Swampscott Jew Crew Visits Crown Heights

We’ve all heard stories about the shtetl: a small (Eastern) European village or community where Jews would live, work, and study Torah together.

For a long time, the shtetl was the Jewish experience: there was no State of Israel, no secular or reformed Jews, there were only Jews; and Jews, more or less, lived together in shtetls. This all changed when the latest incarnation of Pharaoh and Haman tried, unsuccessfully, to wipe the Jewish people off the map of Europe.

Though we survived, as we always do, Jewish life changed forever: the shtetl mostly disappeared and the State of Israel rose up to take its place. Although few, some pockets of thriving Jewish life outside of Israel remain to this day.

Going to Crown Heights is, in some ways, like stepping back in time. Everywhere you go, men are wearing kaftans and fedora hats. The people of Crown Heights that we met on our Shabbaton exhibit a form of old-fashioned courtesy and hospitality that many Jew Crewers were unaccustomed to.

But the people of Crown Heights are not old-fashioned; they are just like everybody else – except, perchance, nicer. They are lawyers, and doctors, and scientists; they use electricity and iPhones save on holidays; were it not for the beards, one would not be able to tell the difference between them and any randomly selected person on the East Coast.

During the Jew Crew’s stay in Crown Heights, we were treated to genuine kindness and hospitality that is hard to find elsewhere. People, uncompensated, opened their homes to some 40 teenagers from the North Shore. We were cooked feast after feast, and invited to home after home. The Jew Crew got to see the origins and historic places of the Chabad Hasidic movement, and even stopped by Williamsburg to take a peek at the lives (read: baked goods) of the Satmar.

Whilst in Manhattan, the Jew Crew was also taken on many an adventure thanks to Rabbi Shmaya Friedman, and our friends in Crown Heights. The day we arrived, we went to the Empire State building for a “sky ride” – a virtual tour of the borough of Manhattan, as viewed by helicopter, and were wowed with the best view of New York City atop the world famous observatory deck.

Late Saturday night, as well, we took a tour of one of the city’s main attractions: Times Square. There we visited some of the city’s best stores and coffee shops before going down to Kosher Delight for kosher burgers and fries.

All in all, it was a great time and it will not be our last.