Hasidim

HASIDIM

Followers of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish movement.

In the modern era, Hasidim (literally, "pious ones") has come to mean those who identify with a movement founded by Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer (c. 1700–1760), the "Baʿal Shem Tov" or "Besht" (the acronym). Originally, it was a mass movement that emphasized mysticism and personal piety rather than the legalistic learning of elite Judaism. Contemporary Hasidim are generally viewed as ultra-Orthodox, and are composed of hundreds of groups, the most widely known of which are the Lubavitcher (Habad) and Satmar Hasidim. The Lubavitcher is the largest group, and their organizational world center is in Brooklyn, New York, to which they immigrated from the Soviet Union after World War II. In Israel the movement's center is in Kfar Habad, a community of Lubavitcher Hasidim approximately eight miles southeast of Tel Aviv. Kfar Habad has several schools, including a higher yeshiva, and a replica of the red brick building that is the home of the world headquarters in Brooklyn. Although Habad-Lubavitch Hasidim officially reject secular Zionism, they are a highly nationalistic group and exert great effort in outreach to non-observant Jews. By contrast, Satmar Hasidim have traditionally been adamantly anti-Zionist and anti-nationalist, and they eschew all but purely formal contacts with outsiders.

In recent decades there have been significant shifts in the activities of both groups. The Satmar group has toned down its anti-Zionism and now avoids overt anti-Zionist activity. The Lubavitcher Hasidim, on the other hand, have become highly active in Israeli politics and were staunch supporters of Benjamin Netanyahu in his successful bid for the office of prime minister in 1996. Since the death of the movement's leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, in 1994, the movement has struggled, internally as well as with some other Orthodox groups, because of its increasing proclamations of Rabbi Schneersohn as the Messiah, a notion that others view as antithetical to Judaism.

Although there are no official figures on the number of Hasidim either in Israel or in the United States, a rough estimate suggests that there are approximately 125,000 Hasidim in Israel and a similar number in the United States.

Bibliography

Berger, David. The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference. London: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2001.

Mintz, Jerome R. Hasidic People: A Place in the New World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.

chaim i. waxman