What is Hasidism?

A lecture by Marcin Wodziński (Wroclaw University) in the frame of the seminar on Modern Jewish History of the Institute of Contemporary History (AV ČR) and CEFRES in partnership with the Masaryk Institute (AV ČR).

Where: CEFRES library, Na Florenci 3, 110 00 Prague 1
When: from 5:30 pm to 7 pm
Language: English

Abstract

What is Hasidism? Why do we know so little about one of the most intensively- researched phenomena in  Jewish history? Which historiographical presumptions hinder the development of our knowledge about Hasidism? How is it related to the basis of sources and methodological approaches? What would Hasidism look like if approached from a different, anti-elitist perspective, from a provincial shtibl and not a tsadik’s court?

These questions will build the core of the talk by Professor  Wodziński, key expert on Hasidism, author of Hasidism. Key Questions (Oxford University Press, 2018) and editor of the Historical Atlas of Hasidism (Princeton University Press, 2017).