Instancer has rendezvoused with us at Columbus Circle in Manhattan, having taken the C train down from Cathedral Parkway–110th Street, a few blocks from his apartment in Morningside Heights, he tells us. He has guided us via our self-driver here to Borough Park in Brooklyn, gotten us past security into the community hall, and navigated us through the flock inside to an elevated station from which we can observe the full scene.

It’s quite a sight. At least three hundred black-clad, fedora- and yarmulke-wearing Chasidim—men and boys (with a separate section for women and girls)—pack the converted private school that serves as the Rebbe’s residence, house of worship, and community center.

Besides me, Manning and the professor, who wears jeans and a sports jacket over a black high-neck T-shirt, are the only ones in the room not dressed in Orthodox garb.

I know three things about the Brooklyn Chasidic community. One, their cell phones (the non-business ones anyway) are internet-disabled. It’s an article of piety among the Orthodox to shun the modern world. Two, they love to buy old police cars. My uncle Eugene runs the NYPD’s Equipment Recycling Division. “The Chasidim buy worn-out blue-and-whites for five hundred bucks and drive ’em for twenty years.” Sure enough, when we arrive outside the Rebbe’s, I note three antique cruisers parked at the curb, repainted black.

The final thing I know about the Borough Park community (which I learned two hours ago from research) is that the Orthodox have their own security force, called the Shomrim. Apparently one does not mess with these dudes. They patrol the streets, share radio frequencies not just with the Six-Six Precinct but across the full band of the NYPD. Borough Park is one of the safest neighborhoods in the five boroughs.

The event tonight, Jake Instancer is telling Manning as we settle into our viewing spot, is something of a special occasion. Normally the Rebbe’s audience would be all-male due to the patriarchal nature of the community. One evening a month, however, women and girls are welcomed as well. The Rebbe will speak tonight for an hour or two, Instancer tells Manning, then receive visitors upstairs in his residence for individual or family consultations.

In fact, Manning has already shared a few words with the Rebbe, immediately after our arrival. The Shomrim security team had ushered us in. They secured our weapons and phones. At that moment the Rebbe happened to pass. He drew up to welcome Manning.

The Rebbe appears to be in his eighties, dressed in black from top to toe, with a bushy white beard and eyes of striking blue, set wide within a kindly face. Here’s the exchange, verbatim, from my lapel cam:

REBBE

(in Yiddish to Manning)

Welcome! You are a Jew?

The younger of the two elders translates.

MANNING

I’m Catholic, Rebbe.

REBBE

(hard of hearing)

Eh?

ELDER

He says he’s a Catholic, Rebbe.