This item is accessible only to the Washington University community.
Off-Campus WUSTL Users: Click the “Off-Campus Download” button below. You will be prompted to log in using your WUSTL Key.
Language
English (en)
Date of Award
5-1-2014
Author's Department
International and Area Studies
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Restricted/Unrestricted
Restricted
Abstract
The story of the Satmar Hasidim is unique in the larger story of American immigration, because it is a rare story of fiercely and successfully resisted assimilation. In this paper, I will introduce the history of the sect, and try to understand how and why they have been able to maintain their extremely insular and archaic culture despite having spent over a half century in the United States. Because relatively little is known about this powerful and rapidly growing nation within a nation, we will dig deeply into the texts and evidence that does exist and, combining this secondary research with extensive primary research, be able to refute some of the myths and misconceptions that exist about the Satmar. In short, we will tell the story of where the Satmar have been, where they are today, and where they appear to be going, and in doing so, gain an appreciation for the sheer willpower and strength it has taken to keep their traditions and way of life alive over the years.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7936/awh9-vj57
Mentor
Hillel Kieval
Recommended Citation
Schoenfeld, Max, "“You Will Never Understand:” Examining the Unlikely Past, Present, and Future of the Satmar Hasidic Sect in Brooklyn and Beyond" (2014). Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses. 174.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.7936/awh9-vj57
Comments
Accessibility Notice: This document is a scanned text that has been automatically processed using Python's Tesseract Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engine to provide a text alternative for assistive software. Formatting or character recognition discrepancies may exist.