Other members of the community took issue with the lack of modest dress worn by the tourists, who would be taken by the tours to kosher bakeries and other shops in the district.
Saturdays, when many Chasidic men wear a fur streimel as part of their Shabbat garb, is said to be a particularly popular day for tourists to be present with cameras, taking pictures of the Strictly Orthodox locals.
The tours, operated in both English and Spanish, can present a completely inaccurate view of Chasidic Jews — the Post said that one Spanish language guide it attended repeated the falsehood that Strictly Orthodox Jews procreate by having sex through a sheet with a hole in it, and claimed that marriages between family members were once frequent.
Even tours of the area run by Orthodox Jews have met with suspicion, with tourists taken, for example, into a sheitel shop which sells wigs for Strictly Orthodox women to cover their own hair.
On those occasions when a tourist does bother to ask permission before taking a photo, “the answer will always be no”, one Chasidic woman said.
