Teacha! - Stories from a Yeshiva -- a hilarious memoir of a non-Jewish
teacher hired to teach second-grade English in a Hasidic Yeshiva in Brooklyn.
(He doesn't say which group, but based on clues in the story, I'd guess Satmar.)
As the rabbi who hired him said, "Think of it this way, you're going to
Mars. "
Read my review on Amazon.com
Boychiks in the Hood:
Travels in the Hasidic Underground
By Robert Eisenberg. The personal travelogue of a secular,
Yiddish-speaking Jewish man who visits a number of modern-day
Hasidic communities, some of them in places that will
surprise you! Quirky and offbeat, it's a good fun read.
Includes chapters on the Breslov pilgrimage to Uman, and a
visit to the Hasidic community in Postville, Iowa (the same community as
in the Postville book above, but Eisenberg has a different take
on it. Read both for balance.)
Hasidic Responses to the Holocaust
in the Light of Hasidic Thought
By Pesach Schindler. This book is a pioneering historical study that
explores how Hasidim reacted to the Holocaust by drawing on their inner
strength of Hasidic teachings about the ultimate goodness of God, the
honor and privilege or martyrdom, and the value of sanctifying every
moment of life through Torah and mitzvot. This book will help change
the common misconception that the Orthodox offered no resistance to
the Nazis and "went like sheep to the slaughter." The Hasidim
resisted through non-cooperation and refusal to obey Nazi decrees (Did
you know there is no record of an Orthodox Jew ever being a capo
or overseer?). Hasidim who died in the Holocaust -- many by taking
stnds for their faith and refusing to be dehumanized -- were true
martyrs, not helpless victims.
By Yaffa Eliach. 66 true stories of how Hasidic
Jews coped during the Holocaust, and how (most of them)
kept their faith. This was the first book of Hasidic
reactions to the Holocaust to make it out of the Jewish
literary ghetto and into the general public. It's been in
print ever since. Chilling and inspiring at the same
time, these stories will move your heart.
By Liz Harris. This book was first published as a series
of articles in the New Yorker back in the mid-80's.
Although somewhat dated in places, it does allow the reader
to view the Hasidic world through the eyes of a non-Hasidic
woman reporter who spent time with a Lubovitcher family
in Brooklyn. A reader-friendly introduction that
explains a lot of the beliefs and daily customs.
Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-Orthodox Jewry
by Samuel Heilman is an ethnographer's journey into the
Hasidic and Haredi communities in Israel. The author,
while not himself "ultra-orthodox," is a religiously
observant Jew trained in anthropology, making him an
insider-outsider who is well-qualified to journey into
the Jewish sector of Old Jerusalem. His methodology is
that of a "participant observer," learning about the
culture by doing it with the people.
Click here to read a Reb Gershom review and order
Hasidic Williamsburg: A contemporary Study of an
American Hasidic Community by William Kranzler,
takes you into the Satmar community in NYC, one of
the largest but least understood (by the public)
Hasidic groups. This book contains a lot of first-person
material quoted from the Hasidim themselves, and is
especially valuable for possitive chapter on the
lives and communal contributions of Hasidic women.
Click here to read a Reb Gershom review and order
The Encyclopedia of Hasidism -- This is the first
volume of its kind in English to present a comprehensive
treatment of the Hasidic movement. Rabbi Rabinowicz,
author of numerous books on Hasidism, presents an
encyclopedia with hundreds of entries including Hasidic
personalities, topics, and important literary works.
Click here to order
Legends of the Hasidim
by Jerome Mintz. First published back in 1968, reprinted by
Jason Aronson, Inc. in 1995. A valuable source book of
Hasidic teachings and stories that were collected from the
last generation that actually experienced the pre-Holocaust
Hasidic culture. Cited on Reb Gershom's FAQ page and in
Jewish Tales of Reincarnation.
Click here to order
Martin Buber's classic collection, Tales of the Hasidim, is
back in print as a quality Schocken paperback, with both volumes in
one binding. The translation is a bit antiquated, but it is a
good sourcebook for Hasidic stories collected before the
Holocauust.
Click here to order
![[cover]](book/boychiks.gif)
![[cover]](book/green-bk.gif)
![[open book]](book/eliach.gif)
![[cover]](book/harris.gif)
![[cover]](book/defender.jpg)
Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-Orthodox Jewry
by Samuel Heilman is an ethnographer's journey into the
Hasidic and Haredi communities in Israel. The author,
while not himself "ultra-orthodox," is a religiously
observant Jew trained in anthropology, making him an
insider-outsider who is well-qualified to journey into
the Jewish sector of Old Jerusalem. His methodology is
that of a "participant observer," learning about the
culture by doing it with the people.
Click here to read a Reb Gershom review and order
![[hasidic divider line]](hasid.gif)
