Hasidism : : a new History

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Call Number: 296.8 Bi
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

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Introduction: Hasidism as a Modern Movement -- Section 1. Origins: The Eighteenth Century -- PART I. BEGINNINGS. 1. Hasidism's Birthplace -- 2. Ba'al Shem Tov: Founder of Hasidism? -- 3. From Circle to Court: The Maggid of Mezritsh and Hasidism's First Opponents -- PART II. FROM COURT TO MOVEMENT. 4. Ukraine -- 5. Lithuania, White Russia, and the Land of Israel -- 6. Galicia and Central Poland -- PART III. BELIEFS AND PRACTICES. 7. Ethos -- 8. Rituals -- 9. Institutions -- Section 2. Golden Age: The Nineteenth Century. Introduction: Toward the Nineteenth Century -- 10. A Golden Age within Two Empires -- PART I. VARIETIES OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY HASIDISM. 11. In the Empire of the Tsars: Russia -- 12. In the Empire of the Tsars: Poland -- 13. Habsburg Hasidism: Galicia and Bukovina -- 14. Habsburg Hasidism: Hungary -- PART II. INSTITUTIONS. 15. "A Little Townlet on Its Own": The Court and Its Inhabitants -- 16. Between Shtibl and Shtetl -- 17. Book Culture -- PART III. RELATIONS WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD. 18. Haskalah and Its Successors -- 19. The State and Public Opinion -- 20. The Crisis of Modernity -- 21. Neo-Hasidism -- Section 3. Death and Resurrection: The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. Introduction: The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries -- PART I. BETWEEN WORLD WAR I AND WORLD WAR II. 22. War and Revolution -- 23. In a Sovereign Poland -- 24. Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Romania -- 25. America and the Land of Israel -- 26. Khurbn: Hasidism and the Holocaust -- PART II. POSTWAR PHOENIX: HASIDISM AFTER THE HOLOCAUST. 27. America: Hasidism's Goldene Medinah -- 2. The State of Israel: Haven in Zion -- 29. Hasidic Society -- 30. Hasidic Culture -- 31. In the Eyes of Others: Hasidism in Contemporary Culture -- Afterword / Arthur Green.
This is the first comprehensive history of the pietistic movement that shaped modern Judaism. The book's unique blend of intellectual, religious, and social history offers perspectives on the movement's leaders as well as its followers, and demonstrates that, far from being a throwback to the Middle Ages, Hasidism is a product of modernity that forged its identity as a radical alternative to the secular world. Hasidism originated in southeastern Poland, in mystical circles centered on the figure of Israel Baal Shem Tov, but it was only after his death in 1760 that a movement began to spread. Challenging the notion that Hasidism ceased to be a creative movement after the eighteenth century, this book argues that its first golden age was in the nineteenth century, when it conquered new territory, won a mass following, and became a mainstay of Jewish Orthodoxy. World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the Holocaust decimated eastern European Hasidism. But following World War II, the movement enjoyed a second golden age, growing exponentially. Today, it is witnessing a remarkable renaissance in Israel, the United States, and other countries around the world. Written by an international team of scholars, Hasidism is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand this vibrant and influential modern Jewish movement.

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