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How the chicken man of Crown Heights became a Hasidic St. Francis of Assisi

JL;DR SUMMARY Daniel Yeroshalmi, a 21-year-old member of Chabad in Crown Heights, embodies a modern-day Francis of Assisi through his unique urban homestead just 300 feet from Lubavitcher World Headquarters. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

ChabadHasidic CommunityCommunity DynamicsCrown HeightsSustainabilityChickensGardeningDaniel YeroshalmiUrban HomesteadingWildlife Care

Places mentioned

Brooklyn, New York, United States
"The chicken coop is located about 300 feet from Lubavitcher World Headquarters in Brooklyn."
Crown Heights, New York, United States
"Over the hours Ive talked and texted with Yeroshalmi, I have come to think of him as a Hasidic version of St. Francis of Assisi, the charismatic figure who preached to the birds in 13th Century Italy even though St. Francis had thousands of followers while Yeroshalmi has a little less than a thousand on Instagram, where his Crown Heights Homestead logo depicts the iconic three-story Gothic Revival headquarters of Chabad atop a farm field."
Borough Park, New York, United States
"His father, a dentist who practices in Borough Park, was the first member of the family to become a Lubavitcher."
New York City, New York, United States
"Still, he added, If I have to live in New York City, I would definitely choose Crown Heights."
Bronx, New York, United States
"Another uncle is the head of pediatrics at a municipal hospital in the Bronx."
United States
"Last summer he took all 20 hens to a camp for Orthodox Jewish boys in the Midwest, transporting them in poultry crates more than 800 miles in a rented truck."
Iran
"His parents were born in Iran."

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This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 72951
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2026-01-17 05:30:44 UTC
Curated 2026-01-17 08:31:20 UTC