How does one define Chareidi in the American context? Generally speaking the Litvaks have academic degrees and work in secular professions, often not in specifically Jewish offices. When they make aliya they are very likely to ghettoize because of the vast cutural and hashkafic divide between them and Israeli Charedim (when Rav Leff opened “Maarava” and introduced secular studies he was excoriated by the Chareidi press and when someone I knew told a barber that he lived in Telz Stone and claimed that it is Chareidi the barber said “American Chareidi”). Sometimes they gravitate to Chardal communities (in Bet-el Bet there are a number of men who wear hats on Shabbat, almost all American or Russian).
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