Being Beaten Al Kiddush Hashem

I was beaten up, threatened and spit upon numerous times in various countries (including in Israel – in Bnei Brak!). Must get a lot of schar then.

Nowadays I go completely undercover with a cap wherever I go, outside of E”Y.

Though there is another reason for that – I have a hair disease and therefore a kippah and/or hat easily blows away with even a little wind. A cap is a lot tighter and catches less wind.

Walking along Jabotinsky Street on an evening walk all around town. Suddenly a group of Russian youths started following me, shouting insults at me, spitting towards me. I got away without damage B”H.

Other examples:

* I got into a huge fistfight with a drunk in Prague who hit me in my face so hard I almost broke my nose. Hit back as much as I could.

* Again in Prague, someone made me trip on a metro and then hit me in the back.

* In Amsterdam, I was suddenly surrounded by 10 Moroccan/Arab youths who obviously didn’t want to say ‘hi’. A police officer came to help me but was attacked by them, they focused on him and I fled into a large store with security guards.

* I got spit at by someone shouting “f…. Jew” in Amsterdam as well.

* In The Hague, a neo-Nazi on a bicycle tried to kick me but just missed.

And more, and more. Anyway, all of those incidents were ~10 years ago, when I was young and foolish enough to walk around the street with visibly Jewish symbols. I know better now, so I rarely get into any trouble.

TCG: How do you account that in the U.S. Jews walk around in outwardly Jewish attire generally without incident, yet in Europe that is seemingly far more difficult?

Life in Europe is simply different.

There is a major difference between countries, and cities, though.

First of all: most of the trouble comes from Arabs, not from locals. At most, locals will give you funny looks, like you’re an animal that just escaped from the zoo. (Like an Essex lion, for the British here.) That said, I was attacked by ethnic Europeans several times as well.

The most dangerous countries are those in Eastern (former East Bloc) Europe, and those countries with a lot of Muslims. Still, in those countries as well, the actual danger is really just limited to those major cities where a lot of Muslims live.

Personally, I am from a very old but small (50,000 inhabitants) city in the eastern part of the Netherlands, close to the German border. The only Muslims there are Turkish and they are generally peaceful friendly people, not aggressive troublemakers. Same for most of the country. The same applies in the other countries, like Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden and the UK. You won’t get beaten up suddenly walking through some small town somewhere – the risk is in the big cities, like Amsterdam, Antwerp, Berlin, Goteborg, Stockholm or Manchester. That’s simply because most anti-Semitic Arabs tend to live almost exclusively in those big cities. They don’t usually live in rural villages, and the inhabitants of those might look at you with a curious look, but no hostility.

The Chassidishe Gatesheader, in Switzerland, they, for sure, look at Yidden with great hostility. What about the ethnic French? They would not attack Yidden?

A reason Jews in America today can go out in the street fully dressed like a Jew, including in full Chasidic regalia, is in no small part thanks to the Satmar Rebbe ztvk’l zy’a. The Satmar Rebbe, as soon as he got off the boat and was living in Williamsburg put his Shtreimel on his and walked to Shul. His gabbai whispered to him if he could hold his Shtreimel until they got to Shul — the Yidden in America were afraid of walking outside in a yarmulka! No one ever saw a Shtreimel on the streets! The Rebbe just sweetly smiled and said lomer gein.

And with the Shtreimel on his head he went unto the streets of America. At first it was a sight to behold. But in short order, others started losing their fear (or embarasement) and the Jewish clothing became a common sight.

Today, Baruch Hashem, no one bats an eyelash at the common sight of Jews dressed as Jews on the streets of America.

In places like NYC, Nobody cares what you are dressed like, It wasnt the Satmar Rebbe who changed the culture of NY. it was NY that changed

You can be dressed as a Chassid, you can be dressed as a Muslim you can be dressed as someone from Africa, You can be a man dressed as a woman Nobody really cares.

People compare NYC to elsewhere in the US. What works well in NYC and vincinity does not work elsewhere in US. Try dressing like a Chassid in Alabama. It is NOT common and you will get stares

Iced: But it’s not just Jews that New York accepts. You can be dressed as anyone and anything and won’t get a second look. That happens to have a positive for Jews, though it’s probably not so great for society. But like zdad said, if you look like a Chassid in Alabama you will get stared at, screamed at, and possibly attacked by a Klansmen, who are probably the only people in much of the Deep South and Northwest that know what a Jew is.

mogold: I did not say anything against the Satmar Rebbe in my above post. I merely questioned the story, and also questioned the idea that the Rebbe is responsible for Jews being able to dress as Jews publicly in the US.

I personally know people whose parents were moser nefesh in the US in the 1920s and 1930s. True, they don’t wear a streimel, but they do wear a frock and a black hat.

I know plenty about streimels and when they are worn. I have many cousins who are chassidish, and know far more than you think. I am MO by choice, after growing up in a chareidi family.

As for making myself a laughingstock, honestly, the Satmar/Neturei Karta fanatics who post here are laughed at far more than I am, with their ridiculous posts about Israel.

Mogold, Feif Un did not belittle the Satmar Rebbe. He just said the credit is not due to him here. The point is that US is different from Poland, Ukraine and Russia.

i dont remember reading anything as horrible as a boy having his mouth stapled shut. just awful.

The very reason, in large part, why things are different (insofar as dressing Jewish in public) in America today, is thanks in no small part to the Satmar Rebbe ztvk’l zy’a.

With no disrespect to Rav Yoel Satmer Rov, he had nothing to do with it.

The Amish on one side and those like Arnold Rothstein & Meyer Lansky on the other did more for the inability/distaste for people to beat Jews for their clothing, at least in the Northeastern states. But watch out once you cross the Mason Dixon line (excluding NYC south known as Florida), as Sam said.

it is a bigger kiddush Hashem for Jews to fight back and not be treated like training fodder for shkotzim v remosim or am I sounding Zionist now, so therefore I deserve to be beaten?

We should avoid fighting unless strictly necessary. BUT if life is threatened fight back especially for those too weak to run away.

iced, I’m not sure what you mean by “a Jewish hat.” Before the war, the well-dressed non-Jew wore a fedora. It most likely was non-black, but so was the hat worn by yeshiva bochurim.

It’s more a result of Americans respect for law and order; and even a Klansman is almost always assured and afraid that any violence will lead to harsh legal penalties being imposed upon himself. (This is demonstrable by the fact that the Klan’s #1 enemy are blacks. And there are plenty of them in the South. Yet race-based physical violence against them is also very rare. [In the few cases it does happen, it always becomes a major news story.]) Unlike in Europe, as described above by a resident there, where not only isn’t such violence rare, but it is done publicly in major European cities.

Which is all a testament in favor of America.

Sam2, is it that bad down there?

Md: It depends where you go. The big cities are fine. The small towns can really be that bad. And if you aren’t physically assaulted, I know of plenty of people that get spit on and hit with thousands of dollars worth of absurd traffic tickets for being “different”.

Iced: So which is it? American respect for law and order or the Satmar Rebbe wearing a streimel? Or are you saying that American respect for law and order comes from R’ Yoel?

If I repeat things three or four times, maybe someone will listen?

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”

Albert Einstein

@iced

The Satmar Rebbe ztvk’l zy’a broke the taboo and fear among American Jews of walking, publicly, in the streets of America dressed as a Jew.

You’re entitled to your opinion, but please realize the above is just an opinion. There was no taboo nor fear among American Jews (at least in the Northeast, where the Rebbe lived) of “walking, publicly, in the streets of America dressed as a Jew.” Please check your facts against the actual history.

Some people might have felt a need to modernize their dress in the new country and the Rebbe probably helped instill a pride in their traditional levush for those. But the assertion you make above…is simply not so.