"There’s more Hassidic Jew in me than I knew!" TV personality Winfrey says of visit to ultra-orthodox neighborhoods, trip to mikveh.
By RACHEL SARAFRAZOprah Winfrey 390(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
TV personality Oprah Winfrey toured the neighborhoods of Crown Heights, Borough Park and Brooklyn Heights on Wednesday for a rare glimpse at the lives of Brooklyn's Hassidic Jews, the Chabad organization's website announced on Wednesday.The segment, set to air next week on Winfrey's new show Oprah's Next Chapter, featured a discussion with Hassidic women about the ultra Orthodox community's lifestyle as well as a trip to a mikveh (Jewish ritual bath).In an exclusive interview for the organization's video site, Jewish.TV, Winfrey told Chabad Rabbi Motti Seligson, "I’ve, you know, walked down the street and seen Hassidic Jewish men in particular with the peyot [side curls] - now I know that’s what they are - and the yarmulkes and oftentimes with wearing the hats and the long beards and I’ve always found it somewhat formidable or intimidating,""I’ve never actually spoken to anybody who was a Hassidic Jew because I always felt like I didn’t know whether I was allowed to or what was the whole issue with women or not with women," she explained. "So this experience for me today has really confirmed and affirmed what I truly believe as one of my deep, spiritual principles and that is that we are all more alike than we are different.""There’s more Hassidic Jew in me than I knew!" Winfrey said, marking her experience a success.
