Seniors Visit Williamsburg for World Religions Elective
Students in the senior elective on World Religions (taught by Jennifer Stolper Muenz and Kevin Slick, and accompanied by Shira Kohn on this trip) participated in a walking tour of the Hasidic Jewish community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on February 7.
Frieda Vizel, a former member of the Hasidic community, led the tour as we learned about the origins of Hasidism in America (shaped in part as a direct response to the atrocities of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism in Europe in the mid-twentieth century) and witnessed how a religious community maintains its identity in the face of modernization. The tour of the neighborhood revealed the ways in which Hasidic Jews construct and sustain their religious identity and practices, and Frieda’s own personal experiences with the community added nuance and depth to the student experience as they sought to understand Hasidism with clarity and empathy.
Story submitted by High School History Teacher Kevin Slick.