BROOKLYN, NY — At this summer's Brooklyn Best outdoor fashion show, organized by Borough President Marty Markowitz to feature the dress and culture of all of Brooklyn's local ethnicities, nobody had volunteered to represent the hassidim.
On the Catwalk with Chabad
BROOKLYN, NY — At this summer’s Brooklyn Best outdoor fashion show, organized by Borough President Marty Markowitz to feature the dress and culture of all of Brooklyn’s local ethnicities, nobody had volunteered to represent the hassidim.
That’s where Mendy Pellin of Crown Heights came in to offer his modeling services.
And sure enough, when the fashion show rolled around, Pellin was there, sashaying down the catwalk dressed in full Chabad garb – with black suit and hat – as if he’d just come back from Fashion Week in Paris.
“I was doing the real catwalk walk and posing like a supermodel, and the place was just going crazy. They totally didn’t expect that,” the Chabadnik said.
Lanky, with a goofy grin, glasses and bushy black beard, Pellin, 25, definitely looks the part of the average Crown Heights Lubavitcher.
But to fans around the world, he’s a celebrity star of the on-line comedy news show ChabadTube that’s been seen by 500,000 viewers from Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood to Cairo.
The show, currently in production for its third season, is an assortment of news – both real and fake, Jewish and not – from Crown Heights, the US and Israel, with a dollop of satire mixed in. One episode featured a tour of the new mikve (ritual bath) under construction in Crown Heights, in which Pellin kicks back in the empty pool with a six-pack of Budweiser beer.
The Budweiser stunt ruffled a few feathers among the top Crown Heights brass, and his supermodel skit was likewise not received well by many in the community.
“I got tons of flak. Hundreds of people wrote in, asking me how I could do such a thing. Some people didn’t understand the whole concept of modeling, they said, you should have had a sefer [holy book] open, you should have been learning. Something to represent us accurately.”
But ChabadTube, like any fake news show, isn’t about accuracy, it was created with the aim of making people like him more personable to the outside world.
“Everyone stereotypes the Hassid as a smelly, sweaty, generously-sized individual who tucks his shirt into his underwear, with lots of dandruff and yellow teeth,” Pellin said in an interview at Crown Heights Bunch O Bagels. “I wanted to give a human face to the Hassid, and show something other than the smelly part.”
The passion for news – fake or otherwise – was ignited in Pellin by his late grandmother, an activist in the Reform community.
“She subscribed us to Time, magazine, and I always read it, cover-to-cover. Still do,” Pellin said.
“So because of her, news was always a part of me, even though I couldn’t really talk to most of my classmates about the news or politics. A lot of things they just didn’t know about,” he said.
In a community where the secular media is frowned upon and most people don’t own televisions, Pellin said that his show, which equally mocks local, national and international current events, was actually the main source of news for his Crown Heights audience.
“I get e-mails from people responding to stories I’m mocking on my show now that are a couple of weeks old already, saying, ‘I can’t believe this happened!’ because they’re just finding out about it now, from me. People definitely see the news on my site and it’s the first time they’re seeing it,” he said.
For this reason, Pellin decided that he didn’t want to only cover Crown Heights or the Jewish world. His grandmother’s love of current affairs inspired him to expose others to the outside world.
“Crown Heights people should be caught up with what’s happening in the world. My show gives them, at the least, some main things, to try to get people talking, and I want them to get it in an entertaining medium.”
Although television isn’t accepted in Crown Heights, the Internet is, which is how Pellin’s show became a kosher hit.
But Pellin remembered when the Internet was first coming out, and his principal told him that he couldn’t return to school until he got a note saying that he no longer had Internet in the house anymore.
The times have changed, and surfing on-line is now acceptable in the community as long as you use a ‘kosher filter’ that weeds out unsavory content. “My show makes it through the kosher filter for some reason. I beat the filter,” he said, smiling triumphantly.
So once Pellin found his passion, the next step was leaving his “boring job” in the cellphone industry.
“I figured that now, when I’m young, is the time to do that, because when you’re older and you’re forced to pay for colonoscopies, then you have to just take a job that makes money,” he said. “But since I’m young, I have room to screw up.”
When Pellin filmed the first episode of ChabadTube, he didn’t think he would be in it for very long. “I didn’t think people were actually going to watch it besides my friends,” he said. But before long, he had around 30,000 viewers per episode, and had become the darling of Crown Heights.
“I thought the Chabad establishment would be pretty much against the show when I started out because it pushes the envelope,” Pellin said. “I thought they would say, ‘You can’t put our dirty laundry in public.’ But they love it.”
“Even the big mohel [ritual circumciser] of Crown Heights with his long white beard came over to me and said, ‘Nu, when’s your next show coming out?’ And I said, ‘You watch it, too?’ I didn’t think any of these people had a sense of humor, but apparently they do.” For news ideas, Pellin reads news sites from Al-Jazeera to the Drudge Report.
“I keep an open mind. I look at all sources. In traditional TV news, they have to deliver a story in a certain way that people will watch it, in a way that has urgency, that it affects you, that hits home, that’s scary. Instead of that, I try to make it entertaining by adding in little spice here and there, and satire, and hope that most people get it.”
But not everyone gets it. Pellin acknowledged that even his new wife does not understand all the jokes in his show. “She has the attitude of, ‘If it makes you happy, do it. I don’t get a lot of it, but if it makes you happy, go for it.’”
As for his international fan base, Pellin would like to think that he represents the human side of Chabad. “People who aren’t from here don’t understand where we’re coming from. But when you get to know most of the people in this community, you’ll see that they’re very sensible people with many of the same desires of the outside, secular world.”
“People make these blanket statements from a lack of knowledge and a fear of a culture that looks different than your own. So if I get to be the poster boy, I can help others see the softer side of Sears, the softer side of Chabad.”
At this point, a fellow diner approached the table. “I just want to tell you I’m a really big fan,” he said.
“I’m not really that famous,” Pellin said, after the fan walked away. “I paid him to do that.”
woah
Mendy, a lot of what you said is true, but dont portray us all as dumb, close-minded people who have ‘no idea what’s going on in the world.’ Most people in Lubavitch are pretty up to date on regular world events, and if they didnt know there was some clash in a third-world country, that’s pretty okay too. Dont put down other’s -and a whole community at that- to put yourself up; to make yourself appealing and sound knowledgable.
You are funny and people like you, but please…watch where your ‘fame’ leads you to.
ApplesCreations Internet Marketing
Mendy you are the best!
fuggedaboutit
Oy, let it go already. I thought this was old history…it’s embarrassing. If I were you Mendy, I’d be ashamed of this. Not all publicity is good, esp. if it makes you look a fool.
MENDY PELLIN FAN.COM
MENDY PELLIN I LOVE YOU
#1 fan
GO MENDY!!!
Western New York
I just love Mendy! Honestly, he represents Crown Heights very, very positively. With true Yiddishkeit, he puts the great Jewish ability to touch hearts through humor in everyone’s face – and so you have just got to love him and the beautiful culture he represents!
Pathetic
This is pathetic.
Mendy Pellin makes it sound like the people in CH don’t know what’s going on in the world unless he enlightens them. That’s pathetic.
Mendy Pellin seems to think he has become the Chabad representative to the world.
How pathetic and dangerous.
He wants to show everyone that we are almost like the rest of the world. We don’t need to do this, Mendy-As Yidden, (and Chassidim) WE ARE DIFFERENT! FOR ALL THE RIGHT REASONS!
Mendy, from your tone in this article, I am beginning to loose repect for you.
CM
Most of Crown Heights gets their news from Mendy? -Smirk- If that quote is true, than he’s just changing one false stereotype for another…
LD
there’s one thing to make a mistake and recognize it, but to imply that he was right and the rest of the Lubavitch world needs to "open up to the world and understand modelling"?!
Sorry Mendy, you got this one wrong
reader
It is a bit insulting of you to think that Chabadniks need your site to get regular news.
If you wish to mock stereotypes, don’t buy into them at the same time.
pini
pellin is a crack up
Stuart Yaakoiv G.
I love Mendy Pellin & I love his show!
satnext to you in bunch o bagels
thats why you were in bunch o bageles yesterday (thursday) at one oclock
p.s.nice crocs (but not chasidish)
Love It!
His show is really amazing I miss it so much and I just wait on tipie toes for it.
Mendy Pellin has got the amazing Humor and sensitivity and is just the bestest!
C.C. Bilo
Gr8 Reporting Techie!
chossid
many so sensitive ppl around here
Mendy has an amazing show and this is a great interview show
Yossel the Nudnik
I like how you translate ‘mohel’ – now THAT’S funny!
yossi
your light good humor used to relieve my stress. Your journalism and reporting used to be real and funny. Wrap up and find yourself another job, you are totally off the wall.
Keep it Wholesome
Mendy, Your show is entertaining, but going down hill. Dont get carried away with the fame, you’re starting to lose the wholesome humor you started off with at the begining. Lots of people who once enjoyed are getting turned off and disapointed.
100% MENDY FAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(FROM CALI)
hey mendy is one amazing person….you guys jst dont know him….yoou look at him in the wrong way….n wat he is sayin abt crown heights is very true…you guys dnt have a television n the onlly way u know wats goin on in the world is from the internet and only on that do u have very few sites that u could check up on….mendy updates alot of ppl on the things that go on in the world!!!!….my brother sits on the computer all the time wathcin mendys shows he loves them…his shows r amazing n funny….