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NY Times Feature: The City Visible – In the Land of Black Coats

Gianni Cipriano – The New York Times

If you had walked into Congregation Khal Chasidim on 49th Street and 15th Avenue on a recent Sunday evening, you would have seen a Jewish bride receiving her women attendants before her wedding. An hour later, thousands of people milled outside the synagogue, near the platform on which the wedding was taking place. Photo: Gianni Cipriano

BROOKLYN, NY — Take the D train to 55th Street in central Brooklyn, and you feel as if you have set foot in a different world.

The station sits at the junction of New Utrecht Avenue, 13th Avenue and 55th Street in the heart of Borough Park, home to a quarter-million Orthodox Jews, one of the largest concentrations of Jews outside Israel. To travel to Borough Park is to journey through both space and time.


There you may meet David Sondik, an exuberant Orthodox Jew who sings as he walks. Speaking very fast, he stops a visitor and pulls out a picture of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh and last rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, based in Crown Heights.

The magical moment in Borough Park comes after sunset. The empty streets and the street lights create an almost surreal atmosphere, peopled by Jewish men in black coats heading home or to shul, and students making their way to Talmudical Seminary of Bobov.

If you had walked into Congregation Khal Chasidim on 49th Street and 15th Avenue on a recent Sunday evening, you would have seen a Jewish bride receiving her women attendants before her wedding. An hour later, thousands of people milled outside the synagogue, near the platform on which the wedding was taking place.

That evening, many hundreds of men gathered on the streets and on a grandstand to sing for the groom, who with other young Jewish men formed a circle and held hands to dance the horah. By midnight, the bride and groom were dancing in the center of the synagogue as guests stood on chairs and barriers, hoping for a better view.

Take the D train to 55th Street in central Brooklyn, and you feel as if you have set foot in a different world. The station sits at the junction of New Utrecht Avenue, 13th Avenue and 55th Street in the heart of Borough Park, home to a quarter-million Orthodox Jews, one of the largest concentrations of Jews outside Israel. Typically, at the end of the Sabbath on Saturday night, Orthodox children play in the street. Photo: Gianni Cipriano


After sunset, the empty streets and the street lights create an almost surreal atmosphere, peopled by Jewish men in black coats heading home or to shul, and students making their way to Talmudical Seminary of Bobov. Photo: Gianni Cipriano


An open door adds to the atmosphere. Photo: Gianni Cipriano


David Sondik, an exuberant Orthodox Jew who sings as he walks, stops a visitor and pulls out a picture of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh and last rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, based in Crown Heights. Photo: Gianni Cipriano


If you had walked into Congregation Khal Chasidim on 49th Street and 15th Avenue on a recent Sunday evening, you would have seen a Jewish bride receiving her women attendants before her wedding. An hour later, thousands of people milled outside the synagogue, near the platform on which the wedding was taking place. Photo: Gianni Cipriano


A young Orthodox boy at the wedding. Behind him, men and women are separated by dividers. According to Jewish law, men and women must be separated during prayer, usually by a wall or curtain or by placing women on a second-floor balcony. Photo: Gianni Cipriano


Men formed a circle and held hands to dance the horah as part of the celebration. Photo: Gianni Cipriano


Once the celebrants finished dancing the horah, they headed back to the synagogue, where the wedding was taking place. Photo: Gianni Cipriano


Guests stood on chairs and barriers, hoping for a better view of the bride and groom, who were dancing at the center of the synagogue at midnight. Photo: Gianni Cipriano

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11 Comments

  • We know LOTS of dances!

    B“H
    A sweet article. It makes us Chassidim seem so exotic and quaint, like something an anthropologist would study.

    But where are the NY Times’ ”fact checkers“? For example, contrary to popular opinion, when we dance, it isn’t always ”the Horah”!

  • And the point is...?

    Does anyone else find this story strange? What does it say? Also, I think the journalist is confused about her religious sects – Chabad Chassidim are not in Borough Park…

  • To: And the point is?

    And the point is?
    Firstly, the author is a man, not a woman. Secondly, the author met a man who had a picture of the Rebbe, whom he corectly identifies as “the 7th and last Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement based in Crown Heights”; no mention is made of the man’s address.
    It is silly however to say that, “Chabad Chassidim are not in Borough Park”, I run into Chabad Chassidim whenever I am in Borough Park, ther are Chabad shuls in Borough Park, I think if you look you will find Chabad Chassidim all over the city, there are no laws or rules governing where any of us live.
    Lastly, this was a photo essay that appeared in the Sunday times, and a very nice one I thought. There are millions of people who live in this city, many of them Jews, who never have seen Borough Park, Crown Heights, Flatbush, Monsey, etc. who are happy to see pictures like these.
    Worth a thousand words you know! B’H

  • sdfsdfsdf

    She’s not saying that Chabad chassidim live in borough park. there’s an individual nutjob in Borough Park who like showing people a rebbe picture.

  • Mimi N

    It makes sense that David Sondik would be there. If I am correct, he is the flying rabbi from Tzfas. He travels in all circles, supposedly raising money. But, yea, he does kind of confuse this story.

    I think he’s been pulling out that same picture for years now. :)