The Pious Ones: The World of Hasidim and Their Battles with America

In his most recent book, The Pious Ones (Harper Collins), veteran New York Times journalist Joseph Berger investigates the complex web of issues surrounding American Hasidim today. Beginning with an examination of their origins in 18th-century Eastern Europe and their codified lifestyle, Berger takes a close look at the sectarian politics and conflicts arising today over housing, transportation, schooling, and gender roles. What lies ahead for the Hasidim, and how will they engage with American society in the future?

About the Speaker

Joseph Berger retired from The New York Times in December 2014 after 31 years as a reporter, columnist and editor covering religion, education, and New York’s neighborhoods. He also frequently wrote about Israel, Yiddish and America’s Hasidim. He is the author of four books including a memoir of his refugee upbringing, Displaced Persons: Growing Up American after the Holocaust (Washington Square Press). It was chosen as a notable book of the year by The New York Times, which called it ”an extraordinary memoir,” and was praised by Elie Wiesel as a “powerful and sweetly melancholic memoir, brilliantly written.” In addition to The Pious Ones he also wrote The World in a City: Walking the Neighborhoods of The New New York (Ballantine Books). Berger was born in Russia in 1945, spent the postwar years in D.P. camps in Germany and after immigrating here, grew up in Manhattan and the Bronx. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, City College and the Bronx High School of Science. He lives in Westchester County with his wife, Brenda, a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, and their daughter, Annie, an associate editor for young adult books at Harper Collins.