Studia Judaica 7: 2004 nr 2(14) s. 355-359

R e p o r t

NEW PERSPECTIVES OF HASIDISM IN POLAND

THE INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM

WROCŁAW, AUGUST 23-24, 2004

The international colloquium „New Perspectives of Hasidism in Po-

land” was held in Wrocław under the following auspices: Centre for the
Culture and Languages of the Jews, Wrocław University, The Institute for
the History of Polish Jewry and Israel-Poland Relations Goldstein-Goren
Diaspora Research Center, Tel Aviv University and Jewish Historical Insti-
tute Warsaw. The sessions at the colloquium included: Socializing
Hasidism, Contextualizing Hasidism, Hasidism in Central Poland, Godly
and Mundane: Modes of Hasidic Prayer, Hasidism in the Entanglement of
Heresy and Messianism. The organizers invited about 20 historians from
Israel, USA, UK and Poland, who have exerted a profound influence in the
field of Hasidism last years. How we perceive Hasidism, is deeply influ-
enced by our language abilities and academic background. The conference
sparked an interesting discussion between different attempts to Hasidic his-
tory and culture. Although some points were not elaborated enough to be
conclusive, one of the most important benefits of this colloquium was the
need of comparison between the different images of Hasidism, which
emerge from different methodologies and sources used in analyzing the
issue. Choosing Poland as a place of colloquium significantly contributed
to increase the interest of Polish evidence concerning Hasidism (even if
Wrocław has never been a center of Hasidic movement).

Reviewing the rich programme of the coloquium is to depict features

of the image of Hasidism in contemporary academic reasearch as it ap-
peared in lectures, discussions, comments and remarks.

One of the main difficulties in perceiving the phenomenon of hasidism

emerges from the fact that term ‘Hasidism’ refers to large number of groups,
every one of them representing own vision, characteristics and history. This
is not to suggest that versatility of that movement is only academic or emic

356

fallacy. Variety of inner attitudes and richly written evidence provide us with
the possibility of tracing both, connections and distinctions between hasidic
groups. Glenn Dynner (Sarah Lawrence College) presentation: “Text in
Search of Context: The Polishness of Polish Hasidism”, was the attempt to
examine the issue of regional characteristics in post-partition Hasidism.
Dynner proposal originated from the contradiction of the common image of
Hasidism as a shtetl phenomenon and its existence in relatively urbanized and
cosmopolitan cities of Central Poland. Dynner argued that Polish Hasidism’s
unique physiognomy is best appreciated in consideration of its non-Jewish,
Polish milieu, which impacted the effectiveness of the movement’s patron-
age network, its patterns of leadership succession, and its doctrine. Another
valuable attempt to recognize general Hasidic features was Immanuel Etkes’
(The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), lecture “The First Hasidic Courts”.
Etkes discussed the role played by the Hasidic court in the spreading of
Hasidism. His lecture focused on two Hasidic courts: the one centred around
Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Miedzyrzecz, and the one founded by one of
his disciples, Rabbi Chaim Chaikel of Indura (Amdur). The base of the com-
parison implemented by Etkes was chronological continuity between the two
courts, and the fact that they were centred on a rabbi and his disciple.

Third attempt to depict certain general features of Polish Hasidism was

the paper of Marcin Wodziński (Wrocław University) under the title:
“Hasidism, Shtadlanut, and the Jewish Politics: The Case of Isaac of
Warka”. In his case study on political activities of R. Isaac of Warka against
the background of the political environment of the nineteenth-century Con-
gress Poland, Wodzinski focused on the strategies, tactics and tools of this
activity, which differed from those, employed by the shtadlanim in the old
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The thesis of the paper was that these
new forms of political activism were made possible only by the changed
political system of nineteenth-century Poland. Wodzinski concluded that
this political system and the policy of the Polish government both contrib-
uted to the unique form of the Polish Hasidism resulting from Hasidic re-
sponses elicited in part by Polish social policy.

It must be emphasized however that all three papers mentioned above

met very few comments. The confusing nature of that issue might to some
extend explain why so few historians decided to propose general view while
the majority prefer to analyze particular groups, or at least compare between
two, or three of them avoiding generalization. Obviously I would never say
that in their essence researchers focused on one or two Hasidic groups, are

ZUZANNA SOLAKIEWICZ

357

less valuable. At the colloquium we had an opportunity to attend some un-
deniable impressive lectures concentrated of detailed issues.

Process of separation and atomization of particular Hasidic branches

was shown by Nehemia Polen (Hebrew College, Newton). In his paper
“Entangled Relations: The Changing Roles of the Kozienice and Gur Dy-
nasties in Polish Hasidism”, Polen considered not only the very moment
when the first subordinated to Kozienice Hasidism, but also the Gur (Góra
Kalwaria) lineage that worked to establish itself as a separate Hasidic group,
and the further relation as well. Changing dynamics in both ideological as
well as socio-political dimensions were traced here.

Ada Rapoport-Albert (University College London) – “The Expansion

of Prayer Modes in Bratslav Hasidism” – examined in the wider context of
the Hasidic approaches to prayer the various additions to the standard lit-
urgy, which developed in Bratslav Hasidism. As she concluded Braclaw
Hasidim’ prayer mode evolved to inversion of the distance between God,
Zaddik and Hasid. While the relation between God and Hasid became
closer, the one between Hasid and Zaddik started to loose its intimacy.

Naftali Loewenthal (University College London) investigated similari-

ties and differences between two distant groups. In his paper: “Mendele
Mendele Gezerah Shavah? Investigating the Habad View of Kock” -
Loewenthal focused on no generic connections between Habad and Kock,
Those connections could be so attractive to the followers, that they could
consider possibility of following the Zaddik of the second group, rather than
the natural descendant of their previous leader.

The lectures of David Assaf and Allan Nadler shed the light on the

topic somehow removed from the mainstream of current research, which
is popular piety among the Hasidim. Allan Nadler (Drew University) pre-
sented paper “The Holy Kugel: The Sanctification of Jewish Ethnic Foods
at the Hasidic Tish”, in which he traced the origins of the eating- and food-
customs practized by Hasidim at the Zaddik’s Sabbath and festival table.
Nadler’s presentation included analyses of doctrinal assumptions, which
resulted in the mystical sanctification of specific Ashkenazic ethnic foods.
David Assaf (Tel Aviv University) paper: ‘And All Israel Might be Saved
from Exile in One Day’: A Messianic Illusion among Hasidim in Wołyń
(Volhynia) following the Kishinev Pogroms (1903)” was based on an un-
known and undated printed Yiddish pamphlet. While Nadler focused on
customs, Assaf based his study on exception. This paper was a proposal of
implementing the micro-history methodology to Hasidic studies. Assaf

NEW PERSPECTIVES OF HASIDISM IN POLAND

358

question was: “how research of Hasidism may use such sources, i.e. texts
produced by those who may be defined by the society as insane, in order
to gain a better understanding of the social construct of Hasidic society in
light of messianic expectations.”

The socio-political dimension of Hasidism has been already deeply

elaborated. However the immense evidence of sources still give the oppor-
tunity to implement fruitful analyses in this field, the current researches of
Hasidism should concentrate on implementing new perspectives which
would contribute our perceiving of Hasidic history. At the colloquium Shaul
Stampfer’s (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) paper was the attempt
to investigate social context of emergence of Hasidism through its impact
on the Jewish family. Stampfer denied the convinction that Hasidism had
corrosive influence of family life. In fact, Hasidism seemed to have had
a conservative, rather than destructive, influence on marital patterns.

Vladimir Levin (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) concentrated

on increasing interest on political activity among the Orthodox circles and
its social assumptions. In his paper called “Hasidim versus Mitnaggedim,
in the Orthodox Politics in Russia between Two Revolutions”, he traced the
reasons for the attempts to establish Orthodox political organizations in the
first years of the twentieth century and the dynamics of development of
Polish and Russian Orthodoxy political movement.

Barbara Stępniewska-Holzer (Warsaw University), in her paper: “The

Expansion of the Hasidic Movement in Byelorussia in the First Half of the
19th Century in the Light of Russian Archival Sources”, stressed the need
of analyzing non-Jewish sources in reconstruction of Hasidic history.
Marcin Wodzinski, who based his paper on the archival documents of gov-
ernmental origin, which have never been used before, presented the simi-
lar view.

Another widely elaborated issue that attracts historians is the connec-

tions between Hasidism and other mystical and messianic movements.
Three papers which examined this issue where presented at the colloquium.
Jan Doktór (Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw) presented the first pa-
per. Doktór showed the transformation of the Besht’s religious attitude in
the context of the general change within the Hasidic movement based on
the wave of the messianic expectations in the years 5500-5506 (1740-46).
The second one by Paweł Maciejko (University of Oxford) examined early
Hasidic reactions to the Frankist movement. Special attention was paid to
the notion of the mixed multitude (erev rav) and to the role and status of
Kabbalah. The third paper by Zvi Mark (Bar Ilan University), considered

ZUZANNA SOLAKIEWICZ

359

R. Nahman’s attitude to Sabbateanism analysing his teachings about the
ritual of Tikkun ha-Kelali. Mark claimed that scholars who suggested that
Sabbateanism was of great concern to R. Nahman of Bratslav, did not know
the complete text of the tale Ma’aseh me-ha-Shiryon [The Tale of the
Armor] and presented Ma’aseh me-ha-Shiryon, based on unpublished
manuscripts.

The only one attempt to Hasidic historiography was Yonatan Meir (The

Hebrew University of Jerusalem) paper called: “Hillel Zeitlin: Hasidism,
Neo-Romanticism and New Hasidism in Warsaw”. Meir examined differ-
ent aspects of Hillel Zeitlin’s writings on Hasidism and analysed Zeitlin’s
criticism of Polish Hasidism of his days, which would construct new
Hasidism in an active messianic spirit.

Gershon Hundert (McGill University) in his opening lecture: “Explain-

ing the Rise of Hasidism” expressed the need of developing new synthe-
sis, chronology and geography of the rise of Hasidism. In her speech at the
end of the presentations Ada Rapoport-Albert recalled the highlights of last
20 years of growing interest on Hasidic history and culture among the schol-
ars and underlined the importance of the conference for the development
in the field. In her opinion the conference was a major success, which seems
to be an adequate evaluation of this important event.

Zuzanna Solakiewicz

IFiS PAN, Warszawa

NEW PERSPECTIVES OF HASIDISM IN POLAND

THE LAST EYEWITNESSES

CHILDREN OF THE HOLOCAUST SPEAK

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