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Interview with Rabbi Michal Springer (2)
Abstract
Footage from the 1997 documentary “A Life Apart: Hasidism in America” (directed by Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky), the first in-depth documentary about Hasidic Jews, members of a distinctive group within Judaism that has roots in pre-World War II Eastern Europe.

Interview with Michal Springer, a rabbinic chaplain in a hospital. (Part 2) 10/13/1994.

Terms you may encounter:

Ba’al teshuvah: A Jew who becomes more religiously observant and/or becomes Hasidic.

00:00:47 - Interview with Rabbi Michal Springer: About an encounter with a woman in the hospital who had had 14 children.

00:02:02 - About how a Hasidic mother who didn't want her to visit their son out of fear that he would be confused by the idea of a non-Orthodox woman. Speaks critically of the family for shutting her out.

00:05:40 - About how there are many different Hasidic communities and that the people within those communities are individuals. Sometimes her chances of being accepted by Hasidic Jews are better than they are among secular Jews.

00:07:59 - About how welcoming Chabad (Lubavitcher) Hasidim were to an interfaith couple she was working with. About how Hasidim help her connect with her heritage and how she prefers to go to a Hasidic synagogue on Simhat Torah (festival celebrating the completion of the annual reading of the Torah, the Five Books of Moses; also pronounced “simkhes toyra”).

00:10:07 - About how Reform and Conservative Judaism lack "soul" and how the Hasidim have that missing passion. But she can't be a Hasid because as a woman, Hasidism is not egalitarian enough for her.

00:11:14 - About how on the one hand Hasidim have community but on the other hand there are things covered up that are not addressed.
Collection
Duration
00:11:56 (HH:MM:SS)
Language:
English
Copyright Date
1997
Rights Declaration:
This recording is protected by copyright. You are free to view it but not download it. Please contact the Brooklyn College Archives for further information about how you may use this recording.
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https://54098.surd9.group/show.php?pid=njcore:194929
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PID
njcore:194929