Sept. 11 was, and still is, thought of as an event that brings all Americans together in solidarity. But the past 10 years have also revealed how differently every community makes sense of this shared assault, doing so each on its own terms. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the attacks, I’m reminded of responses to Sept. 11 among American Hasidim that reflect a sensibility all their own. In Brooklyn, on the streets of Williamsburg, Yiddish posters likened the destruction of the twin towers to a threat that hit even closer to home: the so-called invasion of this neighborhood, long home to Satmar and other, smaller Hasidic communities, by artistn. This Yiddish term, used by American Hasidim, refers not just to artists but more generally to the yuppies who have flocked to the former warehouse and residential district in the past decade or so, opening bars and art galleries. Artistn have transformed the local demographic balance and, moreover, the real-estate market. (Of course, by now the actual artists who pioneered this gentrification have been priced out of hipster Billyburg.)
Such dire comparisons are not unusual for Hasidim. As in other fundamentalist communities, everything is understood to be powerfully meaningful within a single, comprehensive worldview. Renting apartments to artistn, like watching television or buying a “trayf” cellphone—that is, one that takes pictures or accesses the web, thereby offending Hasidic standards of modest conduct—has the potential to undermine the sacred mission of an entire Hasidic community and, therefore, of the Jewish people as a whole.