Hasidim: A Social and Religious Revolution in Modern Judaism
Wed, Aug 07
|Morton Grove Public Library
with Joshua Shanes
Time & Location
Aug 07, 2024, 7:00 PM CDT
Morton Grove Public Library, 6140 Lincoln Ave, Morton Grove, IL 60053, USA
About the Event
Hasidism is the pietist mystical movement that arose in Eastern Europe in the eighteenth century and is today one of the most dynamic movements within modern Judaism. It is today a pillar of ultra-Orthodoxy, yet the movement at first heralded a radical re-envisioning of Judaism, promising a much more direct experience of God. This lecture will survey the origins of the Hasidic movement, the role of its putative founder ("the Besht") and his major theological innovations, the spread of Hasidism under his disciples, and the Tzaddik (or "Rebbe") as a new type of spiritual and social leader.
Joshua Shanes is Professor of Jewish Studies, and Director of the Arnold Center for Israel Studies, at the College of Charleston. He has published widely on modern Jewish history, religion, politics, and antisemitism in both academic and popular outlets such as the Washington Post, Slate, and Haaretz. He is currently completing a history of Jewish Orthodoxy from its German origins until today.
To register: https://www.mgpl.org/event/chicago-yivo-society-program-tbd-46264