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A recent New York magazine story about a young woman exiled by Kiryas Joel inspired Hasidic women, including Rachel Freier, left, Eve Friedman, center, and Rachel Schmidt, to speak to the media about the community and the Hasidic lifestyle. Shots taken at Freier's Woodbury bungalow.

Some of the Hasidic women read the story about Sterna "Gitty" Grunwald soon after it came out in New York magazine. Others read it after hearing about it from friends.

The reactions were similar.

"Sadness for Gitty," said Rosalie Sentor.

"Tremendous pain that this happened," said Eva Friedman.

The five women, all of whom live in New York City, joined two local women from the "haredi," or ultra-orthodox Jewish community, to respond to what they say was a biased depiction of Kiryas Joel and Hasidic life.

"Everything written was a total distortion," Friedman said.

Many Hasidim share the values and customs of Kiryas Joel residents, so an attack on the Orange County village is seen as an attack on all Hasidim, the women said.

"People have been calling me from our (non-Hasidic) community and asking me if everything Gitty said about Hasidic women is true," said Chana Burston, a Lubavitcher with a Chabad mission in Monroe.

The leaders of Kiryas Joel long ago decided to remain silent when faced with such secular attacks on their culture. But that decision was made before the Internet and when the secular interest in Kiryas Joel remained confined to Orange County, said Rachel Freier, a local attorney who arranged the interviews with most of the women.

A story last year in the Times Herald-Record about villagers who vandalized a young woman's car after she wore immodest clothing, as well as a story about the village in one of New York's premiere magazines, drastically raises the stakes for the village's silence, Freier said.

"The repercussion of not responding at all can be so damaging," she said.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080727/NEWS/807270328