Two points:
1) Since when are Hasidim an "oppressed group"? Isn't all this fretting about how or whether to ask just a question of... manners?
2) On the umbrella question, I can only speculate. But there was a time in European history when some Protestant sects (Quakers, I think, inter alia) wouldn't use an umbrella because it was like fighting back against the Almighty. If the big guy wants you to get wet, you get wet.
I suspect this outlook was somewhat influenced by the historical practice of carrying a canopy over dignitaries and holy things (relics, the Host). These bare-bones dissenter Proddies were probably asking themselves, What am I, the Pope?
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Michael Smith mjs at smithbowen.net http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org