This is a pioneering study of the nineteenth century Hasidic movement as shown through the life of one of the most controversial and influential Hasidic leaders, Rabbi Israel Friedman of Ruzhin (1796-1850). The dramatic episodes of his life--including his involvement in the murder of Jewish informers, his imprisonment in Russia, his subsequent escape to Austria where he successfully reestablished his court--are echoed by the contradictory and highly critical opinions of his personal character and his role as leader of one of the largest and most opulent Hasidic courts of the nineteenth...
This is a pioneering study of the nineteenth century Hasidic movement as shown through the life of one of the most controversial and influential Hasid...
Originally published in Warsaw in 1913, this beautifully written memoir offers a panoramic description of the author's experiences growing up in Kamieniec Litewski, a Polish shtetl connected with many important events in the history of nineteenth-century Eastern European Jewry. Although the way of life portrayed in this memoir has disappeared, the historical, cultural, and folkoric material it contains will be of major interest to historians and general readers alike.
Kotik's story is the saga of a wealthy and influential family through four generations. Masterfully interwoven in...
Originally published in Warsaw in 1913, this beautifully written memoir offers a panoramic description of the author's experiences growing up in Ka...