Monday, April 24, 2006

Something misleading in the article on the Satmar Rebbe's death

One line in the article

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/708931.html

is a bit misleading. In describing the Satmar Chasidim, it says, "Married women must keep their heads covered." While this is true, it is also true that the halachah for ALL married Jewish women is to keep their heads covered (or at least, most of their hair covered) almost all the time. (My understanding is that there might be a few exceptions allowed by some halachic authorities such as within ones own home -- but my wife is the expert on that halachah, not me.)

In addition, it says,

"long skirts for women, long black coats, black hats and long beards for men"

Most Orthodox women (yes, including my wife) wear long skirts. And many Orthodox Jewish men, not just Satmar Chasidim, wear long black coats and black hats, and have long beards (not me -- but I do have a neatly trimmed beard). I wish the article had given a less superficial description of the Satmars.

UPDATE : The article seems to have been Associated Press copy. I've now seen the exact article on jpost.com and nytimes.com. All the more reason for the authors to get things right. Sigh.

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