Amish Meet Hasidic Jews
According to the Gothamist , Amish from Pennsylvania visited Hasidic Jews in Crown Heights (on the walking tour I took a couple years ago): Yesterday dozens of Amish residents from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania caused plenty of confusion as they toured a predominantly Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn's Crown Heights; the Amish beards and black hats had workers in a matzoh factory convinced they were Jews visiting from Uzbekistan. Amish visitors John and Priscilla Lapp explained to the AP that, "In some things we are alike, like our clothing and our traditional beliefs. And in some things we are not. The biggest thing is that Jesus is our savior." (That, and the Lubavitchers have yet to be immortalized by Randy Quaid.) Rabbi Beryl Epstein, who has been leading tours of Hasidic life since 1982, explained that the visit was intended to give each group a glimpse into the other's devout culture. He tells the Post, "They don't have too many places they can visit w...