EAJS Conference Grant Programme 2020/21
Report
The Hasidic Century: New Perspectives on Hasidism in the 20th and 21st Centuries
Wrocław, Taube Department of Jewish Studies, 20-23 June 2022
Main Organiser and Report Author: Dr Wojciech Tworek
Hasidism has arguably been the most popular Jewish mystical movement of all times. Originating in 18th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Hasidism spread around most of Eastern Europe a century later. Severely tested by the First World War and its aftermaths and decimated in the Holocaust, Hasidism managed to successfully recreate itself, with its major centres in USA and Israel. Today, Hasidim constitute an important segment of the Jewish orthodoxy, with its cultural (and in Israel also political) influence reaching well beyond the orthodox and the Jewish community. All predictions for the Jewish future now take it for granted that Hasidism will continue to flourish and exert increasing political, religious, and ideological influence.
The main goal of the conference was to open new vistas in the research of Hasidism. While Hasidic history, literature and thought have been part of the Jewish Studies endeavour since almost its inception, Hasidism has been researched selectively, with the predominant focus on the generation of the founders in the 18th century. Recent years saw a significant shift in this trend, with several studies exploring Hasidic history in the 19th century. Still, despite the profound significance of the 20th century for Hasidic history in particular, and for Jewish history in general, this period has been by and large neglected by the scholars. Few studies concern major Hasidic courts in postwar America, and even less deal with the interwar period or the Holocaust. This conference wants to encourage research on the recent developments in the Hasidic culture and foster a better understanding of the contemporary Hasidic culture.
In addition to shifting the focus of the research to the recent historical period, the conference aimed to foster new methodological approaches in the study of Hasidism. By inviting participants representing various methodologies, paradigms and disciplines, the conference sought to explore the possibilities of multidisciplinary research on Hasidism. All participants were asked to submit copies of their sources prior to their arrival. Subsequently, a book of diverse primary sources (from Hebrew and Yiddish texts to artefacts of visual culture to maps of social networks) was pre-circulated. The theme and the structure of the conference encouraged collaborative searching for cross-disciplinary approaches to these sources, in which linguistic or social studies research can contribute to the literary or historical, and vice versa. The conference’s international character allowed academics in vastly different fields of scholarly discourse (Israel, America, Europe) to come into conversation with each other.
Additionally, the conference aimed at being a springboard for the new generation of Hasidic scholarship. The majority of participants were early- and mid-career scholars, including doctoral students and contingent scholars, who otherwise may have lacked funding and opportunities to showcase their work. The structure of the conference, with pre-circulated sources, a round table, and significant time allowed for discussion (one hour per each three-paper session) facilitated a collegial and affirmative environment, in which everyone was able to share their work and receive constructive feedback. Participants came from Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States and Israel.
The organisers of the conference are painfully aware of the gender imbalance in the community of scholars of Hasidism. The conference aimed to be a harbinger of change in that respect. It brought female scholars from all stages of academic career, to foster the emergence of a more diverse and just scholarly environment for Hasidic studies. In total, out of 24 presenters, 11 were women.
The conference took place over three days, from 20-22 June 2022. All events took place in the lecture halls of the Taube Department in Wrocław. In total, there were seven panels devoted to various aspects of Hasidic history and culture; each panel had three twenty-minutes papers, followed by an hour-long discussion. There were two additional events, too: a commemorative session on the first evening of the conference, devoted to the memory of Ada Rapoport-Albert, and a film screening on the second evening, with the participation of the director. As the conference coincided with the conclusion of the academic year at the Department, participants who decided to stay in Wrocław were invited to join the faculty and students at the Departmental end-of-the-year party, followed by a lecture by Naomi Seidman and an exhibition co-organised by the faculty and students of the Academy of Fine Arts.
Panel 1. Contemporary Hasidic Culture
In this panel, moderated by Gadi Sagiv, presenters explored various examples of Hasidic creativity. Lily Kahn and Sonya Yampolskaya opened by discussing the case of 23 under 1 Roof, a book series for Hasidic children. A close analysis of one fragment in Hebrew, Yiddish and English translations allowed for demonstrating how the language (and the target audience) shapes the form and content of Hasidic kid lit. In the second paper, Jessica Roda examined the participation of contemporary Hasidic women in the arts and entertainment industry in North-American Hasidic communities. Using her fieldwork and Yiddish press interviews, Roda analysed the strategies used by Hasidic female artists and performers in negotiating communal customs and religious law. Itzik Melamed delivered the concluding paper of this session. In his presentation, Melamed focused on musical traditions among Karlin Hasidim in Israel. Using oral traditions passed within his family, Melamed presented cases of introducing new tunes in the Karlin community.
Panel 2. Hasidic and neo-Hasidic narratives
The second session, chaired by Ora Wiskind, explored various types of Hasidic literature. Chen Mandel-Edrei analysed a rarely researched branch of Hasidic tales. Focusing on stories published in Romania, she examined tales concerning tsadikim who travelled to the Land of Israel, against the backdrop of Hasidic politics and history in the interwar period. Two other papers concerned authors of Hasidic background, who left Hasidic communities but continued reworking Hasidic motifs in their works. Philip Schwartz focused on the oeuvre of Khayim Yitskhok Bunin, an ex-Chabad Hasid, journalist, educator, and almost forgotten author of fascinating stories depicting Hasidic life. Ariel Evan Mayse, in turn, explored less known aspects of the poetry of a famous literary persona, the Hebrew poet Zelda. The close reading of her poems demonstrated their engrossment in Hasidic spirituality and raised the question of Zelda’s place within the Hasidic literary canon.
Panel 3. Perspectives on Hasidic education in interwar Poland
This panel, chaired by Daniel Reiser, explored the radical transformation of Hasidic education in the interwar years. Wojciech Tworek’s paper focused on the social history of Hasidic yeshivas. Using the Chabad school Tomkhe Temimim as a case study, Tworek explored methods and goals of student formation in interwar Hasidic yeshivas. Warsaw Hasidism was also the topic of Marta Dudzik-Rudkowska’s presentation, who focused on the Piaseczner Rebbe’s concepts concerning Jewish education. Dudzik-Rudkowska presented the Polish background of the Piaseczner Rebbe’s upbringing and activities, and showed the strong ties between his educational innovations and the developments of pedagogy in interwar Poland. The session was concluded by Naomi Seidman. Her paper concerned Bais Yaakov, the network of schools for orthodox girls. Showcasing one story about the founder of Bais Yaakov, Sarah Schenirer, Seidman pointed at its similarities with classic Hasidic tales and used them to spark a discussion about the place of Bais Yaakov in the history of Hasidism.
Panel 4. Aspects of Hasidic Leadership
Panel four, moderated by Naomi Seidman, explored various approaches to the study of Hasidic leadership. Levi Cooper offered his perspective on the female Hasidic leadership, exemplified by the Belzer rebbetsn, Sarah Rokeah. Cooper’s paper both raised a discussion about new female Hasidic leaders, and made a case for using online auction catalogues as a rich source for the study of Hasidism. In the second paper, Marcin Wodziński presented the usability of the tools of Digital Humanities for the study of Hasidic dynasties. The paper, which resulted from a joint project of Wodziński, Uriel Gellman and Gadi Sagiv, showed preliminary conclusions on marriage strategies undertaken by the families of the tsadikim. The final paper, by Gadi Sagiv, looked into the function of a rebbe’s personal assistant. Perusing a hitherto unused type of a source – ego-documents by former servants, Sagiv discussed their trials and tribulations, and the new vistas which the testimonies of the rebbe’s servants open on the organisation and practices of a twentieth-century Hasidic court.
Panel 5. Canonical texts across generations
This panel, chaired by Don Seeman, was devoted to the explorations of Hasidism as a current in the tradition of Jewish thought and mysticism. Two papers, Naftali Loewenthal’s and Eli Rubin’s, concerned the Chabad school of Hasidism. Loewenthal examined the use of the foundational text of Chabad Hasidism: Shneur Zalman’s Gate of Unity and Faith as a basis for spiritual contemplation in contemporary Chabad. Rubin, in turn, spotlighted the series Bati le-gani; a series of mystical discourses initiated by the sixth- and continued by the seventh Chabad rebbe. In his presentation, Rubin showed how the re-writing of older discourses generates new meanings to the Chabad mystical traditions for the next generations of Hasidim. Ora Wiskind’s paper focused on the classic text of the Gur Hasidim – Sefat emet. Instead of a standard 20-minute paper followed by questions, Wiskind invited the participants to a joint reading of Sefat emet’s commentary on the journeys of the Israelites in the Book of Numbers, and the discussion of the topicality of Hasidic commentaries.
Panel 6. New perspectives on interwar Hasidism
This panel, which was chaired by Yitzhak Melamed, aimed at bringing new research perspectives to the study of Hasidism in the interwar period. Jonatan Meir’s paper focused on the case of Bratslav Hasidism, which underwent a small revival in interbellum Poland. He brought new archival sources, including posters, flyers and pamphlets testifying to the increased activities of Polish Bratslav Hasidim and to the reconfiguration of the Bratslav spirituality and practice at that time. The second paper was delivered by Leore Sachs-Shmueli, and concerned a curious case of Avraham Yaakov Shapira, a scion of Hasidic masters, an ardent Zionist and an accomplished painter. Sachs-Shmueli introduced his life and works, and examined excerpts from his homiletical works, published as Netivot shalom. In the last paper, Uriel Gellman proposed possible ways of looking at interwar Hasidism, which would not be limited to the focus on the most powerful tsadikim (of Gur or Aleksander, for example). In his talk, he highlighted some less prominent figures (including that of Shlomo Hanokh Rabinowicz of Radomsk) to show, how refocusing on smaller currents allows for exploring in full the complexity of Hasidic responses to the challenges of the interwar period.
Panel 7. Hasidism between doctrine and social practise
The last panel, moderated by Leore Sachs-Shmueli, explored some practices of Hasidim and non-Hasidim who interact with them. In the first paper, Don Seeman explored the appropriation of some Bratslav practises by Ethiopian Jews in Israel as a springboard for the discussion of the limits of their integration into Israeli society. Alla Marchenko followed Seeman’s paper with a talk on the Ukrainian and Polish responses to Hasidic pilgrimages during the Covid-19 pandemic. Marchenko analysed press and social media releases of local authorities in Human and Leżajsk, showing a variety of on-the-ground strategies for engagement with Hasidic visitors. Finally, Daniel Reiser spotlighted Hasidic engagement in education and the job market in Israel. He showed a discrepancy between the involvement in pursuing careers by Hasidim and by the non-Hasidic haredim and raised a question of whether it may be related to different interpretations of the theological notion of tsimtsum by their formative years.
Two additional sessions took place during the conference. The first one was the Ada Rapoport-Albert Memorial Event on the occasion of the second anniversary of her passing. During the event, Wojciech Tworek spoke about Ada Rapoport-Albert’s connections with the Taube Department in Wrocław. Lily Kahn spoke about her as a mentor, and share her experience as Ada’s doctoral student. Naftali Loewenthal spoke about Ada’s encounters with Hasidic scholars and presented her as a bridge connecting the academic and the Hasidic communities of researchers of Hasidism. Finally, the departmental librarian Monika Jaremków introduced the conference participants to the Ada Rapoport-Albert collection, held in the Taube Department. The collection comprises Ada’s working library, donated to the Department by her and her family. Jaremków showed the reading room containing the bulk of the collection, and showcased several interesting artefacts from it.
The second additional session was the screening of Pearl Gluck’s film Divan. Pearl Gluck arrived in Wrocław, where she was filming her new documentary project, including interviewing some of the conference participants and shooting some of the panels. Furthermore, she showed her earlier film, Divan, in an event moderated by Karolina Szymaniak and followed by a Q&A session.
The conference brought together scholars from many academic centres and different career stages, men and women, working on various aspects related to Hasidic culture and history. It showcased methods and perspectives often marginalised in the study of Hasidism, including linguistics, ethnography or social networks analysis (in works by Lily Kahn, Sonya Yampolskaya and Jessica Roda, Alla Marchenko and Marcin Wodziński, among others). It also featured under researched figures, movements, sources and phenomena in Hasidism, raising new questions and initiating discussions concerning the future directions in Hasidic studies. In particular, Uriel Gellman’s paper led to a debate on the conventions of Hasidic research and their limitations.
Moreover, the event promoted the Taube Department of Jewish Studies in Wrocław as an important research & teaching hub for Hasidism in particular and Jewish Studies in general. In particular, the Ada Rapoport-Albert collection and the reading room brought the attention of the conference participants.
The organisers plan to publish selected conference papers in a special issue of the Journal of Modern Jewish Studies. The initial arrangements were made with the editors of the journal. The issue will include approximately 6 articles and will be preceded by a comprehensive introduction by the conference conveners.
The conference was advertised on the website and social media profiles of the Taube Department, H-Judaic, academia.edu, and social media outlets of our partners. Additionally, the film screening was advertised separately and the audience included some students, alumni and friends of the Taube Department. Posters and flyers were posted around the University of Wrocław.