Peace? Probably Not. But Something

(Some) Hasidim Embrace (Some) Bikes

Usually when we hear about Orthodox Jews and bicycles, the story goes something like this. Either the cyclists are too skimpily dressed to satisfy 18th century notions of modesty. Or the bikes bring outsiders into a neighborhood that wants to maintain as much separation as possible from the gentile world. Or it’s just another version of the ongoing struggle over who owns the streets.

Which is why is was such a pleasure to watch a gaggle of students from the Chabad Lubavitcher sect pedaling rolling sukkahs around midtown Manhattan this morning.

A sukkah is the temporary hut that gives its name to the harvest festival Sukkot, which starts Wednesday night. Jewish tradition is that you take your meals in it during the holiday.

In ultra-expensive Manhattan, of course, it’s a luxury most can’t afford. So when Levi Duchman (leading the parade) was a 16-year old, he got the idea of putting sukkahs about the size of shower stalls on the backs of pedicabs and bringing them to the sukkah-starved masses.

The rabbis are thrilled. This time of year, “My phone is off the hook,” he tells me. “They’re all saying, ‘Bring it by here!’” using a Yiddish locution I associate with my immigrant grandparents’ generation. “Amsterdam. London. Atlanta. Knoxville, Tennessee.”

And it wasn’t just in the diamond district on West 47th. Here’s a nice juxtaposition. The sukkah parade stops in front of the historic St. Thomas Episcopal Church on Fifth Avenue.

Yes, I know it’s three wheels, not two. And Chabad is probably the Hasidic organization most engaged with the outside world. But the opening to China started with ping pong.