While gentrification and new arrivals are changing the landscape of New York City, the Brooklyn neighborhoods of South Williamsburg, Crown Heights, and Borough Park have maintained their historic enclaves of Hasidic Jews for over a century. (John Nacion/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Mayor Bill de Blasio criticized the Jewish community in Williamsburg on Tuesday night for defying social distancing orders by holding a massive funeral for a rabbi who died of coronavirus. More than 100 people have recently tested positive for the coronavirus in Borough Park and Williamsburg, two Brooklyn neighborhoods with sizable Hasidic Jewish populations — … Williamsburg is inhabited by over 73,000 Hasidic Jews, as their presence in the neighborhood has not changed since the start of World War II (Hasidic Jews in Williamsburg). Williamsburg, in North Brooklyn, is the enclave of the most insular of the Orthodox Hasidic Jews - the Satmar hasids.
Williamsburg, one of Brooklyn's most popular and exciting neighborhoods, straddles old and new. Yet some things in this hipster-hood remain timeless. Ellen Freudenheim is the author of four guidebooks to Brooklyn, where she has lived for more than 20 years.
Hundreds of Hasidic Jews once again defied social distancing orders amid the coronavirus pandemic, taking over a Brooklyn street to hold a funeral for …
Orthodox Jews walk on the street in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, April 11, 2020. Brooklyn's Hasidic Jewish community gathered for the funeral of a beloved rabbi on Sunday despite being ordered to stay home by the governor and after NYPD cops broke up a different funeral