[KosmicKitty]

Can individuals who wish to leave this environment move to another state?

Are they followed and forced back to Brooklyn?

Do they behead apostates?

Just curious.

[EinNYC]

They can certainly move away, but most do not want to. Brooklyn is the center of Orthodox Jewish life, especially Chassidish life, in the U.S., particularly on the East Coast. They are born in Brooklyn, employed in either Brooklyn or Manhattan, their friends and relatives are in Brooklyn. They are totally attuned to the folkways and mores of their community and would have a hard time adjusting to a more secular area of the country. Also, Chassidim want to be near their Grand Rabbi ("Rebbe").

"Followed and forced back to Brooklyn"? LOL. Hardly. There is no organized entity which polices their behavior, only perhaps a few looney-tunes who are misguided and are not a part of anything official. Their community reinforces their conscience because everyone wants to fit in. They don't want people to gossip that they wore an immodest dress, ate food of questionable kosher-ness, skipped going to synagogue, engaged in immodest behavior such as flirting with the opposite gender, etc. Remember, when their children go looking for a matrimonial match, the other party will very much want to know if the first party adheres to community standards. Failure to do so would result in a very hard time marrying off your kids.

"Behead apostates"? Have you ever heard of Jews beheading Jews? Nope. We leave that for the Mooslimes. That's THEIR thing, not ours.