Studying Hasidism

Sources, Methods, Perspectives

Edited by Marcin Wodzinski

Rutgers University Press

Hasidism, a Jewish religious movement that originated in Poland in the eighteenth century, today counts over 700,000 adherents, primarily in the U.S., Israel, and the UK. Popular and scholarly interest in Hasidic Judaism and Hasidic Jews is growing, but there is no textbook dedicated to research methods in the field, nor sources for the history of Hasidism have been properly recognized. Studying Hasidism, edited by Marcin Wodziński, an internationally recognized historian of Hasidism, aims to remedy this gap. The work’s thirteen chapters each draws upon a set of different sources, many of them previously untapped, including folklore, music, big data, and material culture to demonstrate what is still to be achieved in the study of Hasidism. Ultimately, this textbook presents research methods that can decentralize the role community leaders play in the current literature and reclaim the everyday lives of Hasidic Jews.

Impressive..readers will learn new things about Hasidism even while their horizons broaden to see new ways of thinking about sources. Naomi Seidman, author of The Marriage Plot or, How Jews Fell in Love with Love, and with Literature

The contributors to Studying Hasidism are the academic equivalent of an all-star team while the topics covered are the wish-list of anyone interested in Hasidism. Up to date, original and comprehensive–there is nothing like it. Shaul Stampfer, author of Lithuanian Yeshivas of the Nineteenth Century: Creating a Tradition of Learning

Marcin Wodzinski has assembled eleven respected scholars for this work on Hasidism. Much more than an excellent textbook, it focuses on a wide range of important issues not generally emphasized in histories of this pious movement whose membership even now amounts to nearly a million people, roughly seven percent of the world’s Jewish population. Intellectually challenging and engagingly written, the book should appeal to everyone interested in the history of modern Jewry. Abraham Ascher, Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus, Graduate Center, City University of New York

Comprised of thirteen erudite and informative articles by experts in Hasidic culture and customs, Studying Hasidism: Sources, Methods, Perspectives is an extraordinary, unique, and impressively informative contribution to the growing library of Hasidic literature and an invaluable addition to personal, community, and academic library Judaic Studies collections. Midwest Book Review

Studying Hasidism is certainly a valuable tool for both scholars and advanced students of Hasidism. It goes beyond the editor’s previous works in not only laying out a vision of what direction the historical analysis of Hasidism can take, by actually providing systematic tools with which to do so.' Tradition

MARCIN WODZIŃSKI is a professor of Jewish history and literature at the University of Wrocław, Poland. He is the author or editor of many books, including Historical Atlas of Hasidism and Hasidism: A New History.

Table of Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgments
Note on Transcription and Place
Names
Introduction by Marcin Wodziński
1. Homilies by Gadi Sagiv
2. Halakhah by Levi Cooper
3. Stories by Uriel Gellman
4. Mitnagedim by Uriel Gellman
5. Maskilim by Jonatan Meir
6. Ego-documents by Marcin Wodziński
7. Folk narratives by Galit Hasan-Rokem and Shaul Magid
8. Archives by Yohanan Petrovsky Shtern
9. Press by David Assaf
10. Iconography by Maya Balakirsky-Katz
11. Music by Edwin Seroussi
12. Material culture by Vladimir Levin
13. Big data by Marcin Wodziński
Note About the Authors
Index

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