Chabad way. We use the world to the extent possible, to elevate it. And don’t draw strength from banning but from internal deep meaningfulness of our religion.

  • Milhouse actually Amish

    Milhouse you’re such an expert on everything!
    Isn’t it odd how much you know about the Amish? Is it just a coincidence, or aren’t you in fact really Amish; not that there’s anything wrong with that.
    Maybe you’d be happier in PA with your own kind; I know you’ll feel better when you just come clean about the whole thing.

  • Naftoli in Melbourne

    Great job Berel. As usual you create a wonderful Kiddush Hashem.

  • A BIG FAN

    Rabbi Epstein told me that the wording published above was taken from an article published by the AP before the reporter came to Crown Heights. I saw a more thorough article that was released along with AP’s pictures later in the afternoon. These pics are much much better – YEA WEBBY!!! This was one of 22 groups in the last two weeks Rabbi Epstein hosted – hakhels every day in the kehilla – most participants are Jewish by the way. I regularly send friends and business acquaintences to http://www.jewishtours.com to get them to join in on one of Rabbi Epstein’s daily tours. Only fantastic results so far – many have come back for Shabbos. My biggest nachas about Crown Heights this year was from reading unedited reviews on Rabbi Epstein’s tour at: http://www.zerve.com/Jewish…

  • bobby

    Nice stuff. Me and my family make it a point of driving through Welland County in Ontario Canada every once in a while, seeing their simple farming life… today more than ever it’s good to walk with simplicity side by side, the way Hashem intended it. On the other hand, being simple and eidel can be taken a step further in spreading yiddishkeit through technology etc cell phones…….take care y’all….

  • Can we Get Lehavdil Please

    To all commentators: Bai Unz Yidden firt men Zach az Men Zugt LEHAVDIL ven men redt vegn yidden un Lihavdil Goyim in ain Otem!!!

  • Dovid

    There is one with out a hat and others without beards. are the Amish bums???

  • Samantha Hauptman

    I am very disturbed about the comment that Lubavitchers “dress in a way to have hiskashrus to the Rebbe”. I assumed that we dressed tznius because of the Torah. Have I been mistaken all of these years?

    I also wanted to comment that since the passing of the Rebbe zt”l, the level of tznius among my peers has plummeted. When I went to high-school, we would have never have left the house without stockings under our bobby socks. It is a very different story today.