Real hair?
♪ electronic music ♪
What's going on now? Where are we?
Okay, we're in Toby's house, Toby's my sister.
The best human in the world.
The oldest human in the world in our family.
The oldest human in our family.
She has 12 grandchildren and counting.
She doesn't look like she has grandchildren, look at her.
-Yeah. -Right?
-How's it possible? -I just got shy, camera turned on.
No, you're great Toby. What are you making here?
We're making challah for Shabbos.
Okay, where are we off to? Where are we doing?
We going... In between bites...
Course I don't stop eating.
We're going to check out a wig place.
We're gonna get to see wigs.
The only one that needs a wig here is me.
[laughing]
I love it.
We're entering my niece's wig salon.
She does all my wigs for me, I purchase all my wigs from her.
Hey.
Hi.
How are you?
So pretty.
So this is a new salon that she just moved to.
Hello.
Okay, so you get all these choices.
This is a gorgeous wig, it has beautiful streaks, highlights.
So tell me about wig culture.
When do you start wearing wigs?
So after you get married you need to cover your hair.
Okay.
So before marriage you go with your normal hair out in public.
Yeah, before you're married you can wear your own hair
and then after you get married you have a choice.
You can cover it with a kerchief, you can cover it with a hat
or you can cover it with a wig.
It kind of becomes your identity.
It kind of becomes who you are, you know?
That's why I don't change my wigs
'cause I feel like this is me, it's my style.
-And this is real hair? -This is human hair.
It's very simple but it's quite...
It's complicated.
-Complicated, right? -Yeah, it is complicated.
Some people believe that it doesn't make sense
if you're supposed to be covering your own hair
to cover it with somebody else's hair is not okay
and some people won't wear wigs.
-Hmm. -That's for that reason.
Thankfully, I'm from the community where
we believe that wigs are okay to wear.
All right, I gotta jump in here and offer some clarification.
Some rabbis think wigs are better because they cover everything.
Other rabbis say a kerchief is better.
It's very complicated.
So people within the community go with what their personal rabbi says.
I also want to mention that unfortunately
I had to remove a lot of this wig segment.
The woman that's pixelated didn't want to be seen or heard in the video.
I found out this afterwards.
Too bad because she was awesome on camera.
She had a lot of interesting things to say
but I understand and respect her position.
Couple of fast facts:
Wigs usually cost $600 to $2,500.
Some women have one wig, others have many.
Most of the wig hair is European.
-I was talking to... -Okay, okay.
Oh, thank you.
Look, every community has its strengths and weaknesses.
Is there something Hasidic women could teach the world?
Is there something you think that maybe other are lacking
in some way, shape, or form or?
No, I just feel like as a woman, don't try to be something that...
Something else.
I think it's okay for women to be women.
As in the need to show that we can do everything
and that we can be more than just women.
What's more than just women?
There's nothing more than just women.
Women are amazing
and they're so powerful and they're so great at what they do
at what they were naturally created to do.
Mm-hmm.
Which is to be mothers, and to be nurturers, and to be...
And there's no need to try and
show or prove that you're more
and that's because in the world, I think people
are somehow of the opinion that women are less
or women can't do everything that men can do.
So women are so busy trying to prove that they can do what men can do.
Stop it.
Hmm.
It's okay, you're a woman, you're amazing.
Right.
A man can do what he can do and women can do what they can do best.
No guy can do what a woman can do.
Why isn't the guy trying to show that he can do what women can do?
Why are we, only women, trying to show that we can do what men can do?
-Interesting. -What's the point of that?
Just be comfortable in your skin.
Be comfortable, who you are and I feel like
Hasidic women don't feel the need.
No one's telling them that they're not enough
and I know that the world
thinks that women in the Hasidic community are oppressed
or they're looked down on
or they're not equal.
That is so far from the truth.
We are raised to believe
that we, women, are so strong, we're so powerful.
We're so amazing and we run the home.
[ambulance siren]
We... Hold for sound...
Yeah.
[siren gets louder]
You run the home...
We're the ones that keep the family together.
We're the stable, strong part of the home.
Our children need us so badly.
A home without a mother is a sad, sad place
and we grow up
understanding our role as a beautiful, beautiful thing.
Mm-hmm.
And we're not feeling a need to show that we're guys.
We're not, it's okay.
Right.
You know?
So I feel like if there's one thing that the world can learn
from the Hasidic women is their comfort in their skin
just being women
and doing their God-given role
Which is natural.
Yes, there are women that could be businessmen.
Yes, there are women that can even do plumbing, I do plumbing in my house.
Mm-hmm.
I change light bulbs.
I change... It's not about that.
It's not like we're stuck on making sure we do only women's jobs.
It's not about that.
We're so comfortable and so happy to be women.
No, we're not oppressed.
No, we don't feel like we want to be something else.
So there are maybe some people who have felt that.
Mm-hmm.
But I have to say the majority of women in our community are so comfortable
doing what they were born to do.
Which is to be mothers, and just nurturers, and wives.
Yeah.
And loving the people around them
and helping everybody
and you know, being...
And you're a creator, you create video.
-You create cinema. -Right.
I found that I felt that I needed to use my creative energy.
Yeah.
And I'm an artist
and I do painting and I'm a dancer
and so I started doing films as like a side thing
but it's something that I do to fulfill my creative side of me
but
who I am is not that.
Okay.
Who I am is a mother, is a wife
is a person that's trying my best to be close to God.
Mm-hmm.
And as the best human that I possibly can be.
Raising a generation of children that will then continue
to make this world a better place.
and, yeah...
There.
Well done.
Okay. [chuckles]
-That was a lot. -That was a good one, yeah.
You let it loose.
-Can we hug? -Yes, we can hug.
Aww.
Who is this?
This is Hava, (she) is a guitar teacher in the community.
[laughs]
You teach guitar?
Yes, and play, and do concerts, and perform.
She does performances and she's an artist.
A real artist.
We're a couple artists here.
Hava taught me guitar
and now she's teaching my kids guitar.
[siren]
What were you telling me before when I had the camera off?
That I was not born into the Jewish community here in Boro Park.
-Okay. -I came from Manhattan.
Oh.
And I grew up in a secular family with professional musicians as parents.
Born Jewish.
I had a Christmas tree in my home until I was 12
and
my father said, "Maybe it's enough."
and didn't let us have it anymore
but...
-So you grew up as a Secular Jew? -Correct.
But then you decided to take it up a notch.
A big notch, yeah.
Big time, and so tell me why.
Tell us why, why would you do that and what have you gotten out of it?
Because it's an amazing religion.
It's an amazing religion, there's nothing like it out there
I tried, I tried Buddhism, I tried Catholicism.
I tried a lot of different things and...
What I was telling Peter is that it doesn't really matter what religion.
I feel like people that are religious have a better quality of life.
100%.
Because when you're connecting to a higher something...
Everybody says that, they don't realize what they're talking about though
but that's the truth.
When you connect to a power outside yourself
you have a more meaningful feeling in your life
and you realize that you're not in this alone.
I've never heard of it.
Someone's a secular Jew
and you basically go to the most extreme...
-It happens a lot more than you think. -Really?
Yeah, sure.
So you feel, you were telling us that
someone that finds religion
it's not about themselves, it's about connecting with a higher power.
100%, but in Judaism in particular
if you are a Jew, we believe
that there's a deep connection to Judaism.
It's in there, you just have to kind of, like, scratch the surface.
Okay.
In a way, I find her to be more religious and authentic than me.
She's wearing a kerchief, which is hard for me to do.
[chuckles]
[train passing]
I find that what she did is way harder than what I did
because I grew up religious.
She didn't grow up religious and she chose to be religious.
That's not easy.
You know, I grew up knowing I was gonna cover my hair and wear a wig.
So it was something that we did, I took if for granted
and she's wearing a kerchief which I can't see myself wearing
even though I feel like it's a higher level
because wearing a kerchief isn't as
you know...
I don't know, wigs are just...
That's what everybody tells me but the truth is I...
I thought wearing a wig would be really weird
because I'm basically a hippie at heart
Okay.
And to hide your hair with another set of hair
it just seemed like
I don't know, oxymoron?
I don't know what the word is
but it seemed weird to me.
So I said, "No, I'm gonna just cover it." you know?
Right.
Well I came at the end of the 60s.
So I didn't really... It wasn't really too bad for me.
But the 60s ideology...
The spirit, yes.
The spirit, like Grateful Dead, that sort of thing?
Yes, that sort of thing.
You were into the Grateful Dead?
A little bit, not so much.
-I was into more like pop. -Okay.
They were like... I don't know, I guess they're pop.
I was more like The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix.
So I hired her to be on one of my performances that I did on a stage.
Okay.
And she was the guitarist on stage
and I fell in love with her because she didn't just...
Sarah Shwartdro, amazing singer.
-She was... -Amazing singers.
But nobody knows about them because they're in the community.
They're within the community but she was playing the guitar
but she wasn't just playing it, she was jumping, she was living
and I was like, "Oh my God, she is my girl."
-Right? -Oh yeah, I jump.
I got the whole band to jump in time.
Everybody was jumping.
The only thing I didn't do was play behind my back
which I also know how to do.
Oh, you know how to play behind your back?
-Yes, I know how. -Oh my gosh, that's next.
What is the biggest thing you've gotten out of this switch in your life?
Coming to the Hasidic community.
A very clear sense of purpose.
A very clear sense that I have...
I'm here for music.
I know it
and I forget about it sometimes.
Everybody has problems with, you know
feeling down and sorry for yourself
but I don't let it go beyond a certain point
because I know that's not gonna last, number one.
I'll come out of it tomorrow.
Mm-hmm.
And then I'll go back on track to what I need to be doing
because Hashem has me here for a very specific reason.
-Hashem, God. -Hashem is God.
We have... Each of us has different fingerprints.
Think about that for a second.
-That's mind blowing. -Everyone has a different fingerprint.
Nature, who is capable of something like this?
-They’re not... -I've never even thought of it like that.
Nobody has the same fingerprints as me, you, or you, nobody.
Nobody.
Not Chinese, Puerto Rican, Russian, we all have different fingerprints.
If you think about that for a second
It means we all have our reason to be here.
-Everybody does. -Everybody...
[train passing]
All right, this is my cute little hideout.
So
this is... By the way
By the way, these are hooks, how cute are these hook?
IKEA, $6.00.
All right
meet my little
studio.
[claps] This is where I give my classes.
I'm an aerobics instructor, I'm a dance teacher
and I do something called Kosher Zumba.
Which is like dancercise.
It's basically Zumba but Kosher in that the movements
are a little more refined and the music is not so risque.
You know, it's a little more conservative, the music.
Also I give classes on the trampoline.
Which are great for the joints but it's an unbelievable workout.
So you know, as I'm getting older and I wanna stay fit my whole life
'cause I pray to God all the time
"Just keep me fit so I can keep doing what I'm doing."
Which is teaching girls to dance and whatever.
So I need to think about my joints.
So trampoline is softening the joints, just saying...
What's the age range?
Who comes here, what ages?
Anywhere from eight years old to
I'll have some 50 and 60 year olds in my classes.
Okay
Of course the classes are age appropriate.
Of course.
-This, by the way, is your back garage. -Yeah.
This is my garage.
-It's in the back of my house. -Their house is over there.
The family's house is there and the garage is here
-and you've set it up very nicely. -Yeah.
So I feed my kids supper and I say
"Bye kids, I'm going to give a class." and I fly out to the garage.
And I give my class, and I come inside sweating, huffing, puffing
"Okay, so where were we?"
"Did you do your homework?"
"What's going on next?" you know?
It's like I don't have to go to far.
I'm giving my classes...
[chuckles]
So this is us.
That's great.
I feel like it's important for people to
before you make an assumption about a community...
Mm-hmm.
Get to go into the community. [car honking]
Right.
I had preconceived notions about many different things in my life
that once I got to know, you know, better...
It's like when you meet somebody...
Mm-hmm.
You don't know who they are until you get to know them
and then all of a sudden they become beautiful.
Right.
You know, you meet somebody and you don't think they're so pretty.
Yeah.
-You get to know their personality... -Yeah.
Right? It's a big teaching in our religion.
We believe that beauty comes from within.
Yeah.
You can meet somebody and that's why there's not such a big stress on
you know... that's why... you know...
Clothing keeps us covered because beauty does come from within.
Right.
So your point is before you judge a community
spend some time in it, talk to the people in it
seems like common sense, right?
Absolutely.
Don't believe the sound bytes
or the only truth I guess is through your own eyes.
-Right? -That is true and if you haven't seen it
you can't say that you've seen it with your own eyes.
Right.
So with that said, Malky, you've been awesome.
-Thank you so much. -Thank you.
Thank you all for watching this.
Aww.
I think...
Well, I did my best to sort of bring this energy that I felt
in these neighborhoods out to the world.
I think you're doing great.
Thank you.
Thank you for coming in here and being nosey.
[laughter]
Curious, I'm curious.
-It's great to have you. -I always wanna know what's around
the next corner.
-Everywhere. -Okay.
So you're making movies but you don't have a link online, right?
So my performances are for women and girls only.
You'll find it in stores where Jewish...
-You have to come to the neighborhood? -Yeah.
In the neighborhood.
Okay, okay, come to the neighborhood.
It's okay, no one's taking video of you, he's taking video of me.
It's okay.
End of the road.
If you wanna support this channel I got a link below.
Patreon page, DM me.
Behind the scenes footage.
If you wanna get in touch with me, go there
wanna support the channel.
Thanks for coming along.
That was fun.
-Amazing. -Amazing.
Amazing.
Just cool, go in and listen to people.
Go talk to people, the worlds not as scary
as everyone tells you it is.
Okay.
Until next one.
Okay.
Against the wall, is that all right?
Yes, check out this wall.
Is that all right? It's cool.
I love this wall.
It just signifies what Brooklyn is.
It's beautiful.