When Chabad explains the Chassidic World….

then everything just sounds too much Chabad and no other chassidic group or context is being mentioned anymore.

Exactly this kind of experience I had last night when I went for a shiur to the Jerusalem Israel Center (Orthodox Union).
I was the first of our course to arrive and our usual classroom was already occupied by a small group of Israeli women. Later they went to a different room but before, I had plenty of time to talk to those women. Basically they were secular but wanted to participate in a shiur about "Relationships in the Chassidic World".
First I thought that this is concerning Shidduchim but I was mistaken. One woman told me that the shiur is about relationships between wife and husband in the chassidic society.

"Wow, I said, this sounds interesting. About what groups is the lecturer talking ?"

"Well, the women responded, our lecturer is a woman from Chabad. So we learn about Chabad and sometimes also about Breslov".

I was quite disappointed and told her that chassidut includes countless chassidic groups and not only Chabad and sometimes Breslov. What about Vishnitz, Satmar, Belz and all those others ? And if the class doesn't want to visit chassidic Tishes on Shabbat and speak to some women there ?

The women from the course was a kind of shocked and said that those chassidic women must be complete extremists and not approachable.

Furthermore, I told her that Chabad is not representative. They and Breslov are rather open minded and cannot be compared to other chassidic groups at all. Of course, you can talk about them but should mention that there are other groups and not call it "Talks about the Chassidic World" but about "Talks about Chabad".

I told them that I write about chassidut and mentioned a few facts about other groups. Suddenly the women were very interested and wanted to know more.

I really would have liked to see the face of the Chabad – lecturer when later her class demanded some information about Belz or Satmar.

It is high time that people understand that the chassidic world does not only consist of Chabad.