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00:06New York's Brooklyn neighborhood in the United States. The majority of American
00:11ultra-Orthodox Jews live here. They are known as Hasidic Jews, meaning those who
00:18love God in Hebrew. We are with the Katz family, who this evening are celebrating the ceremony
00:38marking the end of Shabbat, the weekly day of rest.
00:51Around the table are the grandparents Shlomo and Broca, their daughter Rivki, Yoni her husband,
00:58both religious studies teachers and their nine children.
01:04The youngest was born six weeks ago, but the evening doesn't stop there. The Chabbat
01:09Lubavitch are getting ready to celebrate one of the biggest events of the year.
01:13We are about to go to 770 Eastern Parkway, the headquarters of Chabbat Lubavitch Worldwide
01:20Movement. You never know what to expect there.
01:25The Chabbat Lubavitch are one of the many branches of the Hasidic Movement. There are around
01:3015,000 of them in New York. The whole Katz family belongs to it.
01:35For the most part, it's the Chabbat Lubavitch Hasidic community. Almost every house here
01:41is Hasidic.
01:46Each Hasidic group has its own name, its own codes and its own icons. For the Chabbat Lubavitch,
01:52the face of the movement's last leader is displayed everywhere, Rabbi Schneerson, who died in 1994.
02:02This evening, they are celebrating his birthday in suitable fashion.
02:10He would have been 121 years old. A huge party. And thanks to Yoni Katz, we'll be able to attend
02:18it.
02:19Welcome to 770 Eastern Parkway.
02:25We are inside 770. This is very rarely seen on TV.
02:33Good to be back.
02:38In the synagogue, the atmosphere is not one of prayer and introspection.
02:51Hundreds of men of all ages are dancing to traditional music, remixed to an electrobeat.
02:56Unbelievable loss.
03:07For Hasidic Jews, singing and dancing are the cornerstones of religious practice.
03:13It's their way of communing with God. Vodka is flowing freely at some tables.
03:28A lot of these are yeshiva students, boys who are learning in Talmudic seminaries.
03:34And a lot of them have come from out of town.
03:39It may be a party, but there are certain limits. Women are not allowed to mingle with men.
03:45Their celebrations are taking place on the first floor, behind a tinted window.
04:05In the rooms next door, there are dozens of men drinking together.
04:12So this is actually yeshiva students coming from Brunois, which is near Paris, a suburb of Paris, where they learn.
04:22And they're coming all the way to New York for this auspicious day.
04:29It's the day of the year, so everyone is going to have a miracle.
04:37The celebrations will last for two days.
04:43For several weeks, we were able to film inside the world of American Hasidic Jews.
04:48There are 200,000 of them in the United States, i.e. less than 3% of American Jews.
04:53Most of them live in three New York neighborhoods.
04:56Williamsburg, Borough Park and Crown Heights.
04:59Each movement bears the name of the village from which it originated in Eastern Europe.
05:04Are people used to being filmed in this neighborhood?
05:06Absolutely not. People don't like it.
05:08We don't have politics in the house.
05:11Their religious practice hasn't changed since the 18th century.
05:17They impose strict dress codes for both men and women.
05:21And speak Yiddish, the language of Eastern European Jews before the Second World War.
05:30At school, they learn to read Hebrew before English.
05:34The Hebrew letters are connected to their soul.
05:36So you start with the soul foundation, and you move up from there.
05:41They live cut off from the world, marry other Hasidic Jews, and raise families that often have more than six
05:47children.
05:48My wife and I have 14 children, because God doesn't create what he doesn't need.
05:55In the United States, where religious freedom is fundamental, they've prospered since they arrived after the Second World War.
06:03That's what people were thinking. The Jews around the Holocaust, that was the last generation.
06:09And boy, were they wrong. Look at this.
06:10But when they leave New York, their presence is not always welcomed.
06:14Like in Monroe, a small country town where thousands of Hasidic Jews have settled.
06:19We had a real problem as that community became a larger and larger part of the Monroe.
06:24The reaction was, no freak in the way.
06:28And for those who want to leave the community, the price to pay is huge.
06:32The Musa, get out of here. You're welcome.
06:35It has all the elements of the cult.
06:38Hasidic Jews, a community that lives according to age-old rituals, at the heart of one of the most modern
06:44cities in the world.
06:54The life of Hasidic Jews is dictated by stringent religious practice.
06:59Shmuli, you want to go run on the dreidel? Go run on the dreidel.
07:07Today, Yoni Katz is going shopping with his eighth child, Shmuli.
07:18In the Chabad Lubavitch is shopping street.
07:28There are restaurants and clothing shops with a very limited choice, which you only find in the Hasidic community.
07:36I'm actually looking for a nice shirt because you've come to the right place.
07:39Sorry, that's Shmuli.
07:43According to Chabad Lubavitch customs, men must only wear black trousers and white shirts.
07:49I'll just do it once, too.
07:54Yeah, it seems perfect.
07:56Is it easy to shop in your Swedish bed?
07:59Very easy. It's either black or white.
08:02And everything you need is right here on the main street.
08:05So, I sort of like it. You know, you don't have millions of different, you know, options.
08:12Good job.
08:15They must wear a hat.
08:17I'm looking for a hat.
08:18If you have a black one, that would be good.
08:20That's a little Chabad Lubavitch inside joke.
08:23Because, of course, all the hats are black.
08:25And under the black hat, a kippah, which young boys have to wear from the age of three.
08:29Perfect. I'll take it.
08:30Very rabbinic.
08:32You want to try it on?
08:34Oh, wow.
08:36It's amazing.
08:38That's it now.
08:39Okay, alright, thank you for the hat.
08:46Back to 770.
08:49For the men in the community, the day begins in the synagogue.
08:53They have to pray three times a day with a precise ritual.
08:59We have the prayer shawl, the talus.
09:02Every prayer shawl has four corners.
09:05Then you take the talus off.
09:06And you go like this.
09:12Make a little prayer.
09:17There are tefillin. It says to bind one on your arm by your heart, which represents that your emotions should
09:24be in sync with God, and one you put on your head, which represents that your mind should be in
09:30sync with God.
09:31Only the men are required to pray.
09:50Three times a week, the scrolls of the Torah, the Hebrew Bible, are read publicly.
09:59It's a very special holy ceremony.
10:01As you can see, they're trying to get the Torah scroll back into the arch.
10:07Oh, here we go.
10:09This is where it gets violet.
10:10I love it.
10:11Each worshipper tries to touch and kiss the sacred scrolls.
10:16What are you doing?
10:21What are you talking about?
10:22What are you talking about?
10:33Women's main role is to get married and have children.
10:37There is no compulsory prayer for the women, but so-called modesty rules.
10:41They have to wear skirts or dresses long enough to cover their knees, and sleeves that hide their elbows.
10:49From the day they get married, they must cover their head with a wig or scarf.
10:53In the most extreme communities, the rabbis make women shave their heads.
10:59But Chabad Lubavitch women, like Rivki Katz, wear a wig over their natural hair.
11:15The wigs are made from real hair, which makes them undetectable.
11:19Tell me if you want me to build it up more or less.
11:22Yeah, it's great. I've never had it like this.
11:25No?
11:25I'm making a creepy message.
11:27Yeah.
11:27So are you wearing a wig too?
11:29Yeah.
11:30Really?
11:32You don't believe me?
11:33You don't believe me?
11:36It's a wig.
11:37See?
11:40I started the morning after my wedding.
11:42So it's very exciting.
11:44Very exciting.
11:45It's a big change.
11:50But they make it very easy today.
11:52There's so many beautiful options.
11:54It looks like hair.
11:55We think that people outside would see you as just a normal person.
11:59So what's different?
12:01It's about that other people can't see you're here.
12:03It's really about your own identity, your own self, preserving your own sexual energy,
12:10keeping it inside, which is where it's needed and which is where it's most powerful.
12:20Rivki teaches religious classes to young girls from non-Hasidic Jewish families.
12:27Today, she's teaching them a key rule.
12:31When they're married, they'll have to immerse themselves once a month in the mikvah,
12:35the ritual bath, filled only with rainwater.
12:40We take clothes and clean before coming into the mikvah.
12:44So we...
12:46Nothing separating from the water.
12:49So then you give a nail polish.
12:51You pick up the nail polish so that your whole body gets in contact with the water.
12:57Before you get married, you go to the mikvah to put you on the right path.
13:00When a woman has her period, her menstrual cycle,
13:04it's not a time for her to be intimate with her husband.
13:07After her cycle ends, now it's time to be together again because her body's not busy.
13:13Her body's available to welcome him and receive him.
13:17So she goes to the mikvah before reuniting with her husband again.
13:21We'll do that next week.
13:23Hanukkah. What comes after Hanukkah?
13:25Husband and wife are not allowed to touch each other during this period.
13:28And outside the immediate family, any physical contact between men and women is forbidden.
13:38The next day, Yoni Katz will gather at the Jewish cemetery of Montefiore in New York,
13:43with all the other Chabad Lubavitch at the tomb of their historic leader.
13:49Many people travel great distances just to spend even a few minutes inside the hotel
13:56to say Mazel Tov to the Rebbe on his birthday and also to give him the good news
14:01and to be recharged and inspired to go back.
14:05In the Hasidic world, the Rebbe is the central figure around whom the whole community revolves.
14:11Some people attribute him with almost magical powers.
14:15We're about to enter the gravesite of the Lubavitch Rebbe.
14:22Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh in the lineage of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic dynasty.
14:31There's a huge queue in the cemetery.
14:35Men on their own, women and families silently pray as they wait to be able to enter the tomb.
14:49Do you feel the importance?
14:51People are sort of trying to capitalize on the energy and the significance of the day.
14:56So, yeah, definitely.
15:01This Rebbe is so important because he led the movement for 43 years and totally revolutionized it.
15:13Like the other great American Hasidic leaders,
15:16Rabbi Schneerson fled Europe when the Second World War was raging,
15:20leaving behind him a world that would soon be destroyed by the Nazis.
15:29When he arrived in New York in 1941, he wanted to rebuild this lost world,
15:34the world of the Jewish villages of Eastern Europe before the war, known as shtetls.
15:43In this way, the first Hasidic movements were established in the United States,
15:47primarily made up of Holocaust survivors.
15:51The community has grown since then.
16:01Jorni Katz's family comes from Germany and Hungary.
16:04Jorni Katz's family comes from Germany and Hungary.
16:12He takes us to 770.
16:1620 years after his death, the Rebbe's ghost lingers everywhere.
16:22Welcome to the headquarters of the Chabad Abavitch movement.
16:26This little vestibule that we're standing in has so much history.
16:32Films in praise of the Rebbe are being shown on the screen in the entrance.
16:36The Rebbe would distribute dollars to everyone and anyone that would come by.
16:41The idea was to take that dollar and give it to a poor person.
16:45And then the idea was to do a good deal, an act of charity.
16:50And behind a door, there's an enormous telephone switchboard.
16:56In the 70s, the Rebbe decided to globalize the movement, exporting the Chabad Lubavitch message across the Jewish world.
17:06So, to keep in touch with his emissaries abroad, a young member of his community invented an international communication system.
17:15Here he is, Chaim Halbeslam.
17:19This is me, still with a black beard, before it turned white.
17:24And I tell people when I used to be young and beautiful, today I'm just beautiful.
17:31Those people you see in this picture, this is the Rebbe's emissaries all over the world.
17:37Today there are about five and a half thousand of them.
17:39In those days it was only about four thousand.
17:43Those people wanted to hear what the Rebbe has to say.
17:46So, we set up this system.
17:49At a time when the internet didn't exist, the Rebbe's words were broadcast live to all the faithful by telephone.
17:57Argentina, Madison, Wisconsin, Australia, Chicago, all over the world, many, many more countries.
18:05And we started out with one phone line.
18:08We got a telephone and they listened.
18:10This was the best system.
18:11We made it right here.
18:13We built it here.
18:14And it worked.
18:18A network that has enabled the movement to become one of the most popular in the world.
18:28In Brooklyn, the Chabad Lubavitch neighborhood is buzzing, because tomorrow is Pesach, the Jewish Passover, that celebrates the Hebrews' liberation
18:37from slavery in Egypt.
18:41It's one of the most important festivals of the year, but it brings its own share of extra chores.
18:53We're going to go immerse these vessels.
18:58I need one person to help me.
19:02Yoni and four of his children are going to wash their brand new utensils, purchased for the occasion, in a
19:08rainwater pool once again.
19:10Oh, look at this. Perfect.
19:11With a bank card reader at the entrance.
19:17Okay.
19:18Is it open now?
19:19Okay.
19:21Oh, that's so smart. They keep that there.
19:23So we'll do one, two.
19:26Each utensil must be immersed three times.
19:33One, two.
19:36And now we know they're good to go.
19:37They're like holy, because they're going to be used for holy purposes.
19:41Food that you make blessings on, and for Passover meals.
19:47At home, the grandmother Broca is cooking for the whole family.
19:52If you'd like to help, you could help. Wash your hands with soap first.
19:56And then we will get started.
19:59Kids are having fun.
20:02Rivki and Yoni have traveled from Florida, where they live with their children,
20:06to spend the eight days of the holiday with Rivki's parents.
20:09And during this period, the list of prohibitions gets longer.
20:14First of all, the Jewish Passover celebration stipulates that you must not eat or bring any products containing yeast,
20:21such as bread, into the house.
20:23So you have to do the housework to remove every trace of bread.
20:29The cooking of the holiday, we scrub everything, and then we cover it with silver foil, so nothing leaven touched
20:37it.
20:37Yes, the water is boiling.
20:39In addition, there are the prohibitions that apply throughout the year.
20:43No pork, no shellfish, kosher meat, and it's forbidden to mix milk and meat.
20:50Meat, dishwasher.
20:52I also have a separate microwave.
20:54And this is my dairy side of the kitchen.
20:57So I have my dairy oven, and a dairy stove top, and all my dairy utensils are kept on this
21:07side.
21:11Have you ever seen anything like this?
21:14This is what you call a horseradish root.
21:18So it's actually very, very strong.
21:21I'm going to peel it, cube it, and run it through the food processor to make it fine.
21:25Here is my gefilte fish.
21:27White fish and carp, ground fresh, and do it homemade.
21:33And of course, it's tradition.
21:36Broccia was born in Florida, into a family of 15 children.
21:40In the ultra-Orthodox world, contraception is only allowed under exceptional circumstances, and with the rabbi's permission.
21:48I'm number five in the list.
21:50And this was at my baby, baby number 15 at her wedding.
21:53So all the children, my siblings and their children, came in for that wedding.
21:59This is my pride and joy.
22:01My husband and I, and all our children, we have seven children, six are married.
22:06And we now have 31 grandchildren.
22:10This picture has 30, because the last one was just born six weeks ago.
22:15Okay, we begin looking for chametz.
22:17Who knows the bracha that we make before we start?
22:19Me!
22:20Yes!
22:21Me!
22:22The week's celebrations will begin.
22:36Ten pieces of bread are hidden in the house, and the children have to find them.
22:41Uh-oh, what's this?
22:43Uh-oh!
22:43Uh-oh!
22:45Uh-oh!
22:45Uh-oh!
22:45Uh-oh!
22:47In the bag!
22:49Where's the bag?
22:50Second piece!
22:51Let's keep searching.
22:53Tomorrow, before noon, you cannot have any more bread than that.
22:56Uh-oh, what's this?
22:58Uh-oh!
23:00I think eight, no, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine.
23:06The next morning, in front of the large synagogue...
23:11Good shot!
23:13Who else?
23:14The residents of the neighborhood are burning the last pieces of bread that they've found at home in the street.
23:20There we go.
23:24All under the gaze of the New York police.
23:28For Yoni Katz, it's a victory over history.
23:33That's what people were thinking.
23:34The Jews around the Holocaust, that was the last generation.
23:37And boy, were they wrong.
23:39Look at this.
23:39Here we are in Cron Heights, Brooklyn, and...
23:45Jews practicing the same custom as their forefathers burning the Thomas on Passover.
23:50As far as the eye can see here, America's the land of the free.
23:54That's the very beginning of the Constitution.
23:57The freedom of religion.
23:58You're able to practice and serve God in the way that you see fit.
24:11The United States allows all religious communities to worship in the public arena.
24:19Which is ideal for groups who want to live according to the strictest and most rigid rules.
24:26We head to the Borough Park neighborhood, still in Brooklyn.
24:3470% of the residents here are Hasidic Jews.
24:38And most of them are even stricter than the Chabad Lubavitch.
24:46This is where Rachel Freier lives.
24:48She's elegant.
24:50Are you here?
24:51But follows the clothing regulations of her community.
24:55Long clothes and a wig.
24:56She became the first Hasidic judge on the Supreme Court of the State of New York.
25:01She was elected thanks to the votes from her neighborhood's residents.
25:05When I ran for a civil court, there were other candidates that ran against me.
25:10It was a three-way race and I got 40% of the vote.
25:15By the time I ran for a judge, most of the people knew who I was already
25:20because I had done a lot of pro bono volunteer work within the community.
25:26Oh, I see you.
25:28Ellie!
25:29Rachel Freier is meeting her daughter Lea, and her son-in-law Gavriel.
25:34Lea is 24 years old and has two children.
25:43Ellie, wanna go to sleep?
25:46No? So smile.
25:49Rachel belongs to the Bobov Hasidic movement,
25:51which originated in Bobova, a town in southern Poland.
26:00Here, from the age of three years, boys let locks of hair, known as payotte,
26:05grow on each side of their face.
26:11And on holidays like today, married men wear a traditional Eastern European fur hat,
26:16the streiml.
26:18In this community, they speak a mixture of English and Yiddish.
26:25The language of Eastern European Jews,
26:28which virtually disappeared after the Second World War.
26:31Oh, yeah, yeah, this is kind of lecture, eh?
26:33He thinks everything is like a lecture, he could jump.
26:35The time that he thinks he could jump over everything.
26:39We're taking him to the swing, okay?
26:46Gabriel, who was born and grew up in the United States,
26:49only learned English at the age of eight.
26:55Like in the other Hasidic branches, men study religion all their life,
27:00and work as late as possible.
27:02So it's up to the women to earn the money for the household.
27:06paradoxically even though the Hasidic world is dominated by men women have more access to the
27:12outside world when I was growing up and I went to school we were taught about the value of the
27:19men
27:19being able to study in Talmudic academies I said to myself then I wanted to marry a Talmudic scholar
27:27and that I was going to work to support him no God was good to me I had a good
27:31job because I
27:32was able to support my husband and now when my husband went into business he does commercial
27:37finance and he did well even though I didn't have to work I continued working after funding her
27:44husband's religious studies nowadays Rachel pays so that her three sons-in-law do not work and
27:50study all day long it's a heart it's red like all the members of their community Leah and
28:01Gavriel were virgins when they married and the first meeting was carefully arranged there's
28:08something called a shot which is a matchmaker for the matchmaker you know over the years when you're
28:13into the gym which means when you're you know ready to get married calls your parents each parent and
28:19asks like you know a boy came up does you know do you think it's a good idea and then
28:23both parents
28:24do information about the family the girl the boy and after both sides think it's a good idea then
28:32first let's say my I met his mother and my father and him and if they and then since they
28:38both like
28:38like each other then we met we met for an hour and a half once and then two days later
28:45again and then we
28:47get engaged the first time I wasn't sure the second time I knew like I knew right away even when
28:55you
28:55go out with someone for a year you can't really know someone could play again if everything looks
29:01okay you have to rely on God it makes makes life much easier it makes everything calm it's no stress
29:10when you lie on God even though they barely knew each other Gabriel and Leah got married seven and a
29:18half months later they wanted to show us the pictures of the ceremony my parents my father my
29:25mother my siblings during the ceremony the men and women are each on one side of the room as is
29:33always the case outside the family circle the husband comes and covers the face the bride then you walk
29:41down there's like the hopper you walk around seven times then he gives the ring then he's dancing
30:00everyone dances but separately they are wanted to show us the pictures of the men partying but not
30:07the women out of a sense of modesty Gabriel trades a little on the stock market but the rest of
30:21the time
30:21he studies the Talmud the text of Jewish religious laws meanwhile Leah works in the basement of the house
30:33are these people that you wrote there's other people with her mother she's set up an association of
30:39volunteer female ambulance drivers the aim is to allow Hasidic Jewish women not to have to be in close
30:47contact with male health care workers radio check EN 748 at base
30:54hello
30:55yeah honey's crying oh man the association has 50 or so volunteers who work during the day and make themselves
31:03available at night oh my gosh she got something she got so big no it's crazy so many women were
31:11like traumatized from their experiences many women didn't even call for help because they were too embarrassed to have a
31:16man show up
31:17a lot of men were upset about it they didn't want women to do this they felt it's not a
31:21place for women and all the big rabbi said that it is very important and women should be doing it
31:26but it is you know funny to see women driving an ambulance when you're not used to that
31:31but the rabbi said that even if it's not the typical it's still better than having a man deliver a
31:36baby
31:40the rabbi's support put an end to the controversy because among Hasidic Jews they make all the major
31:47decisions for example Leah only agreed to our interview with her rabbi's consent
31:53i was worried about being on all the you know tv interviews because we are raised that a woman's face
32:00they shouldn't be publicized and and i knew that so i went to my rabbi who's a very very religious
32:06person
32:07and he knows everything about as just not shim and about like all the things that we do if he
32:11says it's
32:11the right thing for me i don't have to be worried the same applies to using her telephone at the
32:18price of
32:19fifteen dollars per month a community service limits internet access which the rabbis view as inappropriate
32:26because in 2012 the main leaders of the hasidic movement banned their followers from using the
32:31internet except for work or with the rabbi's permission there was a big fanfare around the
32:41announcement and a lot of people there filmed it on their phones 60 000 men but no women gathered in
32:47this packed baseball stadium to hear the statement we are we are here we are going to hear the call
32:56of
32:56who have recognized and identified that this issue is
33:17women were invited to watch the event on a screen outside
33:33smartphones are not banned in the chabad lubavich community but all important decisions are made
33:40after consultation with a rabbi known as a mashbiyah who is also a marriage advisor and personal coach
33:57who is famous for having introduced bob dylan to the great rebbe in the 80s
34:10people who have a mashbiyah accomplish more did it help absolutely
34:19i mean i've been i've been asking you questions from before we were married you know when your name
34:25came up and then when i was ready to get engaged i called you um and and then we were
34:31ready to
34:32just thinking about moving to florida you said try it out try it out for a year so we weren't
34:40sure
34:40what you meant maybe did you think it wasn't a good idea and you're just saying try it out and
34:43you'll
34:44end up back or but you gave the go ahead and then it's as if you started a trend after
34:51that
34:53in recent years many hasidic jews from new york have moved to florida one of the most liberal states
34:58in terms of religion where they can provide an education entirely in line with their beliefs
35:09one hour from miami and its seafront lies the small town of boca raton
35:30the cat's family have lived here for three years they've just come back from new york
35:34after the end of the jewish passover festival
35:41let's go let's go it's another day to change the world
36:02the reason they've chosen this town is for the education of their nine children
36:07during the covid health crisis schools remained closed for a long time in new york
36:13at the same time this chabad lubavich school opened in boca raton
36:21and here the teaching mostly revolves around religion and jewish tradition
36:27so all all nine kids go to the same school makes it easy the learning's done in hebrew a little
36:35yiddish it's
36:36really uh concentrated sort of an old school style teaching of you know the way it was perhaps done in
36:44the shuttle back in poland thank you hello to the teacher in yiddish and the day begins
36:59this is yiddish track good that's iron good think good and it will be good that's how you say it
37:06in yiddish even though yiddish is important among the chabad lubavich the teaching is done in english
37:12we can't force them to do this this is too hard they're suffering enough as it is the school opened
37:19in 2020 with around 30 pupils three years later it has almost 300 age between six months and 15 years
37:28old boys and girls are separated from first grade
37:35they each have to play on their own side at break time and get their photo taken separately
37:41always with the rebbe
37:55behind me this is a divider it separates the the boys classes from the girls classes
38:02chasidic circles boys and girls don't casually date when they're like you know teenagers or
38:07pre-teenagers um of course when it comes to the time of marriage that's when we focus on getting
38:13married but until then you're typically separated um male from female in order to allow that intimacy
38:21to flourish when it's the right time in the right way
38:27the day begins with morning prayer the older boys pray with parents who are also teachers like
38:33yoni cuts he and his wife are both teachers here this helps them to reduce their children's school fees
38:48rivki is in charge of a kindergarten class on the wall are the portraits of the seven historic great
38:54masters the rebbees of the chabad lubavich movement this morning rivki is organizing a role play
39:03the little girls cover their heads like their mothers
39:09and the boys put on the prayer shawl like their fathers the children are learning not to forget
39:15to pray before eating oh there's almond would you like some orange here now put it in your mouth
39:43the children learn to read hebrew from the age of three before even learning the latin alphabet
39:54lots of boys want to become rabbis so three quarters of their lessons are devoted to religious
40:00education for the girls it's 60 percent what is hashem doing now he made the whole world for us right
40:09and what does he do for us now he makes us right yes he made how do you say man
40:16in hebrew
40:17i don't know right
40:24this means that there's not much time left for the rest english maths a little science
40:30and as the principal explains to us they teach creationism the idea that god created the world
40:40there are many books out there that explain science and torah together they use they use jewish science
40:47books okay so how like do you teach evolution so evolution oh that's a specific area that you know
40:54we that the torah has that we don't believe in and we have a different theory of how the world
40:59was
40:59created we believe like the torah says that god created it he created a whole world but all the you
41:06know all the other parts of stem and and how you know the nature works and you know biology they're
41:12learning
41:13like reproduction and such there are curriculums that explain reproduction in a you know in specific
41:20ways you have specific ways to teach that i don't know but i wouldn't get into that right here
41:28the u.s federal government has no authority over education and florida has no control over the
41:37curricula of private religious schools the children only have to pass tests and prove their basic
41:43knowledge of maths and english which allows schools like this one to benefit from state aid
42:06the boys learn to sing and dance like their elders
42:21the boys learn to sing and dance like that
42:32if the acidic jews have found their place in the sun in florida elsewhere peaceful coexistence
42:38is not always easy and can even turn into a territorial dispute.
42:51The small town of Monroe lies an hour and a half from New York.
42:59This typical American town had never seen Hasidic Jews until the 1970s,
43:04when about 15 families from the Satmar branch settled there.
43:09This reminds me of days of, like, protesting and everything, you know, out in the cold.
43:16Mike and John have lived in Monroe for many years.
43:22In 2013, they created a group to fight the growth of this new community,
43:27which had become a majority, having grown from 100 or so people 50 years ago to 35,000 today.
43:41Compared to 9,000 inhabitants in the rest of the town.
43:45Our house, this was my house over here on the left, with the green garage.
43:50When I moved here, almost all the homes were owned by non-Hasidic people.
43:56But now it's predominantly Hasidim who own these houses.
44:03The Hasidic Jews are concentrated in an area covering three square kilometers called Kiryas Joel,
44:09after the name of their rabbi.
44:1240% of them live below the poverty line.
44:16Their lifestyle, their presence here, is upsetting to some of the local people.
44:21Welcome to Kiryas Joel.
44:23We kindly ask that you dress and behave in a modest way.
44:28This includes wearing long skirts or pants, covered necklines, sleeves past the elbow,
44:35use appropriate language, maintain gender separation in all public areas.
44:42Most of the people that live in Monroe live there for that environment.
44:48They want to live in a rural, semi-rural area with trees.
44:53There's such a cultural difference.
44:55And I don't think this was meant to be a, like I said,
44:59I don't think it was meant to be a provocation to us, but it could be seen as well.
45:05In 2013, when the Hasidic Jews asked to use two square kilometers of nature to build new housing,
45:12Mike and John led the revolt.
45:16The reaction was, no freaking way.
45:21Yeah, yeah.
45:21We saw it as a chance for the town of Monroe,
45:24if we could politically separate the village of Kiryas Joel into its own town,
45:29then the voters of Kiryas Joel and the leadership could no longer dictate who was on the town board in
45:38Monroe.
45:40So Monroe gave up one square kilometer of land and no more.
45:46In exchange, Kiryas Joel agreed to become an independent town in 2019.
45:52It was intended to calm local tensions.
45:55Spotting Mike and John, a neighbor comes to meet them.
46:00You got matzah?
46:01Yeah, I'll bring you some.
46:04Do you know this one?
46:05No.
46:06Okay.
46:06That's funny.
46:07That's great, man.
46:09You remember, remember United Monroe?
46:12Yeah.
46:13Yeah, that's me and Mike.
46:15Hi, Mike.
46:16How are you doing?
46:17I'm John.
46:17John.
46:18What's your name?
46:19Joe.
46:19Nice to meet you, Joe.
46:20Yeah, I used to, I used to live down on Seven Springs Mountain Road.
46:25I live in Florida now, and I didn't think I'd get matzah.
46:29Fresh matzah, you know?
46:30Yeah, fantastic.
46:30In Florida, the weather's much better than here.
46:32Oh, yeah, much better.
46:33Enjoy the matzah.
46:34Yeah, thank you very much.
46:36Nice to meet you, Joe.
46:37Everything good?
46:38Very good, very good.
46:40Sorry.
46:45What's that?
46:46You can take his hand to eat.
46:48But the truce between the communities only lasted for ten years, and everyone remains
46:54wary, especially Mike, who takes a dim view of the arrival of other Asidic Jews to the town.
47:02This house here is being built by a Asidic gentleman right there.
47:08See the big one in the back there?
47:10He's got eight children.
47:11That was all woods, you know?
47:14And so that's, you know, that's a bit of a change in this neighborhood then.
47:19He seems like a nice fella, and he promised me we won't have a lot of traffic.
47:24This is a nice quiet street, but he said, we won't have a lot of traffic.
47:28I have eight kids and one car.
47:30So, you know, if you're coming down the block.
47:34Yeah.
47:34But what will be, as you would know, John, is school buses.
47:37School buses and taxi.
47:39Yeah.
47:39Yeah.
47:40Yeah.
47:41That's unfortunate.
47:46Living in an isolated community like Kiryas Joel can cause problems when it comes to
47:51peacefully coexisting with the neighbors.
47:53But if you want to leave, you risk losing everything, including your family,
47:59while being completely unprepared for life outside of the movement.
48:08A few hundred kilometers further north, Montreal, Canada.
48:1420,000 Hasidic Jews live here.
48:1715 years ago, Shifra and her husband, Yohanan, lived with their four children in a totally
48:23isolated community known as Kiryas Tosh, one of the most extreme in the Hasidic world.
48:30I actually know how to play.
48:33A picture of our family in Tosh.
48:39At the time, Shifra shaved her head and covered it with a scarf.
48:44She doesn't wear one anymore.
48:46In Kiryas Tosh, the religious authorities forbade everything to do with modernity, including
48:52English, the very language of the country that they live in.
48:56I don't even know the ABC by heart now.
48:59Everything was in Yiddish.
49:02Only Yiddish literature.
49:04We were not allowed to read English books, even if it was religious English books.
49:10Because we were told that English language is evil.
49:16Like, it blemishes your soul.
49:19Even bicycles were not allowed.
49:21No TV, no cinema, no movies, no videos, no Game Boy, no Time Out, no radio.
49:27So what did they have?
49:28And we didn't even have much games or toys or other stuff for them to play.
49:38So, Yohanan broke a fundamental rule.
49:41He visited a Jewish but non-Hasidic library in secret.
49:47We bring home books and tapes and always music had to be in the house.
49:53He would dance with them, sing with them, like the songs, the Yiddish songs.
49:58It wasn't from religious Jews.
50:01It's just fun children's songs.
50:03Like, what's the point of that?
50:05They said, Yohanan is dangerous.
50:11So, what was the result of this?
50:15That people were afraid to talk to me.
50:18So, I became isolated.
50:22Yohanan and Shifra then made a momentous decision,
50:25which would carry heavy consequences.
50:27They left their community.
50:29They remain practising Jews but are no longer Hasidic.
50:33They take us to Kiryas Tosh.
50:36Just half an hour from Montreal city centre.
50:41Every moment here is like I feel like I'm in a burning pot, you know.
50:45I love that it's Friday before sundown, so that way everybody's too busy to notice.
50:56This is the hidden street where it's taboo to walk for boys.
51:02Okay, here's the miqwa.
51:03We were told that there's a haunted house here.
51:07Shifra doesn't want to get out for fear of meeting her parents,
51:11whom she hardly sees anymore.
51:13Want to go?
51:14No.
51:16That's the entrance of the Cheyder.
51:19We're gonna have to park in a side place.
51:22We park behind the building as Shifra asks us.
51:25She's extremely tense.
51:27Because you are not welcome here unless you follow the rules.
51:33I'm afraid to be recognised.
51:36There's a car that's coming here, so I'm already nervous.
51:39Because I'm not dressed Hasidic, I have my hair uncovered.
51:43I don't want to, like, take any chances to get people angry.
51:49And particularly, I don't want my mother to have to pay the price of being shamed.
51:53People start talking, you know.
51:56Are those places you like to be challenged with kids?
52:02I don't know if there's any place in Taj where I felt good in.
52:06A prison is a prison.
52:09You can never feel good in a prison.
52:12I had to wake up in the morning 5.30 every day.
52:18And at 6.15 we had to be in the Cheyder, studying.
52:24No food, no drink, nothing.
52:29You had to pray very loud, like...
52:37So this type, we spent time for other things,
52:43like to take a walk in the summer, under the sun, or something like this,
52:48would be...
52:49could be considered a sin.
52:52Couples...
52:54who are pious...
52:56should not go together on the street.
52:58It was forbidden, actually, here, too, for couples to walk.
53:00Did you know why?
53:01Because you've got to keep everything sexual private.
53:04Even if it's just...
53:05Even if it has nothing to do with sexual...
53:07Like, just the idea of man and woman together,
53:10because it's a very strictly segregated community.
53:17They take us to see their first flat.
53:20Right there.
53:22You're going to go up?
53:23Hmm?
53:24To our first apartment?
53:27Right now?
53:28Okay.
53:40You're not allowed to drive before marriage.
53:43So every teenage boy is desperate to leave the prison of the yeshiva,
53:49to be able to drive, to be able to have sex,
53:53and birth control is forbidden.
53:55And then they have many children.
53:58If you leave the fold, you lose contact with your own children,
54:02so everybody's afraid to leave.
54:06Johanan's presence won't go unnoticed.
54:10When I lived here, I could hear the neighbour tutoring...
54:14tutoring a boy, Gomorrah, or whatever.
54:21A former classmate from his religious school
54:23takes him to task in a mixture of Yiddish and English.
54:27What's your name?
54:27Don't have to be business.
54:28Think of your keeper.
54:30You don't go with the keeper...
54:31It's a house shoppers.
54:33You're not with a type of family,
54:35you're not with an English teacher,
54:37you're with a girl.
54:39You're with children, they're with a girl.
54:41They're with a girl.
54:42You're with a girl.
54:46You're not willing to believe anything.
54:53I'm a hero.
54:55Take a job, start making money, start blaming the world and take care of yourself.
55:09What should I say? It's a cult-like community where people are...
55:15They want people to be kind of isolated or insulated.
55:19When they left their community, Johanan and Shifra were cut off from most of their loved ones.
55:25But by leaving together, they've been able to raise their children freely.
55:36We're meeting their daughter, Esther, who speaks English and even French.
55:41She's doing film studies.
55:43All this would have been impossible if her parents had stayed in Kyriastos.
55:49Being here is really enough.
55:51L'idée de se marier pour l'amour, l'idée d'avoir des relations sexuelles saines,
55:56l'idée de porter ce qu'on veut, d'avoir les façons qu'on veut, l'idée de cinéma,
56:05l'idée de lire les livres qu'on veut, d'écrire ce qu'on veut, de dire ce qu'on
56:09veut.
56:10Ce n'est pas vraiment une option.
56:12Quelle serait ta vie si tu étais restée dans la communauté ultra-orthodoxe?
56:15J'avais deux ans, donc je serais sûrement mariée.
56:18J'aurais au moins un, deux enfants.
56:22Je serais mariée avec quelqu'un que je ne connais pas vraiment.
56:25Ils m'ont sauvée de ça.
56:26Et je leur dois ma vie, en fait.
56:33In her short film, which she decided to shoot in Yiddish,
56:37Esther asked her mother to put herself in the shoes of a Hasidic woman.
56:42Babi's friend had asked,
56:44she had her seen last week,
56:47to kiss with her mother.
56:50On peut rencontrer un peu plus vite,
56:56et tous les stissons vont se arrêter.
57:01Stissons?
57:02Ce n'est pas un stissons, Mami.
57:04Je l'aime.
57:07Et elle s'appelle Melody.
57:10Luckily for Esther,
57:12when she fell in love with the girl,
57:13that's not how it went.
57:17J'ai dit à ma mère,
57:18j'ai dit à cette fille que je l'aime.
57:21Et ma mère était comme,
57:23cool, wow, ok.
57:26On Friday evenings,
57:27the family meets to celebrate Shabbat in their own way.
57:31Yohanan and Shifra found it extremely hard
57:34to find their place in a world
57:35where they didn't know the rules.
57:37So in 2014,
57:39they sued the Canadian government
57:41for not having ensured
57:43that they received a basic education.
57:46But their petition was dismissed.
57:50Despite it all,
57:51they have found a balance today.
57:53they and their children are happy.
57:55It all fades away.
57:59It all fades away.
58:03Aaaaainn .
58:04They are suffering ,
58:19aaaainn
58:20aaaaainn