Aroinim

Aroinim is the Satmar faction aligned with Aaron, the rabbi’s eldest son, and its identity becomes decisive when the narrator recognizes its distinctive hat at the arrival of her prospective in-laws. The discovery turns a family’s political allegiance into an unexpected personal stake: the narrator’s grandfather has arranged her match with Eli, whose family follows the faction he opposes.

Identity and Allegiance

The faction is identified through its support for Aaron in a succession dispute with the rabbi’s third son, Zalman Leib. The narrator’s family, by contrast, is aligned with Zalman Leib. Although her grandfather never allowed discussion of the dispute at his table, his disapproval of Aaron and what he regarded as Aaron’s extreme ways was understood within the family. The conflict also has a public dimension: the rival sides are fighting in secular courts, a spectacle her grandfather regards as an embarrassment to God and to Satmar.

Recognition at the Match

When the visitors arrive, the narrator first recognizes the woman she expects to call her mother-in-law, then notices a flat black velvet hat with a wide, barely visible brim between the couple. She understands the hat, called a plotchik, as a sign of Aroinim allegiance. The signal is so unexpected that it overwhelms her attention: she wonders how no one else has noticed it and realizes that the family’s political identity contradicts what she thought her grandfather would accept in a match. Their connection to Kiryas Joel makes the allegiance less surprising in retrospect; she estimates that ninety percent of the village’s residents support Aaron, but she had never considered that this family might do so.

The prospective groom is Eli, twenty-two years old. He stands with his hands folded into the opposite arms of his black satin rekel, his shoulders bent and his face lowered in the modest posture expected of a yeshiva boy. His chin-length blond sidelocks swing with his movements. The narrator studies these visible details even as the hat has already changed what the meeting means to her: she is not simply observing a prospective husband but discovering that the match joins her to a faction at odds with her family’s loyalties.

Marriage, Division, and Identity

The factional revelation unsettles the narrator, but the gathering leaves her unable to object openly while everyone watches. Her grandfather’s objection to the court battle rests on the fear that, once a winner is chosen, little will remain for anyone to rule; the narrator, however, is less invested in the fate of Satmar. She rejects the idea that the community is part of her immutable identity, thinking of it as a label she could remove if she chose. In this scene, Aroinim therefore signifies more than a political camp: its unexpected presence in her arranged match makes communal division tangible while prompting her to question whether inherited affiliation defines her at all.