Who Will Lead Us?

The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America

Samuel C. Heilman

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Hardback

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English

University of California Press
06 June 2017

Judaism; Religious groups: social & cultural aspects

Hasidism, a movement many believed had passed its golden age, has had an extraordinary revival since it was nearly decimated in the Holocaust and repressed in the Soviet Union. Hasidic communities, now settled primarily in North America and Israel, have reversed the losses they suffered and are growing exponentially. With powerful attachments to the past, mysticism, community, tradition, and charismatic leadership, Hasidism seems the opposite of contemporary Western culture, yet it has thrived in the democratic countries and culture of the West. How? Who Will Lead Us? finds the answers to this question in the fascinating story of five contemporary Hasidic dynasties and their handling of the delicate issue of leadership and succession.

Revolving around the central figure of the rebbe, the book explores two dynasties with too few successors, two with too many successors, and one that believes their last rebbe continues to lead them even after his death. Samuel C. Heilman, recognized as a foremost expert on modern Jewish Orthodoxy, here provides outsiders with the essential guide to continuity in the Hasidic world.

By: Samuel C. Heilman
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 544g
ISBN: 9780520277236
ISBN 10: 0520277236
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 06 June 2017
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Illustrations Prologue 1 Succession in Contemporary Hasidism: Who Will Lead Us? 2 Munkács: An Oedipal Challenge 3 Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes 4 Bobov: A Clash of Families 5 Satmar: Succession Charged with Conflict 6 ChaBaD Lubavitch: A Rebbe Who Never Dies Final Thoughts Notes Index

Samuel Heilman is Proshansky Chair in Jewish Studies at the Graduate Center and Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Queens College CUNY, and has written eleven books, most recently (with Menachem Friedman) The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, winner of the National Jewish Book Award.

Reviews for Who Will Lead Us?: The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America

One might expect to find these riveting succession stories-of the rebbes of the Munkacs, Boyan and Kopyczynitz, Bobover, Satmar, and Chabad Lubavitch dynasties-in a TV mini-series rather than in a work of sociology and history. While fueled by an enormous amount of research, they read more like page turners where the obsession is not sex, but succession. Moment