ABSTRACT
The Hasidic section of New York in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, where 25,000 ultra-orthodox Jews live without televisions, movies or miniskirts, in what they feel is a special union with God. They came to New York in the 1940s, to escape the Nazi persecutions in Europe, and have managed to carry on religious practices, traditions and a manner of dress much as their ancestors did when this sect first developed in Eastern Europe and Russia during the early eighteenth century. The Hasidim were glad to find a home where they were free from the fear of persecution, but they were not and still are not anxious to become Americanized, if that means giving up their traditions. The more orthodox a Jew is in his practices, the more likely he is to be removed from the economic mainstream, and the Hasidic Jew is an extreme example. The educational system of the Hasidic Jews places the main emphasis on religious study.
