Summary Of Mitzvah Girls

Mitzvah Girls is an anthropological study conducted by Ayala Fader of the Mitzvah Girls in several Hasidic Jewish communities in Boro Park, Brooklyn. Fader went to this community to study women and girls in everyday life of girls in school where their values, identity and culture are molded. With a focus on bringing up the next generation of Jewish girls. While Hasidic Jews may look all the same to everyone outside the community, Fader chose to change the way they view Hasidic Jews by taking part in the lives of the Brooklyn Hasidic Jews. Showing us their attitudes toward language, dress, religious practice, and nonreligious knowledge. Their life during elementary school and the home lives of these Hasidic mothers and their children. Fader
Fader gives us a view into an otherwise inaccessible Hasidic Jew community. She shows us the lives of Hasidic Jews and the way parents bring up their children in the ways of a proper Hasidic Jew. What was interesting is when growing up a female Hasidic Jew wasn’t about the religion as much as it was about the everyday things such as language and bodily discipline compared to Hasidic males. To put it in its simplest terms growing up female was to grow up to become Hasidic wives which entails being a loving wife and an object of reproduction and knowledge for Hasidic Jewish
Human activities that we would see as a normal everyday occurrence like following rules, eating lunch, or playing games are turned into an opportunity to teach how a Hasidic Jew should act. Good behavior is taught and learned through the awareness of bad behavior especially in the school system. Because of this teachers and parents often use the word gentile, meaning one who is not just and prone to sin. This creates the idea that Jewish people are superior to all others and educate their children in that they are more decent, well-mannered and righteous. Therefore it is their moral responsibility to live up to that name. Using the surrounding American community’s as a constant reminder of what can happen to one if he or she fails against the fight of good and evil. Which has a very mental effect on the young Jews as in the book kids are aware of the stigma that comes with being call a gentile. The only way to discern away from evil is to always keep in check the way one speaks, how they use their body, how they dress and how they act towards themselves and others to produce the ideal Hasidic