Three Hasidic Jews and over 120 cyclists attended a panel discussion at a Brooklyn bar to debate a dispute over a bike lane. The bike lane runs through an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish neighborhood in South Williamsburg whose residents had complained about scantily clad female riders, leading the city to remove part of the lane. Now two cyclists face criminal charges for repainting the removed section, and the groups have been feuding. At the panel, Isaac Abraham, a 59-year-old spokesman for the Satmar Hasidic sect, acknowledged that the initial hipster influx was tolerated but that masses of newcomers are now objected to.

1. Abhay Ida Jay MallieMalik
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2. Clash of the Bearded Ones
Photo illustration by Peter Rand
On a windy Monday night, Pete’s Candy Store—a bar in Williamsburg with a
railcar-shaped performance space in the back—is crammed to capacity with
the thin and the bearded. Almost no one is drinking. The mood is pregame,
expectant and nervous. We’re at one of the oddest New York City powwows
in recent memory: a panel designed to quell a metastasizing dispute between
bicyclists and Hasidic Jews. Except no Hasids are present. For a moment, it
looks like the bicyclists will have to debate themselves.
At immediate issue is the Bedford Avenue bike lane. It’s the longest in
Brooklyn and runs through every imaginable ethnic enclave—including the
South Williamsburg redoubt of the Satmars, the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic
Jewish sect. In December, after many complaints from the Satmars
about “scantily clad” female riders, the city sandblasted off a small stretch of the lane; some enterprising bikers painted it back in
protest; the city then painted over the unauthorized paint job. Now two activists are up on criminal-mischief charges, the lane is gone,
and the two groups are glowering at each other with even less empathy than usual. Worse yet, each group finds itself standing in for a
larger one in a larger fight: the Satmars for all Orthodox Jews and the bikers for all young secular Williamsburgers, i.e. hipsters
Finally, the opponents are at the door. The Hasids are a group of three led by 59-year-old Isaac Abraham, an erstwhile candidate for the
City Council and a self-appointed spokesman for the Satmars. The trio is bearded, too, of course, but differently so: These are authority
beards. Heritage beards. Abraham finds his seat on the cramped stage and requests a glass of water, cracking, “Make sure it’s not
spiked.” He’s attuned to the absurdity of the premise: Three Hasids and 120 cyclists walk into a bar.
The hipster incursion began in the late nineties and was first written off as a fluke—some strangely dressed types poking around the
abandoned warehouses and factories. The initial reaction, says Isaac Abraham, who has lived in the neighborhood for 58 years after
emigrating from Austria (“Schwarzenegger country!”), was indifference. “Maybe the red carpet wasn’t out for them, but they came in
masses and there was no objection from the community. Everybody went on with their daily lives.”

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