Published: 13 September 2019
Last updated: 5 March 2024
CHASIDIM IN BROOKLYN have complained of being treated like they are in “a zoo” after a sharp rise in the number of tourists visiting their neighbourhood and taking photographs without their permission.
The Williamsburg and Crown Heights neighbourhoods of the New York borough, both of which contain substantial Chasidic communities, have been inundated by hundreds of visitors each day over the summer as part of “cultural tours” operated by a number of companies, according to the New York Post.
It is believed that shows and documentaries about the Chasidic community such as Shtisel and One of Us have contributed to the recent tourism surge.
One Chasidic man told the Post that he felt like the tourists saw him “as a freak”, someone “from another world…not human”. Another, who told the newpaper that he would regularly be photographed like he was on display in a zoo, said “we are people, not animals to be photographed”.
FULL STORY Shtisel safari? Brooklyn Chasidim fed up of being treated 'like a zoo' by growing numbers of tourists (Jewish Chronicle)
Photo: Ultra-Orthodox Jews in the Williamsburg neighbourhood in Brooklyn (AP/Joe Kohen)
