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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Hanna Rovina in "The Dybbuk," 1920.

Of Devils and Dybbuks

Many an enlightened reader of the New York Times must have indulged in yet another condescending laugh at the Catholic Church upon seeing a November 12 report about a conclave of bishops in Baltimore; the purpose was to discuss the urgent need for priestly experts in the task of expunging the devil from possessed parishioners. Among those chuckling, no doubt, were many Jews.

“The Dybbuk”  Michael C. Steinlauf,  YIVO Encyclopedia.  On the career of an expressionist Yiddish masterpiece and its evocation of a world in which good and evil, living and dead, are intimate, and awesome mystery inheres in the everyday.  SAVE

Exorcism in Jerusalem  Shmarya Rosenberg,  Failed Messiah.  Reports, culled from Yeshiva World News, on the progress and ultimate failure to remove a dybbuk from a young Brazilian.  SAVE

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Bratslaver Hasidim, Uman.

The Mad Mystic of Bratslav

Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav (1772-1811) is the strangest and most paradoxical leader in the history of Hasidism, and one of its most original, albeit mad, geniuses.  Nahman has been an object of both literary fascination and considerable scholarly research. He also shares center stage with Franz Kafka (1888-1924) in Rodger Kamenetz's Burnt Books.

Nahman of Bratslav  Arthur Green,  YIVO Encyclopedia.  The life and teachings of the founder of a unique Hasidic sect: an overview.  SAVE

Yippee  Paul Mazursky,  YouTube.  The acclaimed director introduces his 2006 documentary of a field trip to Uman on Rosh Hashanah. (Video)  SAVE

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Zalman Schachter and Shlomo Carlebach, 1989.

Romancing Hasidism

Hasidism has a long history of concurrently repelling and enchanting modern Jews. Today, its distinguishing features—isolationism, religious fanaticism, and aggressive rejection of all things modern, including not only non-Orthodox Judaism but the very idea of secularity—are inexplicable, if not abhorrent, to much of world Jewry.

Martin Buber’s Hasidism  Gershom Scholem,  Commentary.  An analysis and critique of Buber's "selective presentation" of the Hasidic movement, by the preeminent scholar of Jewish mysticism. (October 1961, PDF)  SAVE

The Izhbits-Radzin Way  Shaul Magid,  YIVO Encyclopedia.  A brief history of a radical Hasidic dynasty that never attracted a large following but, thanks mostly to Shlomo Carlebach, has deeply influenced contemporary Judaism.   SAVE

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Kobi Oz

Psalms for the Perplexed

Some mainstream Israeli musicians have recently been turning for material to religious texts; others have become immersed in the musical traditions of Sephardi Jewry. The two trends have come together in a new album, Mizmorei Nevukhim ("Psalms for the Perplexed"), by Kobi Oz.

Psalms for the Perplexed  Makom.  Kobi Oz's new album: all songs are in Hebrew with English translation and an interview in English. (Audio and video.)  SAVE

My God  Kobi Oz,  YouTube.  Oz sings a "duet" with his late grandfather. (Video, Hebrew.)  SAVE

With All My Heart  Etti Ankri,  YouTube.  A devotional poem by Yehuda Halevi (ca. 1075-1141) set to music and sung. (Audio, Hebrew.)  SAVE

Lowly Spirit  Barry Sacharoff,  YouTube.  A musical interpretation of a poem by Shlomo ibn Gabirol (ca. 1021-ca.1058). (Audio, Hebrew.)  SAVE

My Father, Jacqueline Kahanoff, and the Levantine Dilemma  Ronit Matalon,  BGU Review.  On the struggles of two "Oriental" Jewish writers who arrived in Israel in the 1950's and never found their place.  SAVE

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