Book Talk: Hasidism in Poland on the Eve of the Holocaust
Please join us in celebrating the publication of Prof. Glenn Dynner’s book The Light of Learning: Hasidism in Poland on the Eve of the Holocaust (Oxford University Press, 2024) in conversation with Prof. Eli Stern. Time: 4 PM on April 9, 2024 Place: Luce Hall Room 202, Macmillan Center The event is open to the public and will be accompanied with nigunim by accordion artist Christina Crowder. The Light of Learning tells the story of an unexpected Hasidic revival in Poland on the eve of the Holocaust. In the aftermath of World War I, the Jewish mystical movement appeared to be in shambles. Hasidic leaders had dispersed, Hasidic courts lay in ruins, and the youth seemed swept up in secularist trends as a result of mandatory public schooling and new Jewish movements like Zionism and Socialism. Author Glenn Dynner shows that in response to this, Hasidic leaders reinvented themselves as educators devoted to rescuing the youth by means of thriving networks of heders (primary schools), Bais Yaakov schools for girls and women, and world-renowned yeshivas. During the ensuing pedagogical revolution, Hasidic yeshivas soon overshadowed courts, and Hasidic leaders became known more for scholarship than miracle-working. By mobilizing Torah study, Hasidic […]
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