FREE ESSAY ON DIFFERENCES

DIFFERENCES

Differences
It was a cold January night in Brooklyn. I was helping 
my father provide a sound system for a Jewish high school 
play. Normally when one thinks of Jewish people, they think 
that they are just regular people who instead of going to 
church go to temple. However there are many different types 
of Jews. The ones my father and I were working for that 
night were called Hasidic Jews. Every winter my father 
would have several bookings of equipment rentals for their 
high school plays. For a long time, I thought that, besides 
some noticeable differences, they were the same as my Jewish 
friends in school, but one night, something weird happened. 
I was sitting on a box back stage doing my homework. Pops 
and I had just finished setting up so I had time on my hands 
to study. While doing my tricky Fifth grade work, I noticed 
a small Hasidic toddler standing across the way just 
starring at me. At first, I thought it was just a common 
behavior of a small person, so not worried in the least bit, 
I simply stared back at the tiny dude. Surprisingly, our 
staring contest lasted for a long two minutes. It finally 
ended when my father walked in and scared the poor kid away. 
He did see us staring and asked what that was about. I told 
him what had happened and his explanation for it was kind of 
strange. He said the boy probably had never been that close 
to black people in his life. When dad said that, I did not 
think that was possible; knowing how many black people 
there are in New York. Then He began to tell me about the 
complexities of their culture.
Dad had been working with the hasidic community for 
over twenty years. He said they would usually rent studio 
time from him in Manhattan. Then eventually, they would ask 
him to do on location work in other boroughs. After years 
of talking to different people, he realized that a majority 
of them originated from Eastern Europe. He was also told 
that the main objective of their culture was to maintain the 
'proper Jewish life' as dictated from biblical times. It is 
for this reason why the way the dress is different from the 
rest of modern society. The men are required to wear black 
suits and black wide brim hats. In addition they are not 
allowed to shave their facial hair. The same hair that was 
on their face from the beginning of puberty stays on their 
face until death. The women are not allowed to expose their 
arms or legs and when they are married, their natural hair 
cannot be seen. Wigs or babushkas are required. In terms 
of marriage, they are among the only groups in the modern 
world that have arranged marriages. Their first language is 
Yiddish, a cross between German and Hebrew. It was also 
said that social mixing with other cultures was generally 
discouraged. The only exception of this was for business. 
That is probably why the boy was starring for as long as he 
was.
Even though the Hasidic culture is very strict and 
orthodox, there are other cultures in our world with similar 
ideas on separation. Some believe that separation is 
beneficial to the maintenance of their ways of life. 
However, I believe that there should be some level of 
integration of peoples in life so that we all can benefit 
from the contributions that can be made by all and more 
importantly live together in peace.