Actor Quits Big Break on Rabbis' Orders

NEW YORK March 18, 2008— -- It's every aspiring actor's dream -- the big break.

So 25-year-old Abraham Karpen was the envy of every Shia Lebouf wannabe when he was cast as Natalie Portman's husband in the film "New York I Love You."

But Karpen isn't going to be on the red-eye to La-la-land any time soon because last week the Hasidic Jew from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, said goodbye to his budding acting career and quit the film.

"He really didn't grasp that this was a movie and that Natalie Portman was a star. He thought it was more of a commercial, a short thing," said Isaac Abraham, a Hasidic community leader. "I think he was a little naive. He didn't grasp the magnitude of what he was doing."

The magnitude of what Karpen was doing became clear after photos of the budding actor walking with Portman under the Brooklyn Bridge surfaced in the media.

"We don't watch TV, use the Internet or see movies. It's against our religion and our traditions. There are strong guidelines about what you can and can't do," Abraham said.

Not surprisingly, getting a Screen Actors Guild card is not on the list of approved to-dos.

When Karpen's rabbis got wind of his activities, they ordered him to withdraw from the film or face the possibility that his children would be kicked out of their religious school.

The rabbis feared that Karpen's presence in the film would rattle the tightly knit and insular culture of Williamsburg Hasidim.

"Once he got the role, I think the rabbis may have thought to themselves, well, you know, people know him. They might want to watch him on the screen. And then where does it end?" Abraham said.

If that sounds harsh, well, you have to understand the faith-based Hasidic community.

"It's a bit like the Mormons. If you're excommunicated, likewise it would be reflected on your children," said Brandeis University professor Jonathon Sarna, an expert on American Jewish history. "Most American Jews would consider Hasidic Jews to be ultra-orthodox. I prefer the term fervently orthodox. They want to recreate the world their parents knew. Innovations are bad because they take time away from religious learning."

Hasidism was a mystical movement of Jews that developed in Eastern Europe. There are many different groups, or sects, within Hasidism, and each group is attached to a rebbe, or Grand Rabbi, to whom they submit themselves.

Hasidim limit their contact with outsiders, and while the lives of Hasidic Jews may be largely hidden from the rest of the world, their look is highly recognizable -- black hats, coats and long side curls for the men; head scarves and modest dress for the women.