What’s a chasid to do for dinner when his family heads to the Catskills for the summer? The New York Times has the story:
As in many New York neighborhoods, summer brings a demographic shift in Borough Park, a predominantly Hasidic section of Brooklyn. The playgrounds are quieter than usual and the familiar sight of women dressed in wigs and long skirts, surrounded by children, is less common.
In July and August, many families there head for bungalow colonies in the Catskills, leaving behind men who work all week and reunite with their wives and children on the weekends. They call themselves summertime bachelors.
Weekday nights can be lonely for these men, who are used to returning home from work to a lively family dinner. But consolation can be found at a handful of informal supper clubs that have cropped up in Borough Park.
“The men here, their families remain upstate, so they’re looking for some good, reasonably priced food, and for some company,” said Rabbi Shlomo Weiss, who broke bread one recent weeknight with perhaps a dozen other men in the basement of a large building on 53rd Street near 13th Avenue that is usually used for religious education. It has been running a summer dining program for roughly 25 years, and on a typical busy night feeds 200 people over the course of several hours.
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