Group That I Have Recently

¶ … group that I have recently heard has been involved in a spate of kidnappings. In fact, I am aware of someone whose ex-husband was stopped form crossing the border recently with attempted abduction for the sake of the soul of the kids. This is a Jewish radical Hassidic group who reject the existence of the state of Israel believing that the Holocaust was a punishment for the state's founding and for the Zionists twisting God's hand.

In other words, the Zionists, they claim, should have waited for the messiah to arrive before founding the state themselves. Since they didn't, the holocaust came as penalty. The group has other notions too such as the idea that women shouldn't drive, nor be represented on photographs, nor touch the Holy Books. Almost totally segregated, the group makes their own clans, has their own rules to keep them apart form contaminating influences from secular lives, and enforces those rules on those who belong to their clan.

A recent regulation, for instance has been their inclusion of 'modesty police' who survey women whom they consider lackign in modesty and harangue them to intensify their dress code. The kidnappings have, and do, occur due to the fact that one product of their society has rejected their indoctrination for another way of life. This way of life may be Jewish and even religiously Jewish. Yet, to this sect, the person has veered off true Judaism and the soul of the child needs saving.

They, therefore, have this obligation as they write and espouse to save the soul of the child and stories of their doing so include masquerading boys as girls and spiriting them from one country to another wherever their sect abides. Ethnography and anthropology involves a detached attitude about the observed. Scientific and qualitative research demands as objective an attitude as possible. Ion the other hand, as with populations such as that mentioned above, it may be extremely difficult to attain and maintain an objective stance.

This is partially due to the fact that they so radically militate against Western norms as well as seeming to violate and get away with many principles of justice under the guise of relgion. To study such a group, I would first advocate reading everything that is existent upon them.

This should be done firstly from an outsider perspective reading accounts form other anthropologists and people who have visited their community in order to gain a knowledge of their overall philosophy from a Western perspective and the challenges as well as growth lessons that outsiders have experience. More important, however, is reading insider reports and narratives. This include reading their core newspapers (they don't have TV, Internet or radio) and magazines. An education in Yiddish and secondarily Hebrew would be beneficial.

Yiddish is their prime language; they believe it to be the only and true 'Jewish' language and even though many may grow up in America, many of their children may never know or speak English. A knowledge of Hebrew and Yiddish would be invaluable to reading their texts and absorbing oneself in their culture. Attending their schools, and preferably enrolling in their schools for at least a year, would be helpful too.

Doing this, would involve one in their milieu and have them participate with their teachers and students gaining an unprecedented perspective of their thinking and way of life. A visit to their homes on Saturday and/or Festivals is also illuminating but far less so than if one were to, somehow or other, get them to believe that one were one of them. Even if one were to pretend an.