Lubavitchers as Citizens: A Paradox of Liberal Democracy (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Lubavitchers as Citizens: A Paradox of Liberal Democracy Barry Trachtenberg Jan L. Feldman . Lubavitchers as Citizens: A Paradox of Liberal Democracy. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2003. Pp. xv + 212. Lubavitch Hasidim appeared in Lithuania at the end of the eighteenth century as one of many Hasidic sects to form in the wake of the death in 1772 of the movement's second leader, Dov Ber of Mezeritch. The founder of the Lubavitch sect, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), based his movement on a theological doctrine derived from the principles of hokhmah (wisdom), binah (understanding), and da'at (knowledge), earning the group the acronym HaBaD (or, more commonly, Chabad). Over the next two centuries as it spread throughout Lithuania and beyond, its members (like so many other Jews) experienced oppression under the tsars, persecution by the Soviets, and near total destruction at the hands of the Nazis. At the same time, Lubavitch Hasidim were forced to compete for Jewish hearts and minds against other Hasidic sects, mitnagdim (Orthodox opponents of Hasidism), Maskilim (advocates of the Jewish Enlightenment), and various waves of modernity that swept across Eastern Europe. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, the sixth Lubavitch rebbe, Yosef Yitshak Schneersohn (1880-1950), reestablished the headquarters of the sect in Brooklyn, where it began to transform itself into an international movement with emissaries and religious schools throughout North America, Europe, Israel, and South Africa. With his passing in 1950, his son-in-law Menachem Mendel (1902-94) assumed leadership of the movement. In the forty-four years that he served as rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn expanded the Lubavitch community to its greatest heights of influence. Although it numbers today approximately 200,000 members out of an estimated thirteen million Jews worldwide, this does not reflect the movement's strength and presence in either the Jewish community or the larger world. At one time forced to practice in secret, the Lubavitch movement found in the United States a society that granted full rights of citizenship without threat of violence or persecution. Operating from this base of unparalleled tolerance, Lubavitch Judaism now boasts a massive network of 2,400 outreach centers in two-thirds of the countries of the world, an annual budget estimated at one billion dollars, and literally millions of Jews who have participated in its outreach campaigns. In recent years its mission has been to keep Jews fully within the Orthodox fold, which leads its activists to fight interfaith marriage, to reach out to [End Page 390] single Jews, and to establish strong ties with influential Jews in politics, business, and entertainment. In this work the movement has at times been very public, very influential, and very controversial. Many Americans have come to learn about the Lubavitch and other Hasidic groups through periodic controversies. These controversies and scandals have included street battles between African Americans and Lubavitchers in Crown Heights, Brooklyn; court battles over public displays of menorahs during Hanukkah; storms of protest over the creation of a school district in Kiryas Joel, New York; charges of voter fraud in Hasidic neighborhoods; and the pardons for the leaders of New Square, New York, by outgoing President Bill Clinton. Recent articles in the press have discussed the messianic activism that has sprung up around the figure of Menachem Mendel and that has left divisions in many Lubavitch communities. Like all other groups of Jews who found safety in North America, Lubavitchers have been forced to contend with the political, economic, and cultural demands of a modern and largely secular society. They too have struggled to find the right balance between their desire to remain isolated from the potentially corrupting influences of modernity and the need to incorporate those aspects of the outside world that are beneficial to the community's survival. For the most part, they have been quite successful at maintaining many of their long-standing communal practices while at the same time keeping abreast of the high-tech, fast-paced world. Despite maintaining a separatist status, they conduct widely publicized telethons, run their own media outlets, court high-ranking politicians, and have countless sites on the Internet. Recent years have witnessed several excellent scholarly...