How do Hasidic Jews make money? | HASIDIC ECONOMY

one of the most Google questions about acidic Jews is this how do hasida make money in fact I as a tour guide in Hasidic Williamsburg had asked this question all the time and today for this video I'm gonna try to answer it [Music] the question confounds people so much because it's well known that hasidim don't generally go to college and in places like Williamsburg the boys who go on to be the Breadwinners in adulthood don't learn much secular education and they learn very little of the English language instead their studies are focused on the Torah and the talmud the sacred religious texts and it is true that the kinds of professions that require Advanced Training like doctors or lawyers aren't really seen in neighborhoods like Williamsburg but the vast majority of men still do work it's a popular misconception that Hasidic men sit and study the Torah for their entire adulthood while their wives juggle raising all the children and also working in places like Williamsburg in the sophomore acidic sect that is not the norm at all and it is a pet peeve of mine to set the record straight on that misconception the custom is generally actually that the women are Homemakers or work as secretaries and the men are the ones who are the primary Breadwinners so now that we got that misconception out of the way how do hasidim earn a living the acidic Community has its own growing internal economy thousands of acidic men and women are workers and business owners in that economy and I'm gonna unpack what that economy looks like for you so first of all there are a ton of special needs that Hasidic Jews have that can be met by the larger secular economy in a previous video on the Mom and Pop Shop culture in acidic Williamsburg I went to all the shops and I looked at what's inside and how not only are the shops locally owned but also they're filled with product that have been created by hasidim for the needs of the community so we visited a grocery store filled with kosher food made by local companies we saw newsstands with all the Hasidic newspapers and magazines we saw the clothing store with special modest clothing we saw the delis bakeries and other food places all selling Goods that are specifically kosher prepared in accordance to the laws we even saw kosher technology shops or toy stores with all the books and toys that reflect the community's values and that's just some of the shops there are so so so many more but even Beyond special needs just generic needs like plumbing and Roofing and bookkeeping and what have you you will find that as long as they don't require extensive extensive training to set up such a business there will be businesses within the community that will be patronized by the community and a good way to get a scope of how many of these businesses there are is to look at the phone book which I have here and I'll show you this directory has not only all the phone numbers of community members so everyone can call each other uh like the olden days it also has an extensive Yellow Pages with advertisement that lists all sorts of Hasidic businesses and we see computers construction Exterminating fences Insurance ice cream insulation Lumber luggage mortgages photo albums photography pharmacies Printing and so on and so forth there's a very strong acidic value that emphasizes patronizing each other to shop local so to speak and this creates a built-in advantage that compensates for other disadvantages that young Hasidic men have when they set up shop because they have a built-in customer base whenever they begin any new kind of venture from the day I got married I knew that I want to be architect I it was in me I was born as an architect this is the video of a man who tells the story of becoming an architect and how he succeeded because his Hasidic community members went to him with their projects worth millions of dollars even while he had no experience and there were much larger more experienced companies at the same price available that were not from within the community when I was acidic I actually worked for 15 years at a Hasidic corporate Insurance firm we sold Insurance to small businesses and the majority of our clients were Hasidic owned companies and I got a real feel at the time of the kinds of businesses that are in operation and there were many many and of course we got their patronage because we were Hasidic owned but returning to our phone book there's more to see here on the other end there is a Yiddish section which includes all sorts of industries that are it means holy works there are specific spiritual kinds of jobs and in the Yiddish section we see jobs like rabbis religious legal experts circumcision rabbis matchmakers kosher certification organizations scribes burial Society services for the ill Hospitality convalescent home lost and found on and on and on all of these are Enterprises and of course the biggest of all the spiritual Realms is the education industry there are so many children about half the population in Hasidic places like Williamsburg are minors which means there are so so many children and those children are schooled in acidic private schools where the jobs are open to anyone from within the community who's capable and usually it requires no Advanced certification and this creates a huge industry in education from teachers to principals to bus drivers and so on but what you see in this phone book is not all there is suffix this is not the end of the story in fact the acidic economy is constantly innovating especially I think as men get married at a really young age they go out there they have not been prepared for any particular career and they try to find a hustle some way they can maybe earn a book by inventing new needs that can then turn into new niches of business one example of that has been trade schools in general you don't go to college but some ingenious men got together and started a Hasidic Academy where you learn things like computers and architecture or another example is a Hasidic Tinder of sorts I think it's for matchmakers where you can put in information like your sect and your religious Garb to get a sense of who might possibly match with your family and similarly we have the whole arts and entertainment sector that is developed in a way that would have been unimaginable when I was a child there is now a whole culture of celebrity Hasidic entertainers and you can find on YouTube many many highly polished incredibly well done Hasidic music videos some Hasidic entertainers have been successful beyond for instance shulum lemmer who was signed by Universal Music and other Hasidic music videos have gone viral like this one which got 23 million views this young economy doesn't only create employment only for individuals from within in fact there are many Outsiders who work here for instance doctors and lawyers but even more so manual laborers who come in from the outside especially Spanish-speaking are an integral part of the economy like these ladies who gather every day on Division Avenue waiting to be hired by acidic women as cleaners in the homes okay so that explains a little bit the acidic economy the specialized needs the generic needs the spiritual needs but not everyone works within the acidic economy many step out in fact there are some very popular and established businesses or lines of work that are common for acidic men and operating outside and Beyond this little economy one good example is B H Photo which is a huge camera shop in the middle of Manhattan on 42nd Street owned by Hasidic Jews and staff by many hasidum and it is one example of people who go out of the community earn an income and then will bring that wealth into the community and it will then circulate in this economy it is not an economy in isolation rather it is very locally oriented so what comes in is then going to be spread within another very important example is real estate real estate well beyond the confines of Williamsburg there are many acidic men who are important players in the New York City real estate market and Beyond a very good article on realdeal.com a few years ago chronicled the ways in which hasidim have been investing in the real estate market writing learning and earning Hasidic Brooklyn's Real Estate mockers Investors from Ultra Orthodox sect have spent 2.5 billion in five areas over the past decade this is something else that you don't particularly need to go to college to become a real estate investor and especially because the city have been in Brooklyn well before the neighborhood like Williamsburg has risen in value so much they've had a heads up in the real estate market and that's been another source of wealth into the community another important example of an export so to speak that I have to mention because it's very substantial is Amazon selling in a 2019 BuzzFeed article people they reported that actually a good number of the products you might get from Amazon come from Orthodox Jewish brooklyn-based Sellers and they told the story of one man yossi who said I didn't know how to turn on a computer until I was 35 and yet by opening an Amazon selling shop he built a multi-million dollar business and he is just one of many who have gotten into this line because of the low barrier of Entry the diamond industry in Manhattan's 47th Street used to also be a very prominent line of work but in recent years that's really shrunk very significantly another example of how this economy doesn't at all operate in isolation and rather is dependent on income coming in from the outside is government Aid there are many forms of government Aid that reach this population one very good example is the New York Times recently reported one billion dollars in Aid coming into Hasidic schools for various programs like lunch programs busing and so on these are fundings that come in but then will remain circulating within because of the emphasis of patronizing each other I think this very unusual economy wouldn't succeed if not for one other important part which is collective organizing a society that acts almost as a union gathering together to use its voting powers to influence change that benefits the collective so we see whenever there is an election a huge push from within to get everyone to vote no matter for whom so long as there is a very clear presence in the voting booths that this population will make its voice heard it can then use the power of its voting block to affect things in the benefit of its own population this community is also notoriously charity oriented so those who are wealthy those who have are expected to redistribute their wealth to their fellow community members at at least 10 percent but a much much higher percent if they are wealthy so that in essence is the acidic economy very much locally oriented small business with some large Enterprises and important businesses from the outside bringing in fuel so to speak to then drive the entire system and it's been interesting to me having watched things evolve over the years that recently there's been a palpable optimism towards the Innovation and the tremendous energy that's going into the economy there were Street posters all over Williamsburg in the spring of 2022 announcing that the summer economy sprutled which means it's thriving advertising a conference where all sorts of businesses got together in order to network to get to know each other and to get opportunities with each other I would say I've observed as a result of these changing realities on the street maybe growing materialism almost a western nation that is palpable as a result as well well so now that we've gotten a little bit of a picture I want to say that just because there's a unique economy here doesn't mean that individuals aren't struggling in fact many are especially because this way of life is extremely expensive what with many children with a concentration in pricey Metropolitan neighborhoods and the costs of kosher food and private schooling but I think the story of the economy itself is a very eye-opening one and I hope you enjoyed it and thank you for watching bye foreign [Music]

Channel: Frieda Vizel - Brooklyn Tour Guide

Views: 291,619

Keywords: hasidic economy, how do hasidic jews make money, how do hasidim earn a living, hasidim education, hasidic jews college, hasidics working, hasidics money, orthodox jews employment, hasidic boys education, hasidic men work, hasidic males breadwinner, orthodox jewish jobs, hasidic satmar jobs, satmar boys education, satmar jews new york times, brooklyn hasidim jobs, brooklyn orthodox jews jobs, frum jobs, religious employment, brooklyn jews jobs, brooklyn hasids, hasidis jobs

Id: UXXOGYqbK5o

Length: 14min 11sec (851 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 28 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/aaronbenedict]

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I also watched the recording of your live stream last night.

[u/Yid2]

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[u/friedavizel]

Hello lovely Jewish redditors. I thought some of you might find this video interesting.