New book tackles abuse in the Chasidic world

“Hush” is the pseudonymous’ Eishes Chayil’s daring foray into the forbidden territory of sexual abuse in the closed enclave of Hasidic Boro Park. Gittel and Devory, the main characters of this novel, are fast friends who share the same birthday and consider one another to be twins. They dress up like brides for Purim, visit the red-haired non-Jewish woman who lives in the top story of Gittel’s house (a secret that cannot be told to anyone) and play jump rope and other games together. Yet while Gittel’s world remains that of a child, Devory retreats deeper and deeper into an otherworld comprised of books, queries about Haman’s hanging and behavior that upsets and outrages her frustrated parents. After her parents choose to blame her rather than recognize that she is being abused, Devory kills herself and is found by her friend Gittel, a purple jump-rope wrapped around her neck.
This insider’s view (Eishes Chayil claims on the bookjacket that she was “raised in a world of Chassidic schools, synagogues, and summer camps and is a direct descendant of the major founders of and leaders in the Chassidic world”) reveals Boro Park to the average American in glorious Technicolor. Whether it is the excitement of an engagement party, the angry whispers of a mother who refuses to let her child testify to the police or the community’s obsession with appearances, the author succeeds in making the Chasidic world real and accessible to a general audience. Even the wording she attributes to her characters and their mixture between English and Yiddish evokes the proper mood.
Chayil chose to write the novel using a child’s voice and a teenager’s voice; the contrast between them allows for multiple perspectives on the tragedy that occurred. It is the child’s voice that is particularly moving. In one poignant scene, the children inform red-haired Kathy, the non-Jewish woman who lives upstairs, “that the only way you could get into heaven was if you were Jewish and, of course, wore a hat.” Kathy just laughs and replies, “No, no, there are no hats in heaven, only souls.”