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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Insight & Analysis

Flow  Matisyahu.  Rolling Stone.  Three songs performed by the reggae fusion star, along with an interview about his changing relationship to Judaism and, yes, his recently shorn face. (Video).  SAVE

Vampires, Witches, and Werewolves  Eli Clark.  Torah Musings.  Among the supernatural creatures detailed in traditional Jewish sources are women called estries, who fly, assume different forms, and suck the blood of their victims.  SAVE

Between New York and Jerusalem  Steven E. Aschheim.  Jewish Review of Books.  On the friendship between Hannah Arendt and Gershom Scholem, and the decade-long antagonistic correspondence that brought it to an end.  SAVE

Lubavitch in the Middle  Carol Vogel, Clifford J. Levy.  New York Times.  Why is the art world in thrall to a legal dispute over a Russian-held collection of religious books and documents?.  SAVE

Was Rebbe Nahman of Bratzlav the Messiah?  Justin Jaron Lewis.  H-Judaic.  Some of his followers may have thought so, but a newly translated "secret" scroll fails to cast much light on the issue.  SAVE

The End of Days?  Lawrence Grossman.  Forward.  According to a new book, messianism has been central to the Chabad movement since its origins; the most recent Rebbe just reworked it in a modern key.  SAVE

A Trace of the Occult  Nathaniel Popper.  Forward.  An exorcism ritual surfaces from the Cairo Genizah.  SAVE

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