A Life Apart: Hasidism in America

A Life Apart: Hasidism in America is the first in-depth documentary to explore a distinctive Eastern European religious community. In the postwar migration, Hasidism established its most vital center in the United States. Both challenging and embracing American values, Hasidim pursue the elements many Americans prize most: family, community, and a close relationship to God. By weaving critical, analytical scholarship with an intimate portrait of daily life, beliefs, and history of contemporary Hasidic Jews in New York City, the film centers on the conflicts, burdens, and rewards of the Hasidic way of life.