Pogram no; hate crime, probably.
> . . .
> the Hasidim and promising to bring Rosenbaum's killers to justice. I'm
> surprised you'd be interested in the Hasidic community. The Hasidim, after
> all, are anti-Zionist. I've never understood all those assimilated Jews
I don't have statistics but the most dynamic, outgoing Hasidim, the Lubavitch, are very reactionary and very pro-zionist. My impression is that the die- hard anti-zionists have become a minority, both in Israel and the U.S. In Israel the religious parties usually block with the Right and get disproportionate control over public education and culture.
> who are supporters of and apologists for the Hasidic communities. It's
> like growing up as a Unitiarian and feeling like you have to support the
> Promise Keepers or Phyllis Schafly. The Hasidim are right-wing,
> repressive, homophobic, sexist fundamentalists; there is nothing romantic
> or quaint about them. Better that they *all* assimilated.
Better they stay out of NYC politics, but on the whole I'd be sorry to see them disappear and render the world in general and Judaism in particular somewhat less diverse. In this sense, I value primitive or antiquarian cultures, like some others here, but I don't make a politics out of it. To me they aren't a means to an end.
MBS