June 5, 2012 On Hasidic Aliens
It is clear as day that Hasidim are aliens and we from the outside transport ourselves to this be-sidecurled, pregnant specie with a UFO or gravity defying spaceship. Hasidism seems to be the least understood culture in America, and this lack of understanding often leads to sweeping dehumanization of thousands of people. I always felt a strong urge to demystify the strange soul of Hasidim, to show the human spirit, motives and mechanism that drives these “zombies”. I have written and discussed Hasidism with insiders, outsiders, fringers and aliens — always with this aim. Even when I was Hasidic I had been willing to speak to media just so I could try to articulate
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Martina
Posted at 22:51h, 05 JuneAs good as your cartoons are, your prose is even better. The comments you make greatly enhance the value of your cartoons. Please continue your output–you bring needed enjoyment to an otherwise humdrum life!
I may be mistaken about this, but your title “Catroons,Doodles, and Other Missives” seems to imply that cartoons and doodles are also missives. It is my understanding that missives are written material only, letters and such. If I’m correct, the word “other” should be omitted. Since I’m hardly ever correct, check it out for yourself, if you want, and whatever you say goes.
Again, thanks for allowing your followers to be entertained by your creativity.
Gabriella
Posted at 00:13h, 06 JuneI have never thought of Chasidim as aliens, I always assumed I was an alien to them. I am just now thinking about that. Why did it seem that way to me? I have no idea. Maybe because they seem so self-sufficient in their world, and uninterested in the outside world, and I am the one peeking in.
Anonymous
Posted at 15:31h, 06 JuneI really don’t know for sure i don’t live in the states but do you have 30,000 men who wear streimlech in N.Y a city of 10,000,000 that the average american spends his dinner time discussing hasidim. Most probably most non jews who have frequent encounters with hasidim find them pretty much normal and those that don’t most probably eye them with a small amount of curiosity;
Ashmedai
Posted at 16:47h, 06 JuneMartina; this is from the [unfiltered] world wide web “super theasaurus”. From said theasaurus, It certainly seems that Shpitzle’s usage of the term “missives” is quite appropriate taken in context of what she [so effectively] conveys.
“Missive as a Noun has these synonyms:
letter, communication, message, dispatch, note, line, postcard, card, epistle
Example: I have just received a missive from great-aunt Cecilia that took me an hour to read.”
To commenter #3 …..anonymus;
As a NYC [Brooklyn] resident, i can tell you that any time I needed to be in Manhattan on Shabbos, walking in the street with a shtreimel has been an extremely uncomfortable
proposition. Iv’e been photographed, jeered at, stared at, and one old lady actually crossed herself! Outside of NY is just off the charts even without the shtreimel.
At a train station in Boston a girl came over and asked me wether i was Abraham Lincoln.
Aliens. For certain.
Not that I give a crap what people think but what this alien costume has come to represent. Yeah, the absolutely nauseating, most humiliating experience is when I’m being confused with- and asked “are you a rabbi”.
Gabriella
Posted at 20:31h, 06 JuneAshmedai:
“Yeah, the absolutely nauseating, most humiliating experience is when I
Ashmedai
Posted at 00:08h, 07 JuneGabriella;
“because your outside appearance symbolizes the very top of of the ladder of Judaic observance. People just assume someone dressed like that knows a lot about about Torah”
I’m awfully sorry for your confusion;
The reason for me feeling this way is because in my numerous experiences, rabbis have behaved in a depraved manner more fitting for savages.
Thus, I ‘internally’ feel like I’m dressed more like a savage then a rabbi as I don the the
‘rabbi outfit’….
It is said that a whole lie is better then a half truth.
I take it to mean that I’d rather be dressed like a normal person and aspire to be more,,
rather then dress in full regalia like the pope and behave like a boor.
The boors have stolen the popes clothing 🙁
Gabriella
Posted at 16:19h, 07 JuneAshmedai: ok, I do get what you are saying. In my frame of reference, I didn’t consider that word (rabbi) to be so tremendously loaded, but I understand what you are saying.
“The boors have stolen the popes clothing” : yep, it is indeed so much worse when boors are not plain boors but go to great lengths to pretend they are so good. The deceit on top of the boorishness, it is just maddening.
But if you are not a boor, you are not a boor. You know what I mean?