“The Magic Jews” et al. in Vice Magazine
WOW.
The Magic Jews BY Hamilton Morris, Photos By Jess Williamson
When I first walked into the apartment on Ridge Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, I didn’t see much because the lights were off. It was a long empty room with couches lining the walls. Empty cans and bottles everywhere. At four in the morning all that was left were the remnants of a party. Nothing unusual. A Hasidic Jew was passed out on his back, yarmulke resting on the cushion next to his head. His cell phone was wildly ringing digitized klezmer music from within his wool pants. He lay totally still. I walked toward him, wondering if he was alive. The phone cycled through four more rings before he swiped at his pocket, at which point I let out a sigh of relief.
I could hear muffled singing coming from behind a closed door down the hall. I stepped over the passed-out Hasid, making my way into the next room. Inside, it was completely dark. The air was warm with the smell of bodies. Ten, maybe fifteen, naked Jews were perched, chanting in flawless harmony with one another. They stopped briefly to greet me and then resumed. I watched them speechlessly for a moment before posing the question “What’s going on?” A voice in the dark made an incomprehensible remark about LSD, and everybody broke out in bouts of electrified laughter. And then the chanting began again. I only stayed for a few minutes, watching them in awe before I felt for the doorknob and got up to leave. Back in the other room, a Hasid I had not noticed before informed me that the party was over, the acid was gone, and I should come back the next day. I asked him when and how frequently this sort of thing happened. He responded: “Constantly.”
For many, religion is tedious work. A chore handed down from generation to generation, rewarding only by virtue of its being unpleasant. Few have had a genuine religious experience, something that warrants worship, reverence, time, and faith. I know I haven’t. In Jewish mysticism, God is partially defined by his lack of definition. He is infinite and unknowable, the eternal question mark. I had my first psychedelic experience smoking salvia in a friend’s station wagon when I was 16. I lay screaming with laughter, soaking myself with tears, snot, and drool. I knew that something significant had happened, something that would definitely fit under the “infinite and unknowable” heading. But to say that it was a religious experience would be wrong. It was better.
Two days after the party I received a phone call from one of the Jews. I expected it to be along the lines of another party invitation, but to my chagrin it was a request to attend the funeral of one of their friends. He had overdosed on cocaine the previous night. I got on the F to Parkville, Brooklyn, and then walked toward 39th Street nervously. Attending the funeral of a Hasidic Jew I had never met, without a yarmulke, wearing a purple leather puff-coat, made me generally uneasy. Outside the Shomrei Hadas Chapel, Hasids paced nervously while smoking cigarettes. I walked through the door and took a seat in the back, trying to remain unnoticed. At the front of the synagogue a wall of black-clad Jews blocked any view of what was going on. I listened to the Hebrew prayers drone on and found my social discomfort slowly melt into sadness. When the service ended I filed out to watch the pine box heaved into a Ford Excursion as mobs of family and friends cried and smoked and talked on cell phones. It was here that I met Aaron, one of the few in attendance who was without religiously sanctioned clothing. He began to explain things a bit.
The previous night one of his ex-Hasidic friends had been on a drug binge, taking massive doses of coke, ecstasy, and an assortment of benzos. He was fine, if extremely inebriated, when he retired to bed, falling asleep next to his girlfriend. The following morning she woke up next to a corpse. Aaron explained, “It’s a nonstop drug binge without drug education. These Hasids have all lived incredibly sheltered lives. You really can’t even imagine unless you’ve been there. When they stray from their families nobody has told them not to mix this with that, speed and ecstasy, alcohol and Xanax. It gets seriously dangerous.” “Who’s selling them this stuff?” I asked. “There are drug dealers who get a kick out of the whole thing like, ‘Let’s get the Hasids fucked up,’ you know? Which is fine, but they don’t realize that’s exactly what’s going to happen—they are going to get really, really fucked up.”
As he told me this I felt overcome by frustration. Maybe it was selfish, but the thought that all I would see of this renegade Hasid drug life was one tantalizing taste, that it was already over and everybody would be scared straight and the scene would disintegrate into obscurity before I got a chance to learn exactly what was going on, really disappointed me. “So I guess this is the end of it all?” I asked. Aaron paused and said, “No, no, no. Definitely not.” And on that note I was invited to a party the following night.
To take a moment and clarify my religious background: I am a Jew. I was bar-mitzvahed (at Masada no less) but I never went to Hebrew school. I never went to temple. I learned a CliffsNotes version of Hebrew and memorized my Torah portion from a recording on a MiniDisc. In short, I know nothing about Judaism. I am also not religious or “spiritual” in any way. I feel awkward even saying the word “prayer.” The Jews I met at Ridge Street come from Hasidic and Orthodox Brooklyn neighborhoods. Most speak Yiddish as their first language. Aside from a love of psychedelics and maybe some shared genetics from way back when, we have nothing in common. I was introduced to all of them by a friend of a friend of a friend. A psychedelic mushroom is called a magic mushroom, and by that logic these Jews could be called Magic Jews. So that’s how I started to think of them.
Full Article at ViceLand.com
Judaism.com
September 17th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
I find it very peculiar that, after being posted here for 3 days, not one cow or pasture grazer has commented to this article, while the Gitty story became a bukake fest. Too close to home for comfort???
& the fact that names were used?
& who invited REPORTERS for god’ssake to these seances - knowing very well that it will wind up in print?
Don’t you know that community boards & the authorities are onto “the scene”?
ZAYT NISH KEIN TIPSHIM!!!!
A ksiveh vachasimeh toyveh…
September 17th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
People WERE careful— you’ll notice no faces were visible, and names were very general, with even more names avoided completely and attributed to other people.
All that said, I was amazed to see this– it felt like a historic piece, not some lame NYTimes expose, but a thoughtful and spiritually insightful testament to what’s going on, and what could be going on. wow.
September 17th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
I was also wondering about the lack of comments but the last time i brought something like that up i got it over the head…anyway i agree with Yho - this didn’t have the feel of a “sensationalist” piece but an insightful and sympathetic presentation of some of the toichen of what’s going on…now about the consequences we’ll have to wait and see…
September 17th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
i can’t believe that you people are more concerned that a reporter was there than about the fact that this stuff goes on. every crowd has its bad apples, and all of this gives the rest of us yidden a bad name. iz MAMASH a shande far di goyim!!!!!!!
September 17th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Loved the article, its a kiddus ha shem
September 17th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
The article: despicable, degenerate, exploitative, repugnant.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
using names generally?!
Aron, whose mom converted in Cali etc. etc.
Hershel, who left his Williamsburg (read: Satmer) wife and kids etc. etc.
Levvy, an upcoming fashion designer etc. etc.
yeah, really general… don’t need much research to find out who is who.
just pointing this out since there has been credible reports that “the scene” is on the radar of “der hiocher fenster.”
BTW, it is mamesh a nes that we got out of East 6 when we did (i.e. before we can be busted seriously). makdim refueh l’makeh.
Having saidthat, the piece was OK, though I don’t agree that it was full of toichen. sure, better than other articles, but could have gone deeper. (it’s VICE after all.)
remember when VICE covered a chasidishe wedding & the rolling of the ktoires by ploynee?
& what will be for the Yomin Noyroim? 5767 was off the hook. 5768, so so. 5769??? 69! 69, for crying out loud!!!!
September 18th, 2008 at 10:21 am
aside for Lavvi, (who already made name for himself, with thing that people consider much worse,) everyone mentioned in the article, had participated in the event mentioned in the end of the article, with the knowledge that the article would be written.
and again aside for Lavvi who i’m not sure about, everyone mentioned in the article was very happy about the results.
by the way the last event, was the first time the reporter was around as “a reporter”.
September 18th, 2008 at 10:25 am
hey chaim perachia
the only thing that im concerned about more then a reporter being there is the fact that fuckers like u exist i.e. we have to get rid of the fuckers that r a bad apple
September 18th, 2008 at 10:29 am
shmendrick,
Just invite him over for a party and give him cocaine and xanax and you will have accomplished your goal.
September 18th, 2008 at 10:40 am
All reporters are scum and will sell their mother for a dime!
What’s the chidush???
September 18th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
noting
NOOO i dont want this fucker over for a party
and cocaine and xanax wont help
September 18th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
the only thing that i’m surprised at, is that this did not vos iz neias did not pick it up and lambast it.
September 19th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Speaking of Magic Jews,
The best T.V. show to watch while tripping is PBS’ Dragon Tales. The colors are so bright and trippy. And the idea of Mexican kids hanging out with Dragons (legends of dragons came from Europe) is very multi/culti.
September 19th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
There needs to be a group for sober ex-frummies. The few times a year I accept an invitation to a Shabbos meal, I find it so empowering to tell the hosts when they pass the sips of kiddish out, “Sorry, I don’t drink.”
I think the way to get away from being raised “frum” is to rid your life of abstraction. Much of modern Judaism is abstraction. Analogy: I’m vegetarian. — I’m Vegan. — Oh yeah? I don’t eat vegan food that’s been cooked in pot that touched meat. — Big deal. I’m second generation Vegan. And so on. It’s no more about eating Vegan, but it’s become an abstraction. It doesn’t make a person a “better” Vegan it’s just OCD that has found its outlet in Vegan-ism. I grew up in Lubavitch so — for example the way Chometz is no longer only actual Leaven but this phantom abstraction that drives the obsessive compulsive to eating inside bags to avoid it. To be forced to follow other people’s OCD (in the separation of the sexes, bugs in the vegetables, black hats) is what leads to the existential frustration “frum” people feel. Born normal and growing up in the modern-day frum community is like being raised by mental patients. Get out of the asylum, and let go of other people’s abstractions and obsessive compulsive disorders. You’ll feel better. You don’t need drugs.
September 19th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
you don’t need anything.
September 19th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Not even love?
September 19th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
this article is an embarassment to the people mentioned in it…. what do these people think they are Tom Wolfe and the Electic Kool Aid Acid Jews???? If you are going to stand around and do acid and get naked, why bother to do it for the sake of the press and embarass yourselves?? and not only that, you you are the umpteenth people who thought of doing that - “yeah, lets do acid and get naked”…..Blah Blah blah…. How bout more focus on originality, taste and learning a culture other than the one-you-come-from-mixed- with-white-trash-america for a change?????
September 19th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
no!
you can live a miserable live if you want.
September 19th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
i have no clue as to what you are talking about.
i happen to be one of the people mentioned and neither i or any of the other people mentioned feel any embarrassment.
rather then think, we know that we are a bunch of ex-chasidim who are looking for alternate way of life.
were the fuck do you get your idea that -
1. that being naked has anything to do with the acid?
2. that this was all done for the press?
and again no had an initial thought ‘hey lets do acid and get naked’, they took acid and later on for whatever reason, they happened to have gotten naked.
how about you focus on originality and stop bashing something you know nothing about.
September 19th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Ex-Chasidim don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The way out of poverty and ignorance is well known. It involves education, productivity, healthy relationships. Unfortunately America is in a state of decline but Western Civilization — science, literature, art, business, is as vibrant as ever — You just have to work a bit harder to seek it out.
September 20th, 2008 at 1:32 am
Life is something that happens while not masturbating.
September 20th, 2008 at 8:15 am
who is reinventing the wheel?
September 20th, 2008 at 10:10 am
“The House That Coke Destroyed”
September 20th, 2008 at 10:34 am
l’mayim, the party is always over before it begins. and dont let strangers take pictures of your party, lest they reveal your nakedness to the world.
chassidim are just rednecks that hollywood likes to play with in their scripts. jewish rednecks. the parties, the scene, the conversations, the politics its all the same. its hard, you know, breaking out of a scene like that, and making good of it is even more.
ghetto people aren’t wierd or bad, even though the news would have you believe that.
l’mayim, the trailer park parties and the brooklyn shtetl parties are the same. the cheap booze and pills, the smoke and the tragic young deaths and the depression and the close family of friends. don’t let anyone defame the culture you hold by, whatever it is.
September 20th, 2008 at 11:01 am
I miss being an outsider, a punk partying with the best of the lonely horny chasid sausage fest.
September 20th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Every time a story is written about a “Chulent” scene, it’s a story of a lost young adult trying to cope with his or her alienation, and being unprepared to live in “the world.” Oftentimes they turn to substance abuse. As if there’s something unique about ex-Hasidim. Blah, blah, blah. There’s nothing Chosen about being raised in the frum community. It’s mostly a shallow, corrupt, ignorant, superstitious, cruel in petty ways, gossipy trap. What applies to black kids trying to get out of the ghetto, and dirt-poor immigrants, is what applies to ex-frummies. Get some type of job. Take community college classes and then transfer to a four-year school. Or take an AA degree and then do some sort of trade. Nursing, Mechanics, Chef, whatever. It’s time to lose the Cinderella Complex. There’s nothing special about where you came from. The scientists/engineers who built the particle accelerator are smart. Your Rebbe/father/brother who believes there was an actual talking snake is an idiot. You can get out of the frum world without turning yourself into worm food. Of course some people will throw away their lives regardless. Being born into a frum family was just their lot. They want to do drugs and fuck around. Bless their hearts. I’m writing because I feel for people who want a productive life but feel stuck after living X years in the frum world.
September 20th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Twishandy et. al.
Wow. It is remarkable how much these last few comments here assume to know and understand life and “productivity,” how others should understand them and what people are running away from and where they should be going etc etc …I probably shouldn’t respond but I’ll just say that you advice giving fuckers with you’re know-it-all answers are just what these guys are trying to get away from…frankly it’s revolting…besides being as close-minded and intolerant as any frum fucker I ever met…can you please explain to me what is so great about all those smart scientists (read politicians, professors, businessmen, artists and pursuers of any other “normal” “careers”)? Their intelligence!? Do you really believe that? Their oh so satisfying lives? Really now…that’s ridiculous…childish…
Has it occurred to you that there may be people who are not looking for an “alternative” “lifestyle” or have a little more sense then to buy into something just because it is not the hang up their fed up with? That there may be people who are questioning not only religion but science, culture and “satisfaction” as well? That there are great hearts and minds who are not looking for what you’ve found? People who feel that replacing one system of the masses with another is as absurd if not outright hypocritical as remaining in the frum community? People who find your presumption despicable and all too familiar – “I have found the light and am just trying to enlighten those poor souls who are lost in the darkness of transition”…go build your particle colliders and worship the bits and pieces of your pathetically held together existence and save your advice for your kids so that they can go on and build another collider and – for the love of god – keep your fucking presumptions to yourself…
September 20th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Of course you can take it or leave it as you see fit.
September 20th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
This Hershel is amazingly full of shit.
“Magic Jews were frothing at the mouth with psychedelic lust. Hershel took my arm and said he would like to speak with me alone. We walked down an unlit road and looked at each other’s silhouettes. “You know, Hamilton, some people want to do this for the wrong reasons,” Hershel said. I nodded as he went on. “Sometimes they only want orgies, and sometimes we have orgies, but you must understand your intentions.” I nodded again, wondering what he was suggesting. He continued, “These are powerful places. When you bring light back into the picture, it automatically takes care of a lot of darkness, but I don’t think it’s inherently good. I think it destroys everything you’ve got. If you’re focused, you can rebuild. But not everybody is.” By that point both of us were tripping pretty hard and I was capable of understanding about as much as he was capable of making sense. Still, I think his point was something along the lines of: We are toying with powerful things here, and some of us are naive people. Therefore some of us could be permanently damaged by the stuff we’re doing now”
September 20th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Twist, you are a snag. But this is a good line:
“There’s nothing Chosen about being raised in the frum community. It’s mostly a shallow, corrupt, ignorant, superstitious, cruel in petty ways, gossipy trap”
Bohemian scene existed before and after ex-frum jews. There are many ex frum jews who are doing fine. You just would not find them passed out on acid, with a beard and yarmulke, noch. You are conflating issues.
There are perhaps 100 physicists in the world who take colliders for a spin. There are also perhaps no more that 100 ex-frumies who take acid for a spin. The world needs them all.
And by the way there such an unbelievable love and friendship found amongst acid jews that you would not find anywhere else. This has to count for something. Counts for a lot in my book.
I personally don’t get the entire drug thing. I was born naturally high all the time. I never even tried pot in my life.
Above all I feel sorry for my people, the intense legacy that we carry is our undoing. This is our tragedy and diffrent people morn this differently.
September 20th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
“There are many ex frum jews who are doing fine. You just would not find them passed out on acid, with a beard and yarmulke, noch.”
I’m one of these ex-frum Jews you mention. But sometimes it seems like the only scene out there for people trying to get out is the crack den. So I commented about another way. Life after the pissing and moaning. I don’t have the right brain power to be a scientist. (Or is it left?) I support myself through creative endeavors, (and I don’t mean crime) and many of the artists I meet suffered way more than the even the most extreme “celebrities” of the 7FATCOWS. Despite the pain they carry, they lead creative productive fulfilling joyful lives. Yes, some days suck, but it’s better than lying under the wheels of the 3-train. (Rest your soul G) And I have Hasidic ancestors on both sides of my family, but I take that snag line as a compliment. I think.
September 20th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
we all have been cheated by gods and people. but in the end of the day, friendship is the only thing that counts.
every culture has and needs a carnival (snags don’t know about that one).
Carnival is when holy-day is turned profane. When up is down and down is up. There is no holy-day without Carnal Carnival.
As I said I don’t get drugs but I also don’t get the cruelty and all the metaphors you ascribed to frum jews.
I am also too tired for yet another revolution. I am done with changing the world. I just want to be with people who don’t hold knife behind their back. Is it too much to ask?
Don’t pile G. into this mix. You know its a different parsha.
You can’t preach to people, they have to find their path to flow like a river. But it is hard to flow uphill.
September 20th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
How do you know what is better than “lying under the wheels of the 3-train”?
I don’t believe in us knowing whats is there. You can put heaven and hell in the same place I put my slichos, it rhymes.
September 20th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
“Every time a story is written about a “Chulent” scene, it’s a story of a lost young adult trying to cope with his or her alienation,”
i’ve read the story a few times over and have not seen anywhere it talk about anyone being lost.
as matter of speaking, i will tell you that this article is about a group of humans that are in middle of finding their way.
there is a difference between use and abuse, you seemingly, don’t know the difference.
you know what they want to do? have you talk to them?
September 20th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
they only thing i find annoying about that acid scene is the fact that in some perverse way they are still chanting niggunim.
they are still celebrating the very masters that destroyed them. this is the most sad part of that story. and that punk fryie writer is not nuanced enough to see all the cultural layers.
He thinks it is the same as his high school prank, but we all know that this is far from it in myriad different ways.
September 20th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
noting
were in your ‘copy and paste’ do you find hershel full of shit?
September 20th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
you have to differentiate the different concept involved.
the niggunim are most defiantly separate and enjoyable.
September 20th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
When you’re sober among people “cooking in hell’s kitchen” it’s clear that they aren’t deep or profound, just drunk. Chemically altered people are boring.
And now, the show I’m going to see, better be better than jumping under the 3-train.
September 20th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
the funny thing is that everybody sees their behavior rooted in their disconnectedness from mainstream society while i see their thirst for publicity “at all costs” an adjunct to today’s reality TV craze. these people go to rainbow and burning man. they see this behavior as being cool. it’s like the mafia that watches scorcese films to know how to act. it’s “rebellion: american style”.
September 21st, 2008 at 9:47 am
A lack of culture created the rainbow and Burning man
September 21st, 2008 at 10:11 am
fuck the counterculture. i didnt choose this shit! isnt that the whole point? all that emile durkheim shit. aint shit to rebel against, l’mayim, babylon surrounded us as we fled.
do you remember when taking drugs was rebellious? but when you’re grown, there’s no one to rebel against. only the authority you choose for yourself, so its a giant game of existential wallball.
some of us just get pushed out. small towns are built around the closeness that tragic death brings friends, and that gets fucked up. small urban communities arent much different.
FFB people are rednecks with different accents and slightly different forms of dress.
September 21st, 2008 at 10:25 am
you people will never relate to BTs.
September 21st, 2008 at 10:40 am
chas v’shalom! may we all be united! oneness is discord, discord is unity! B”H!
September 21st, 2008 at 10:54 am
mi redt tzi di vant…
September 21st, 2008 at 3:01 pm
When a “white trash’s” episode of COPS is aired, the women scream, “Hey kids, Come watch. Momma’s on TEE-v.” These articles about Chulent are exactly that. Maybe you don’t realize, but you haven’t done anything worthwhile. People do all sorts of shit that get them in the paper. They’ve filled some space with your antics. It’s not positive coverage. You’re being mocked. If you got out of the shule basement, you’d see much of the six billion people on Earth have it worse than you do. You feel you’re talking to the wall, sorry atgate … there’s nothing special about your problems. (oh shit, he’s preaching again) Get on with it, or wallow, or go back to the Science Fiction of the Schneersons. Or the hate Ideology of Satmar … whatever, but it’s your life alone, everyone else is busy with theirs. If you can’t relate to any structure, take time alone and climb Mt Everest or hike/bicycle across the USA, dogsled in Alaska, memorize Shakespeare do something living that doesn’t involve drugs.
September 21st, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Twistshandy,
atgate231 wrote a biting long comment questioning what you had written. It would be nice if you would respond to him, instead of continuing your monologue. A little give and take, eh?
September 21st, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Twist, time out. Was this article written by the 7fc? No, it was written in “Vice”. This gives you some idea on what kind of fishing the “vice” is after.
I am not here to underplay the issue of acid but I just would like to point out that too bad none was invited to the regular physics lectures before Chulent. Certainly there is not much to write about that.
September 21st, 2008 at 4:07 pm
The only reason this story was written was because it could attract readers.
Orthodox chareidi chasidum doing acid could sell some papers.
Now I’m not saying its bad or good, but who needs that kind of publicity?
September 21st, 2008 at 4:09 pm
papers? are you high and stupid?
September 21st, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Yay U-J.
Noting: I didn’t take on atgate231’s comment point-by-point because there was too much abstraction and assumption in it for me to respond effectively. It was also a bit hostile.
This website is designed to allow readers to give their reactions to the posts. If mine are that upsetting to him, maybe the cows should password-enable the comments so only those who attend the meetings can respond. A unified point of view does keep things copasetic.
As for the love and friendship and fellowship … what got me to respond to this article (months go by where I don’t visit 7FC or respond if I happen to) is that sad story about the girl who woke up next to the corpse. And the attitude of “too bad so sad,” but the party will go on. That isn’t friendship. That’s crack-house. No matter how many holy songs you sing.
I also didn’t respond to atgate231 too directly, because I did write in an earlier post on this thread that I’m not addressing people who choose to party … So I wasn’t talking to him. I was preaching about going to college or learning a trade for people that may be on this site who want to get out of Crown Heights, Williamsburg, and don’t want to turn to the Chulent scene.
September 21st, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Twist, you are right about that girl. I was shocked by that too. I mean she just woke up to a corpse and here she is again. This was shocking.
There is another aspect worth mentioning. If you remember when this jew passed away, there was a total ban on mentioning his name here on this site.
I find this perplexing , its like people who write here still hold on to the good frumie tradition of sweeping it all under the carpet. This is terrible. And them isntead of morning this jew here honestly and talking about these issues, it is all swept under the carpet and you read about it in some frie magazine. I mean this totally the old retched culture playing out here.
September 21st, 2008 at 6:43 pm
I do remember that. It seemed tribal. Clique-y. That’s probably when I took a few month’s vacation from this website’s worldviews. Craigslist R&R serves my purposes too. But sometimes it’s nice to tune into the Yid’n in Brooklyn. The cast of characters has changed. What happened to Radlo and Mohammed?
September 21st, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Twishandy and Tzemach,
I agree with both of you. I thought the bit on the girl was ghastly. One day your boyfriend dies in bed next to you. one week later, you’re with another guy and life moves on.
I also found the Aaron character disturbing. Inviting a stranger (the writer) into your world in the hopes of what?? Acceptance?? validation?? Voyeurism (you like it when people watch)??
My theory on the chulent thing goes something like this.(Both you guys were once there, weren’t you??). the referent point for most chulenter regarding how to deal with death is their past life as a good Chasidiseh/litvishe boy/girl. So, when someone dies of an overdose, you go “shah” don’t say his name and magically, all the problems will go away. Like in “der alter heim.”
I think the same is true of the whole drug scene. Isn’t getting high allowing them to reach the spiritual? the level they were promised by their teachers, if they would only be good chassidishe boys! Allowing them to be just like their rebbe who is in a constant state of “connectedness” with the divine (sorry, forgot the kabbablistic term of art, perhaps dveikus). But when they reach the divine (the high), what do they do? they retreat to their personal reference point and so they start singing niggunim, just like they did when they spent “leil shishi” in yeshiva drinking too much and convincing themselves that “vos a chasidishe farbrengen ken ufton, ken afilu malach michoel nisht ufton.”
(Side note: first time I shroomed, I sat on the great lawn on Prospect Park and I swear I saw millions of angles with sticks, hitting the blades of grass and ordering them to grow. My Lubavitcher education fucked up what was otherwise a magnificent trip.)
the downside of that is, of course, that what could be used as a spiritual tool (many ancient cultures, including our own, used psychedelics) turns into a coping mechanism because they cannot or do not know how to transition into the real world. Nor do many have the confidence to keep the parts of their “chassidishe selves” that added meaning to their lives, and cast away those that were oppressive. and so they wallow in the mire.
Just one man’s opinion. let the ridicule begin!
September 21st, 2008 at 11:53 pm
I only know of Chulent from this website and the you-tube clips.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:11 am
Kovi, my sentiment exactly. You got the niggunim part 100%.
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:46 am
twisted,
why don’t you tell your simplistic self-help crap to david foster wallace and primo levi and edgar allen poe and van gogh and delmore schwartz etc. ?
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:54 am
shitalphin, who amongst the chulenters will articulate the struggles of its time just like the artists you mentioned? Perhaps you?
Is there a creative kernel in the entire scene or the individuals? Or is it just wasting away and going BACK to singing f..ing niggunim in the nude?
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:01 am
there are still creative moments:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017352074&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:11 am
there is no vibrancy of discourse here. so take your delmore schwartz and shove it.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:46 am
stop with your russian poetic realism.
judaism is dead.
hitler won.
stop having children.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:02 am
Judaism is dead
Rabbis won
Have Fun and Have Children.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:22 am
Judaism is dead
The rabbis killed it
Have children and recreate your own Judaism/Jewishness to add meaning to your life.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:23 am
sorry, meant to say
Have children and recreate your own Judaism/Jewishness if it adds meaning to your life.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:08 am
The portrayal of the “Hershel” charachter came out very sympathetic, by making it seem as if maybe he WAS a little bit honest with himself about what’s going on. There IS danger, but maybe there is some inspiration spit back into our lives.
What’s the great benefit of being a chaseedish hick as opposed to any other uneducated minority? That there is a culture intact, with something as humanly crucial as singing and dancing together available. Tzemach, I don’t think the songs nessesarily bind one to the Rebbes and the patterns, any more than high school kids singing pop songs nessesarily care about the pop singers as much as who they’re singing along with. And why should someone’s death mean the end of the good framework that brought people together? When Nadav and Avehu die, there’s only a passing thought of banning the Mishkan, but instead they try to find a way to live with the precious experience, some trick for not going too far. Maybe DON’T mix coke with Xanax?
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:13 am
Yhosephus, I think you right about the songs. I still sing the commie tunes often. I just like the beat.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:37 am
Get Maried
Get a life
Hope it doesnt end with a get!
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:54 am
Twishandy: Kovi, you’ve articulated in writing something I’d have an easier time speaking about. I will say this, for people who want to get away from religion, I don’t think you can never be free and content as long as you see yourself as a “fallen angel.” You’ve got to learn, build, discover a new self-perception. If you’re “too Jewish,” and don’t want to leave it entirely, maybe you’d be comfortable (horror of horrors) in another stream of Judaism. Being secular isn’t for everybody. Or maybe you can rediscover the secret of many pre-WWII American Jews. They came here, lost the beard and peyes, and didn’t seem to have much inner turmoil about it. They even went to shule on the high holidays and made seders and seemed to enjoy it. Maybe because they ate matzo ball soup. They didn’t abstract chometz to where they had to eat inside bags. You can also be angry and drink.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:57 am
right, its all about being happy with matzho balls.
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:18 am
Tzemach: Zachem the foul mood? I love the music of the Red Army Chorus. Do you know a site where I can get the Russian/English words to “Krasny Army Yishniky” or whatever that third word is?
Shitalphin: Would you lump the “simple” stories of Chekhov/Mark Twain in that category? Maybe you should revisit Poe sometime. And what do you have against Primo Levy? That his writings on Auschwitz didn’t have frum-Holocaust-genre twist to it? That no one lit their Hanukkah menorah in hollowed out potatoes? Do you read the blither of Chabad Chasidus and think it deep? See something other than fantasy and nonsense and half-understood philosophy in the science fiction of the Schneersons? Or are you partial to Satmar hate ideology?
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I was waiting for some indication that any of you understood a word I wrote – which was basically pointing out that you haven’t a clue as to what the article is about…I mean, the writer of the article “thinks it is the same as his high school prank!?” – Jesus Christ! How oblivious can you be?
Rednecks don’t do acid. And like the “white trash” you mentioned, you read an article in the paper and think you understand the whole phenomenon…
The piece presented both positives and the negatives (as Yho indicated) – which of course is contained in everything – while your limited perception has picked up only your own prejudices. You may have changed your nursery but you’re still living the flowerpot life - while some of these people, on the other hand, would rather exercise their capacities as conscious beings to determine their own evolutionary growth. But apparently you know nothing about something like that. Nor, according to your own admission, do you know anything about Chulent (not that this is directly related to Chulent), about the Cow and those that write here and certainly nothing about me (for all you know I may have written three books on particle physics and never taken acid – or, written those books in between trips as quite a few physicists have, or…). I mostly feel I’m talking to the wall when talking to people like you – it feels exactly like trying to explain something to frum fuckers. You may have changes your “lifestyle” but you have not changed your orthodox mentality an iota (and no, I won’t write it off as a symptom of your being a “snag”) - I don’t expect you to realize that (oy, it must be due, nebach, to the deep-seated prejudices instilled in you by the frum community…or some shit like that – I mean, you like explanations like that, don’t you? – pathetic…) but I’m asking you not to display your fucking judgmentalism here – it’s quite offensive (as you should know)…your claim of “only wanting to help” is the first symptom of the syndrome… And to say I “like to party” when you’ve never met me, just goes to show where you’re at in your mentality…man, you’re so far off you have no fucking idea…
“Climb Mt. Everest for a fulfilling life – but don’t do drugs!” – do you hear yourself?! Or do you just like to spew? Then start your own blog – but here I’m very very sorry ober di redst nisht tzi di zach…bechlal.
I know this is hopeless – I’ve had plenty of experience with people like you – but what the hell…
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Maybe you’re stuck in one of the (none- functioning) particle accelerator’s “black holes” you worried about. Or maybe I am. You’re gonna’ hate me, pity me, wish me away, even more for this … but the too-hip urban dude is lost in the country and he flags down a good ol’ boy … “Excuse me, where’s town X?”
“I dunno.”
“How do I get to road Y?”
“I dunno.”
“Where’s landmark Z?”
“I dunno.”
“Do you know anything?”
“Yep. I ain’t lost.”
Every person is different, but we still have a lot in common. And I’m not a child. So despite how I may come across to you from my posts, some of it by choice, I know a lot more about you (not personally, or your name) than you seem to be able to conceive of. There was a decade called the 1960s. You’re not breaking new ground atgate231. “Chulent” has been played by others. Some get through it, some don’t.
September 22nd, 2008 at 1:36 pm
agate, the line about high school was mine.
September 22nd, 2008 at 3:22 pm
smell the coffee
http://theantitzemach.blogspot.com/2008/09/avoiding-bush-at-all-costs.html#4278815485679477679
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:40 pm
yesterday, at the end of the 3-day conference on psychedelics held at NYU (see: horizonsnyc.org ) an audience member asked the panel of presenters how to focus the use of pychedelics from recreational-hedonistic use to sacramental-spiritual use, 7 various members attempted to give their viewpoints bla bla bla - until honorary cow daniel pinchbeck cut to the chase by pointing out that making such distinctions do not do the subject justice, case in point being ayhuasca rituals which are done in communal-ritualistic-religious setting (e.g. the santo diame) which have become very popular, with participants returning for frequent “sessions” - so is this better or worse than those who take psychedelics once in a while in the nightclub scene???? or how about those who have spiritual experiences IN nightclubs (i know i have)???? or how about those who use it for therapeutic purposes (e.g. PTSD, read K tzetnik’s “di ze’ung” translated into english as “kaddish” i think), as in fact such studies are being set up for iraq war vetarens, & as ibogaine has been used with phenomenal success by heroin addicts (i met a group of them last year & heard their positive testimonies to this)????
– & we who have gone through the boro-park-williamsburg-crown-heights-monsey-geuleh-montreal holocausts, are we not any worse???
LOMOH NIGORAH????
at the same time, such self-administration of these potent substances may serve better focus for healing when used with the guidance of a therapist & the right setting ala shamanistic practices who knows how to assist each subject, kol chad v’chad l’fum shiyura dil’ey. - or at least have enough hakoras atzmoy to know what is best for one’s self.
in other words:
NO SLIPPING ACID IN THE CHOLENT THURDAY NIGHT!!!!!
thanks.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:59 pm
If you are lucky enough to have lived
in Paris as a young man, then wherever you
go for the rest of your life, it stays with
you, for Paris is a moveable feast.
— Ernest Hemingway
No big words. Captures what every Mashpia tried to about growing up in Lubavitch. (Ha!) Can you say this about Chulent?
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:15 pm
oh, which reminds me of that guy mentioned who just died climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro…
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:33 pm
hey fucker
YES!
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:22 pm
The flash of anger belies your assertion, Shmendrick.
Profanity. All Caps. Exclamation Point.
Also, no need to say, “hey.”
Yes, fucker, would have sufficed.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:10 am
alright fucker how about this
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:11 am
yes fucker
September 23rd, 2008 at 7:36 pm
the article did what it did in an amazingly objective way, it did not say drug use is bad it just said for those not properly educated it CAN be dangerous. (read deadly)
it did not say drug use was the only way, it just said for the writer it has worked, and for the select group of individuals discussed it has also worked.
it was also not boring which is a huge plus considering the ny-mag article was a bit dry for my taste buds.
also it seems more than half of the people that read it think it was all made up! which is very funny .
October 10th, 2008 at 11:25 am
response to nicht dere comment #21
An “alternate” way of life which includes tripping on acid and getting naked that’s been around since the 1960’s???? How is this ‘alternate’ anymore if its been around over 50 years!!!! Also, how do you know I know nothing about it?? The ‘lets trip and get naked thing’ has been around FOREVER!! It is hardly considered to be “alternate”…. Its the same old re-hashed ideas from the 60’s hippies only with frum jews…… Me focus on originality, I think its YOU who needs to focus on its LACK of originality……
October 17th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
HEY!!!! I COULD REALLY USE SOME HELP!!
after first reading this story in Vice, i decided i wanted to persue the topic for a paper, HOWEVER, i can not find any more information or contact info on this group, so if anyone knows them, is them, or anything, i would love you to contact me. I’m in jersey, so if you know, or are one of these magic jews, i’m just a metro ride away:
ma_monzon@yahoo.com
October 19th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
I like browsing around Williamsburg- it is a nice place around cafes surely, and at the beginning there were stories of Hasids infected with “love happenings”, then “Trembling before G-d” appeared, and now-drug story following.
Really, world is not a frozen place and everything is running, watering and changing step by step.
October 20th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
alternate- different from what they grew up with.
this is what it seems like from your replies.
again it’s not “The ‘lets trip and get naked thing’” but rather Ok now were tripping and then later on at some point or the other during the trip, some people deicide to get naked.
October 28th, 2009 at 2:11 am
this article was recently reprinted in the new best of vice magazine anthology with some corrections and a new ending, i think the new version is better than what ran in the magazine (and i even liked the original article, though i cant touch drugs myself)