Youtuber Returns to Film Life in a Crown Heights Home

Rabbi Yoni Katz takes YouTuber Marcus Hessenberg on a journey around his Crown Heights, an area in Brooklyn known for both the growing Chassidic community and their newer hipster locals.

Rabbi Yoni wants to show the true life and character of this neighborhood and to bring the communities living there closer. On the tour we were taken to the main synagogue 770 Eastern Parkway as well as to local homes and the main streets, interviewing as we went. The tours are run by himself and his wife and teach the customs and traditions to anyone who wishes to join them to learn about their neighbors.

In part two, Hessenberg went back to New York and revisited Rabbi Katz. He welcomed me enthusiastically into his home to meet the family and show me what it takes to maintain and Jewish home.

He met with Rivky, Yoni’s wife who also welcomes people from outside the community on tours around the neighborhood. “Rivky tells me about how Hasidic Jews meet their partners and the role of motherhood in the religion. She talked about the yearning of a woman holding the family together,” Hessenberg wrote.

Mrs. Brocha Friedman, Rivky’s mother, takes us to her favorite room of the house, The Kosher Kitchen, and tells us what makes food ‘Kosher.’

VIDEO: Part 2

Part 1