On a visit to Williamsburg....

One day I was travelling through Williamsburg. Everyone knows what Williamsburg means: Satmar! As you stroll down Lee Ave, you see shops with only men in occupancy which sell kugel and gefilte fish. You see each passing woman looking more and more like a clone of her rebbetzin. Throughout the rest of the Jewish world, one hears a whole lot of negative talk in reference to the behavior of the Satmar living there, particularly when it comes to their treatment of woman. A large amount of it is deserved, I'm sure, but there are definitely exceptions. I was in a pizza shop that also served gefilte fish, talking to the owner about business matters. While we were deeply engrossed in conversation, a woman with a stroller opened the door. Now the standard that one might expect of the Satmar man was for him to either tell her that she wasn't allowed in his shop or just to ignore her. He jumped up, told me that I needed to hold on for a second, and ran and opened the door for her, helping her with her stroller into his shop. He came back, sat down and continued talking. Just to rebut the first response of most: he was not a tuna baigel, he was a chaseeedish Satmar wearing a vest with one single phone and no walkie talkies, aka not the modern type. Many people in the gouyish world wouldn't have done that, but the last "type of person" you would expect to be so overly courteous would be a Satmar in Williamsburg. I am not trying to insinuate the the other responses don't happen or don't even happen most of the time; they probably do, but it was nice and refreshing to see this for a change.