The Riddle of the Satmar

A prospect terrifying to secular Israelis and Zionists worldwide has been the rapid growth of the Jewish state's ultra-Orthodox (haredi) community. Given the stranglehold of haredi political parties on recent coalition governments, and the encroachments by non-Zionist haredi clerics upon Israel's chief rabbinate, once religiously moderate and firmly Zionist, the fear is not entirely irrational.

The Satmar Hasidic Dynasty  Allan Nadler,  YIVO Encyclopedia.  A concise profile of the ultra-Orthodox sect and its founder.  SAVE

Satmar at the White House  Yeshiva World.  In July 2010, a delegation from Williamsburg to Washington, D.C., protested the activities of the "Zionist state." (Video.)  SAVE

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Spirituality Lite

A simple truth lurks behind the rise of "post-denominationalism" in Jewish religious life. It is that increasing numbers of Jews are becoming less interested in defining what Judaism means than in sampling aspects of the Jewish tradition that seem to promise spiritual vitality.

Hidden Master  Daniel Landes,  Jewish Review of Books.  A modern-Orthodox educator criticizes Arthur Green's Radical Judaism and by extension the Jewish Renewal Movement. (Green responds here.)    SAVE

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Skeletons in the Closet of Hasidism

Popular demands for transparency in our institutions and the availability of technological means to achieve it have made it hard to keep secrets. This has affected the conduct not only of government and business but also of religion.

Scandal in the Family  Yair Sheleg,  Haaretz.  David Assaf's book about figures and episodes out of the past history of Hasidism carries clear implications for the movement's present and future as well. (2006)  SAVE

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Home of Havurat Shalom, 1968

The Old New Jews

It has been 40 years since the publication of a slim but memorable volume of essays by young American Jewish radicals and intellectuals. The New Jews, edited by James Sleeper and Alan Mintz, sought to give voice to a small cohort at once deeply alienated from organized Jewish life and deeply attached to Jewish history and culture.

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Anselm Kiefer, Shekhinah, 2010.

Kiefer’s Challenge

The German artist Anselm Kiefer has once again taken New York by storm. Ensconced at the prestigious Gagosian Gallery, Next Year in Jerusalem, his latest show, has met with reviews ranging from the gushing to the grudgingly respectful.

Spectacle with a Message  Roberta Smith,  New York Times.  Anselm Kiefer's New York show may elicit awe, skepticism, disdain—or perhaps a combination of all three.   SAVE

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