What does it mean to be Hasidic?
Judaism in Five Minutes - Sarah Imhoff
Sam Shuman [+]
University of Virginia
Sam Shuman is assistant professor of Religious Studies and core faculty member in the Jewish Studies program at the University of Virginia. Shuman is an anthropologist whose research situates Hasidic Judaism within a global context. They are currently writing a book about Reb Shayele (1851–1925), a Hasidic miracle-worker from Hungary, who has witnessed a populist revival in the past decade. Their research has been supported by the Social Science Research Council, the National Science Foundation, and Fulbright. Shuman’s work has appeared (or is forthcoming) in the Jewish Quarterly Review, Current Anthropology, and Religions, and as chapters in Critical Jewish Studies Now and How Transparency Works.
Description
This chapter explains the historical and sociological characteristics of Hasidic Jews and their relationship to other “Ultra-Orthodox” Jews. It briefly explores Hasidism’s emergence as a pietistic movement in eighteenth-century Eastern Europe and the ways that scholars have traditionally written this history. The chapter then addresses contemporary trends—how Jews are both entering and exiting Hasidic life. These shifts are forcing us to reexamine our basic assumptions about who Hasidic Jews are and how their communities operate.