NYC Dec25 -Kosher Christmas

riding my bike to manhattan sitting at the end of the williamsburg bridge
I see 2 elderly hasidic jews
it's such a mild day and they are enjoying the warm sun.
i ask them if I can take their photo. one of them asks if i am jewish.
when I say I am not they tell me then it is OK.
if i were I would not be supposed to operate a camera on a saturday - it would be against the rules.
i want to take a close up of isaac [pronounced more like german / yiddish rather than the american english way]
he tells me about his hat "do you know how much it costs??"
he asks me
I say "1/2000 $?" he laughs and tells me he would give me 2 grand if I could get him a hat like that for that much.
it is mink and it costs $3500. they ask me to bring the photos at the restaurant where they work on roebling avenue.

---- rainy day xmas december 25th go to get coffee and find shelter from pouring rain at some café on havemeyer st.
just the time to sit down and have a sip of coffee and the guy says they are closing in 15 min - back in the rain
- not even the time to dry. bedford ave all the hipster joints are closed
-
i need to find a place where I can get fed and dry quickly
-
dont feel like crossing the bridge in such a nasty weather and going to chinatown so I just go to the hasidic neighborhood.
i see a diner/restaurant on roebling street cozy and warm.

isaac the guy i photographed 2 days before on the bridge works there and comes out to say hello.

he wants to see the photos - i sit at the table and get potato pancake kugel and spinach my christmas kosher lunch -
they have no coffee as they serve meat and they don't serve dairy products.
some woman the week before wanted a pastrami sandwich with cheese - they told her they could no that and she insisted for having cheese on the side.

she could not understand that they have no cheese no milk no cream.
jews have to wait 6 hours at least before between meat and dairy.
I read somewhere that jews can eat halal if they can't find kosher. isaac tells me "only a circumcised person can slaughter the animal" I tell him that muslims are circumcised too.
isaac sits at my table and tells me his story slovakian heritage born in israel and moved england then the us.
his father during ww2 was working for the british intelligence MI5.
he has 7 children and has been married for 37 years - his uncle was a matchmaker - he met his wife a couple of times and got married within 2 weeks after he met her.
he shows me her picture on the cell phone. he tells me how people make a living here in hasidic williamsburg -
he answers some questions I have about judaism - as I always got conflicting answers from jewish people regarding their concept of afterlife.
--
there is a mexican cook in the kitchen [although only jewish people can prepare the meat] and there is a black waiter that speaks italian as he lived at the NATO base in aviano italy - he was gathering intelligence for the US Airforce.
---
the restaurant is slow as it is the first night of hannukah and people go home early home to exchange gifts and lighting the first candle --
so after spending a couple of hours at Gottlieb restaurant - the whole scene reminded me of a Joseph Roth novel with this strange mix of religious jews and gentiles
- some sort of american parallel reality of early XX century mitteleuropa.
one of the hasidic waiters gives me his email address and asks me to email him the photos.
he took out of his bag the laptop he won last year paying 10 dollars at the "chinese raffle" and downloaded the photos I just took.
they all seemed very happy - and showing them to everyone.
--
a cool / good looking hasidic girl wearing black walks in to order some take out food. I ask the hasidic guy if it was cool for me to ask her.
he tells me the only way was to take her photo would be if she wasn't noticing - but that is not really my thing. he adds that if I'd ask her she'd say "no" and cut the conversation short.
I ask him if he could ask her for me - but it is no luck as only a close relative could do that,

so I just go up and ask her. she just said yes - and she has this bad ass look
- like she knows how to look into the lens directly with a confident gaze. I ask her " are you hasidic?" "yes" she says with a small smile.

perfect make up - her clothes black and tight fitting and black leather boots with stiletto heels.

at 9 gottlieb is closing - everyone going to some hannukah party - i feek a bit drier and warmer- put my jacket on and ask if "Gottlieb" means "good life" the waiter tell me it does but then adds it can mean "god's love".

as i am leaving the waiters tells me güten nacht