Prejudices against Chassidic Women

B"H

Each of us knows that there are more than enough prejudices against chassidic women. Maybe not too many against women from Chabad or Breslov, as many of them even work in different academic fields. I am more talking about Satmar, Toldot Aharon or further groups which do not really associate with our, what we call, daily lives.

Last week I had another experience of this kind. A certain Israeli university shows interest in my writings about the chassidic group Toldot Aharon. Abroad many people are not too familiar with those chassidim and, therefore, cannot imagine what it means to publish some information about this group. In Israel people usually do know the name but, as Toldot Aharon are a very closed society, no one knows details. Anyone writing about them might go to their Tish and read the hardly existing literature. However, no one bothers too much talking to the group members.
I am planning to continue writing about Toldot Aharon but not for academic purposes. I am interested in the group and started to admire their members.

Anyway, I told a university professor about my writings and she got very excited. Immediately she printed out all my reports so far but at the end she asked me from where I am getting my information. I told her that I speak to the women of Toldot Aharon.
What only the women ? The professor almost fainted but I told her that not everyone needs to have a PhD. or another academic title. People including chassidic women can be intelligent without going to universities. And by the way, most women I spoke to so far, did have an IQ and were intelligent.

It is really sad and a bad prejudice that people do think this way. Being chassidic does not automatically mean being stupid.