Buy A Life Apart - Hasidism in America

Product Description: In New York City, the Hasidim are a common sight, but even here their way of life remains a mystery to those outside their community. With their use of Yiddish, their distinctive clothes and their strict observance of Jewish ritual and law, the Hasidim are considered by many an insular people with little connection to mainstream America. Yet their values are those that many Americans find most precious: family, community, and a life of meaning.

In this "unique glimpse into this closed society" (Philadelphia Inquirer), seven years in the making, we are taken into the depths of the Hasidim's joyous, sometimes harsh, and often beautiful world. A "series of beautifully shot, startlingly intimate interviews" (New York Post) sheds light on idiosyncratic customs such as matchmaking, secular education and traditional dress, by taking us through the homes, schools and synagogues of this insular world. The filmmakers also candidly address suspicions of racism and accusations of sexism from the outside community.

A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, narrated by Leonard Nimoy and Sarah Jessica Parker takes us on an illuminating journey into a "beautiful, mesmerizing and mysterious world" (San Francisco Bay Guardian) of a community kept distinct from its surrounding culture for generations.

Amazon.com: Hasidic Jews seem alien, and even hostile, to those outside their culture, which frequently includes other Jews. They dress differently, don't mingle between the sexes, speak Yiddish, and wear side curls, all in an attempt to rigorously follow the commandments of the Torah. They tend to keep to themselves, shunning television and the media so outside influences cannot corrupt their values and views. Yet filmmakers Oren Rudavsky and Menachem Daum were able to enter their world, and the result is the fascinating documentary A Life Apart: Hasidism in America. Using interviews with academics and members of the community and some historical footage, the filmmakers trace the growth of Hasidic groups in the United States. Groups formed around particular Rebbes (learned leaders) and they took their names from their Eastern European home cities (the Samovar Hasids, the Breslover Hasids, and so on). Leonard Nimoy and Sarah Jessica Parker narrate, explaining how this movement came to America and how it was able to flourish. Dissenting voices also appear, in the form of neighborhood people who are distressed at the Hasids' refusal to speak to members not in their community and of a young woman, Pearl Gluck, who left the community in order to pursue her writing and to follow a life of her own choosing. Many Hasids refuse to speak on camera, and we see many shielding themselves with hands or coats so as not to appear on film. But those who do appear are poignant in their discussions of why the Hasidic life is important to them. One man speaks to the directors, even as he acknowledges that he will never see the movie, but he will do it "in order to help a Jew make a living." One couple, Holocaust survivors, are not Hasidic, but their children are, and the reasonings of both the parents and the children are interesting. This film, shown on PBS, is a consequential look into a lifestyle many of us don't understand, and it may help in increasing an understanding. --Jenny Brown

Customer Reviews:

It's A Little Dated Now, But Still Informative December 25, 2009
I learned a great deal about Hasidism in the United States. I viewed the DVD and thoroughly enjoyed it. Some of the reviews, here, (I read them all.) seem longer than the documentary, itself. I often wonder why folks dispense with writing a simple review of a film and write a discourse that has little to do with the creative work, itself.

3 stars out of 4 (1 of 1 Found this Helpful) December 18, 2008
The Bottom Line:

Though conducted as a surface-level investigation, "A Life Apart" functions capably as an introduction to the lives of Hasidic Jews, and should be required counter-programming for anyone who ever had to see "A Stranger Among Us."

Informative but rather superficial (3 of 3 Found this Helpful) July 21, 2008
This film is informative but rather superficial. If you know well the hassidic world or search for a deep understanding of his ways and thinking, this will be not enough for you. It gives information and (bless God!!) is sympathetic, but if the mind and professional expertise of the fim makers is there, the soul is not. And the soul, the neshameh, is an important thing in hassidism after all...

The high cost of righteousness (2 of 2 Found this Helpful) June 10, 2008
The adherents of all religions seek purity of one kind or another, but only a handful of nonmonastic religious communities believe that radical separation from the world is a necessary condition for it. In the US, the Amish, the Hutterites, some of the more extreme fundamentalist Mormons, and the Hasidim are the religious groups which continue to live enclaved existences. In "A Life Apart," directors Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky explore the Hasidic community in NYC.

Most Hasidim came to the US in the wake of the holocaust. Four out of five European Hasidim were exterminated by the Nazis. After the war, the five surviving heads of Hasidic communities brought their people to the US to begin anew--not in search of the great American dream, as the film makes clear, but in search of a safe place to survive as an intact religious tradition. Accordingly, Hasidim keep to themselves, retaining their mode of worship, their distinctive garb, their community mores and norms. Their marriages continue to be arranged, their families continue to be hierarchical and patriarchal, children are educated apart from the world (and thus have many professional avenues closed to them), homes continue to lack television and computers. Goyim are shunned, as are non-Hasidic Jews. There is, as one interviewed scholar observes, a voluntary forsaking of the rich pluralism of American culture for the sake of a spiritual purity that, while rich in certain ways, can also be in-bred, sultifying for some, and arrogantly judgmental of outsiders. (But enclaves in America are hard to maintain, and more and more Hasidim are forced by economic straits to work outside of their community. The segment in the film devoted to this migration wonderfully features a klezmer rendition of "New York, New York" as background music.)

"A Life Apart" does a good job of highlighting the benefits and disadvantages of Hasidic exclusivity, and in doing so helps viewers appreciate the challenges faced by all enclaved religious communities. But the film fails to convey adequately the incredible spiritual richness of the Hasidic tradition. A few obligatory words are said about the Baal Shem Tov's focus on joy in religion, and his move away from legalistic and bookish Judaism. But nothing is said about the specifics of his teachings nor of the Hasidic rebbes whom he inspired. The upshot is that the film focuses on Hasidism primarily as a culture rather than a spiritual phenomenon.

Leonard Nimoy and Sarah Jessica Parker narrate the film. It's worth pointing out that Parker's annoyingly amateurish schoolgirl mode of delivery, as well as her public image from "Sex and the City" as a material girl, make her an odd and distracting choice.

Very interesting (2 of 3 Found this Helpful) July 29, 2007
I loved the documentary. I learned a lot about the Hadsidic community that I didn't know. Highly recommend it!

A Life Apart - Hasidism in America

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