Unreached People Groups – Gorsky + Other Hasidic (Video)

Jeri: “Hi, today, we’re going to be speaking about several Jewish people groups here in New York City and I’ll be sharing on the Gorsky Kavkazi Jews, who are known for their light-heartedness and their sense of humor and they joke about having 30 cousins and that their parents drink six cups of tea a day.”

“And there’s about 10,000 of them that live right here in Flat Bush, Brooklyn, and they claim to be descendants of the Jews taken captive by the Babylonian empire in 586 BC, which would mean that their ancestors would be related to Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego, which is very interesting.”

“Okay, Craig.”

Craig: “Yeah, you know there’s been a lot in the news about the Ukrainian Jews and a quick look at the internet and you see one, two-dozen groups of Hasidic Jews that had their origins in the Ukrain.”
“One such group that’s up here in Monsey, New York is the Vizhnitz group, and their main rabbi is said to study 18 hours a day to require his congregation to study two hours a day.”

“There’s another group also called the Skver, and they have primary headquarters in New Square, New York. They’re also located in Borough Park and Flatbush. The sort of interesting thing about them is all three of the grant rabbis have the last name Twersky.”

“You can go on a little bit more with a small group called the Bovaners or the Boyland group and they’re a little group that meets from a Ruzhiner group that also has its origins in Ukraine, but this is a group that meets on the upper westside of New York City. They meet in a little synagogue that’s really an apartment that’s been converted sort of like a house church. There’s about a thousand families and they’re a good strong Hasidic community as well.”

“Now, you can also mention the Karlin, the Stolin, and the Brezlovs, and others, they’re all New Jersey.”

“But because of time let’s sort of move and go into some of the groups we haven’t mentioned that have Polish backgrounds, and one such group that’s a significant group. It’s actually called the Belz group or the Belzer group, and it’s the largest group in Borough Park. It’s a step up from the Bobovs that we covered in a series just one or two times ago.”

“The Gerers and Satmars and many other groups in 1939 through 1945 withstood almost mere extinction during the Holocaust. They saw their leaders executed, murdered. Their followers were almost nearly extinct by the time those years were over. It looked almost hopeless for them.”

“There was like 30 to 100 different Hasidic groups that we can mention that were in existence somewhere around that time and many never rose out of the ashes of those terrible times of the Holocaust and different events surrounding those times.”

“But there have been many who have like the mythological phoenix. They have risen out of those ashes and they have become great groups like you have Satmars, the Ger/Gur, the Belz, you have the Lubavitch, you have many, many groups that we know of today that have become strong, thriving Hasidic groups and as we look and as we look out at Metro New York City we just want to sort of think about them.”

“In my mind I just go, “You know something? I love you guys. I think it’s pretty fantastic to have people like you who have ancestors like you who live all around me who are my neighbors and I just greet you. I salute you. I respect you. I want to get to know you better and I hope you want to get to know me better and as time goes on let’s let true shalom be the rule between you and I always and forever.”

“Why don’t we pray?”

Jeri: “Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you and we lift up the Hasidic unreached people groups here in Metro New York City. God, we just pray that your Holy Spirit would just move in their midst, Lord God, drawing them to the Messiah Jesus Christ that they would come to know him as their Lord and Savior. We pray that you would draw people to love them and to pray for them and to reach out to them and be a light on to them, Lord.”

“And we just pray all of this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”

Craig: “Amen.”

Jeri: “Thank you for joining us for praying for the Hasidic communities here in New York City. God bless you.”

Craig: “We say to that a big shalom.”

Jeri: “Shalom.”