Studying Hasidism : Sources, Methods, Perspectives

"Hasidism is a textbook that introduces sources to the study of the Hasidic movement. Hasidism, an Orthodox Jewish sect that originated in Poland in the 18th century, today counts over 400,000 adherents, primarily in the US, Israel, and the UK. Scholarly interest in this history of Hasidic Judaism and Hasidic Jews is growing, but there is no textbook dedicated to research methods in the field. Hasidism, edited by an internationally recognized historian of Hasidism, aims to remedy this gap in the literature. The work's twelve chapters each of draws upon a set of different source material (such as folklore, music, or material culture) to answer questions in the history of Hasidism. This intervention is necessary because traditionally, historians have limited their research to printed word sources, typically written by rebbes, the leaders in the community. But by doing so, historians have inadvertently erased the ordinary members of the Hasidic community while centralizing its leaders. The contributors to this volume are keenly aware of this limitation, and instead use previously untapped sources to shed new light on the subject. Ultimately, this textbook will present research methods that can decentralize the role community leaders play in the current literature and reclaim the everyday lives of Eastern Europe's Hasidic Jews. As collected whole, Hasidism "will assemble...knowledge of existing sources for studying the history and culture of Hasidism" into a comprehensive and unique reference work."--