Research Group

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Gershon Hundert

FELLOW
McGill University
Gershon is a professor in the Department of History and Jewish Studies at McGill University. His research interests are the history of the Jews in Eastern Europe.
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David Assaf

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Tel Aviv University
David is a professor in the Department of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University. His research interests are: modern history and culture of Eastern European Jews; and Hasidism.

Towards a New History of Hasidism

[RG #110] Towards a New History of Hasidism

September 1, 2007 - August 21, 2008

Organizer:

David Assaf (Tel Aviv University)

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Any survey of modern Jewish culture is bound to feature Hasidism -- the most prominent Jewish revival movement of the past three centuries. This revival, which took its spiritual inspiration from the Jewish mystical tradition, began in the middle of the eighteenth century with small circles of individual mystics in the region of the Polish Carpathian Mountains. It spread through the Jewish population of Eastern Europe, and in the course of the nineteenth century became a mass movement. By the final decades of the century, Hasidism was carried by the tide of mass Jewish emigration from Eastern Europe, establishing itself in various outposts in Palestine and the West. The decimation of European Jewry in the Holocaust took a heavy toll on the movement and its leaders, and yet, since the second half of the twentieth century, it has been enjoying an unexpected revival.

Against this background of remarkable resilience, successful transplantation and postwar resurrection, Hasidism has long been the subject of conflicting evaluations. It attracted the admiration of neo-Romantic authors and poets, while being denigrated and even demonized in modern historiography. Under the impact of Jewish Enlightenment values, nineteenth and early twentieth century historians viewed Hasidism as the expression of obscurantist religious fanaticism, obstructing Jewish integration in modern European society and culture. 

Sweeping political and cultural changes marking the second half of the twentieth century -- the Holocaust, the establishment of the State of Israel, the Cold War and the collapse of communism -- have inevitably altered the scholarly perspective on Hasidism. In particular, the opening up of Eastern European archives following the fall of communism, and the current multicultural discourse in which religion, once again, features as a fundamental aspect of human experience, have given rise to revisionist academic research.

Hasidic scholarship of the past three decades reflects these changes, but much of it has been fragmented, with individual scholars working in descrete disciplines, each tackling an aspect of the subject from the point of view of his or her own particular field of research. The idea of bringing together a group of leading scholars of Hasidism, who would be drawn from a variety of academic disciplines and employ a wide range of methodologies, sprang from the recognition that the Hasidic movement is a complex cultural phenomenon that cannot be properly understood within the framework of any one field of enquiry. The aim of the group is to break down the disciplinary boundaries that keep apart our respective approaches to Hasidism. We hope to integrate, for the first time, all the Hasidic scholarship of recent years, so as to establish a common basis for future research.

 

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Leon Zamosc

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UC San Diego
Leon is a professor in the Department of Sociology at University of California, San Diego. His research interests are: Latin American societies; political sociology; ethnicity and indigenous peoples; social movements; civil society and citizenship.
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Mario Sznajder

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The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Mario is a professor in the Department of Political Science at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research interests are: fascism; democratization and human rights; political antisemitism; political exile; citizenship and market economies.
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Luis Roniger

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Wake Forest University
Luis is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Wake Forest University. His research interests are: comparative political sociology; the interface between the study of politics, public spheres and culture; democratization and human rights; and political exiles and transnationalism.
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Raanan Rein

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Tel Aviv University
Raanan is a professor in the Department of History at Tel Aviv University. His research interests are: 20th century Argentine and Spanish history; populism; Latin American ethnic studies, with an emphasis on Jewish and Arab experiences.
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David Lehmann

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University of Cambridge
David is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. His research interests are: religion in Latin America and Israel; and multiculturalism in Latin America.
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Deborah J. Yashar

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Princeton University
Deborah is a professor in the Department of Politics at Princeton University. Her research interests are: democracy and citizenship; violence; state formation; ethnic politics; social movements and collective action.
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Judit Bokser Liwerant

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National Autonomous University of Mexico
Judit is a professor of the Graduate School in Political and Social Sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Her research interests are: collective identities and public spheres; Latin American Jewish communities; globalization processes and multiculturalism.
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Elliot R. Wolfson

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New York University
Elliot is a professor in the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. His research interests are Kabbalah, religious studies, poetics, Continental and Far Eastern philosophy, and gender theory.
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Philip Wexler

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The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Philip is a professor in the School of Education at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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William Parsons

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Rice University
William is a professor in the Religious Studies Department at Rice University. His research interests are the social scientific study of religion, and comparative mysticism.
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Zvi Mark

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Bar-Ilan University
Zvi is a professor in the Department of Literature of the Jewish People at Bar-Ilan University. His research interests are Hasidism and Hebrew literature.
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David Loy

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Xavier University
David is a professor in the Department of Ethics, Religion and Society at Xavier University. His research interests are comparative philosophy and religion, and Buddhist social theory.