"Visite du Quartier Juif de Brooklyn. Ressourcez-vous!"

It's the New Year, which meant... nothing entirely new, I suppose, but bits of newness all the same. Went with the usual suspects and then some to a party in an office overlooking Times Square, but when this, despite the views (pictures forthcoming) got too cubicle-ish, a few of us left for the year-round excitement of the East Village. In Midtown, on our way to the train, we encountered first a Mitzvah Tank, and then--get this--a francophone Mitzvah Tank! So of course I had to stop and have a long-ish chat in French with a Parisian Chabad guy, who took me into some kind of "dreidel house" where a bunch of young Chabad types were mingling, then to the back, to introduce me to someone who appeared to be the French rebbe, with whom I also spoke some of zee French. I happened to be wearing a long-ish skirt, but I think it was clear I was not a part of the fold. I did, however, get French Chabad in NY's business card, which led me first to their main site and then to this, a must-see for anyone living in Brooklyn professing an interest in French Jews.