Chabad Hasidism
Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (), is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, particularly for its outreach activities. It is one of the largest Hasidic groups and Jewish religious organizations in the world. Unlike most Haredi groups, which are self-segregating, Chabad operates mainly in the wider world and caters to secularized Jews. Founded in 1775 by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the name "Chabad" () is an acronym formed from three Hebrew words— (the first three sephirot of the kabbalistic Tree of Life) (): "Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge"—which represent the intellectual and kabbalistic underpinnings of the movement. The name Lubavitch derives from the town in which the now-dominant line of leaders resided from 1813 to 1915. Other, non-Lubavitch scions of Chabad either disappeared or merged into the Lubavitch line. In the 1930s, the sixth Rebbe of Chabad, Rabbi Yosef Yitzcha ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Crown Heights is a neighborhood in the central portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Crown Heights is bounded by Washington Avenue to the west, Atlantic Avenue to the north, Ralph Avenue to the east, and Empire Boulevard/East New York Avenue to the south. It is about wide and long. Neighborhoods bordering Crown Heights include Prospect Heights to the west, Flatbush and Prospect Lefferts Gardens to the south, Brownsville to the east, and Bedford–Stuyvesant to the north. The main thoroughfare through this neighborhood is Eastern Parkway, a tree-lined boulevard designed by Frederick Law Olmsted extending east–west. Originally, the area was known as Crow Hill. It was a succession of hills running east and west from Utica Avenue to Washington Avenue, and south to Empire Boulevard and East New York Avenue. The name was changed when Crown Street was cut through in 1916. The northern half of Crown Heights is part of Brooklyn Community District 8 and is patrolled ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Binah (Kabbalah)
Binah (meaning "understanding"; ''Bīnā''), is the third '' sephira'' on the kabbalistic Tree of Life. It sits on the level below Keter (in the formulations that include that ''sephirah''), across from Chokhmah and directly above Gevurah. It is usually given four paths: from Keter, Chokhmah, to Gevurah and Tiphereth. Binah is associated with the color black. Description According to the Bahir: "The third (utterance): quarry of the Torah, treasury of wisdom, quarry of God's spirit, hewn out by the spirit of God. This teaches that God hewed out all the letters of the Torah, engraving them with the Spirit, casting His forms within it". Binah is 'intuitive understanding', or 'contemplation'. It is likened to a 'palace of mirrors' that reflects the pure point of light of Chokhmah, wisdom, increasing and multiplying it in an infinite variety of ways. In this sense, it is the 'quarry', which is carved out by the light of wisdom. It is the womb, which gives shape to the Spirit of Go ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jerusalem Center For Public Affairs
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) is an Israeli research institute specializing in public diplomacy and foreign policy founded in 1976. Currently, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs's research portfolio consists of five primary initiatives: the Institute for Contemporary Affairs (ICA), Defensible Borders Initiative, Jerusalem in International Diplomacy, Iran and the New Threats to the West, and Combating Delegitimization. More broadly, the think-tank concentrates on the topics of Iran, Radical Islam, the Middle East, Israel, the Peace Process, Jerusalem, Anti-Semitism, and World Jewry. Its publications include the academic journal ''Jewish Political Studies Review'' and the email-distributed ''Daily Alert'', a daily regional news summary. The research institute is a registered non-profit organization and produces content in English, Hebrew, French, and German. The JCPA is considered to be politically neo-conservative. It is being financed to a large degree by S ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Marcin Wodziński
Marcin Wodziński (born 30 May 1966) is a professor of Jewish Studies at University of Wrocław in Wrocław, Poland, where he heads the University's Department of Jewish Studies. Wodziński previously worked as the chief historian for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. Wodziński is from the city of Świdnica in south-west Poland. Wodziński, who is not Jewish, has studied the development of Hasidism generally, and in Poland specifically, and considers Hasidism "one of the most important religious phenomena to historically develop in Poland." Research on contemporary Hasidim Wodziński is the first academic to conduct a comprehensive study on contemporary Hasidim. Wodziński's methodology included reading through all Hasidic community phone directories to arrive at an approximate figure for the global community as well as indicators for trends within the Hasidism today. Wodziński found that there are between 700,000 and 750,000 Hasidim in the world today, with some ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chabad Messianism
Messianism in ChabadReferred to as Chabad messianism, Lubavitch messianism, or ''meshichism''. refers to the contested beliefs among members of the Chabad-Lubavitch community, a group within Hasidic Judaism, regarding the Jewish messiah, also referred to as ''mashiach'' or ''moshiach''. A majority of the Chabad community believe that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the deceased seventh Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch dynasty, is the Jewish messiah.Steinsaltz, Adin. (2014). ''My Rebbe''. Jerusalem: Maggid. The issue remains controversial within both the Chabad movement and the broader Jewish community.''Messianic Excess, Rabbi Prof. David Berger (Yeshiva University), The Jewish Week, June 25, 2004Peter Schäfer, Mark R. Cohen, Editors (1998) Toward the Millennium: Messianic Expectations from the Bible to Waco' BRILL, , p. 399 The concept of the Jewish messiah is a basic tenet of the Jewish religion. The belief among Hasidic Jews that the leader of their dynasty could be the Jewi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Messiah In Judaism
The Messiah in Judaism () is a savior and liberator figure in Jewish eschatology, who is believed to be the future redeemer of the Jewish people. The concept of messianism originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible a messiah is a king or High Priest of Israel traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil. However, messiahs were not exclusively Jewish, as the Hebrew Bible refers to Cyrus the Great, king of the first Persian empire, as a messiah for his decree to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple. In Jewish eschatology, the Messiah is a future Jewish king from the Davidic line, who is expected to be anointed with holy anointing oil and rule the Jewish people during the Messianic Age and world to come. The Messiah is often referred to as "King Messiah" ( he, מלך משיח, translit=melekh mashiach) or in Aramaic. Jewish messianism gave birth to Christianity, which started as a Second Temple period messianic Jewish sect or religious movement. Etymology In Jewish eschatology ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Orthodox Judaism Outreach
Orthodox Jewish outreach, often referred to as ''Kiruv'' or ''Qiruv'' ( he, קירוב "bringing close"), is the collective work or movement of Orthodox Judaism that reaches out to non-observant Jews to encourage belief in God and life according to Orthodox Jewish law. The process of a Jew becoming more observant of Orthodox Judaism is called ''teshuva'' ("return" in Hebrew) making the "returnee" a ''baal teshuva'' ("master of return"). Orthodox Jewish outreach has worked to enhance the rise of the baal teshuva movement. Varieties Hasidic Hasidic outreach is predominantly the area of the Chabad and Breslov Hasidic groups; however, other groups have also been involved in such efforts. Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, Sixth leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch branch of Hasidic Judaism, and then his successor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson were responsible for turning Chabad's activities toward outreach. Each in turn sent out rabbinic emissaries, known as " Shluchim", and thei ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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History Of The Jews During World War II
The history of the Jews during World War II is almost synonymous with the persecution and murder of Jews which was committed on an unprecedented scale in Europe and European North Africa (pro-Nazi Vichy-North Africa and Italian Libya). The massive scale of the Holocaust which happened during World War II greatly affected the Jewish people and world public opinion, which only understood the dimensions of the Final Solution after the war. The genocide, known as ''HaShoah'' in Hebrew, aimed at the elimination of the Jewish people on the European continent. It was a broadly organized operation led by Nazi Germany, in which approximately six million Jews were murdered methodically and with horrifying cruelty. Although the Holocaust was organized by the highest levels of the Nazi German government, the vast majority of Jews murdered were not German, but were instead residents of countries invaded by the Nazis after 1938. Of the approximately 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis, appro ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World War. The Second Republic ceased to exist in 1939, when Invasion of Poland, Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and the Slovak Republic (1939–1945), Slovak Republic, marking the beginning of the European theatre of World War II, European theatre of the Second World War. In 1938, the Second Republic was the sixth largest country in Europe. According to the Polish census of 1921, 1921 census, the number of inhabitants was 27.2 million. By 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, this had grown to an estimated 35.1 million. Almost a third of the population came from minority groups: 13.9% Ruthenians; 10% Ashkenazi Jews; 3.1% Belarusians; 2.3% Germans and 3.4% Czechs and Lithuanians. At the same time, a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn
Yosef Yitzchak (Joseph Isaac) Schneersohn ( yi, יוסף יצחק שניאורסאהן; 21 June 1880 – 28 January 1950) was an Orthodox rabbi and the sixth Rebbe (spiritual leader) of the Chabad Lubavitch Chasidic movement. He is also known as the Frierdiker Rebbe (Yiddish for "Previous Rebbe"), the ''Rebbe RaYYaTz'', or the ''Rebbe Rayatz'' (an acronym for Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak). After many years of fighting to keep Orthodox Judaism alive from within the Soviet Union, he was forced to leave; he continued to conduct the struggle from Latvia, and then Poland, and eventually the United States, where he spent the last ten years of his life. Early life Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn was born in Lyubavichi, Mogilev Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Smolensk Oblast, Russia), the only son of Sholom Dovber Schneersohn (the ''Rebbe Rashab''), the fifth Rebbe of Chabad. He was appointed as his father's personal secretary at the age of 15; in that year, he represented his father in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rebbe
A Rebbe ( yi, רבי, translit=rebe) or Admor ( he, אדמו״ר) is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties.Heilman, Samuel"The Rebbe and the Resurgence of Orthodox Judaism."''Religion and Spirituality (Audio)''. UCTV, 20 Oct 2011. web. 31 Jul 2013. The titles of Rebbe and Admor, which used to be a general honor title even before the beginning of the movement, became, over time, almost exclusively identified with its Tzaddikim. Terminology and origin Usage Today, ''rebbe'' is used in the following ways: # Rabbi, a teacher of Torah – Yeshiva students or ''cheder'' (elementary school) students, when talking to their teacher, would address him with the honorific ''Rebbe'', as the Yiddish-German equivalent to the Hebrew word ''rabbi'' ( ' ). # Personal mentor and teacher—A person's main Rosh Yeshiva, Yeshiva teacher, or mentor, who teaches him or her Talmud and Torah and gives religious guidance, is referred to as ''rebbe'' () ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chabad Offshoot Groups
Chabad offshoot groups are those spawned from the Chabad Hasidic Jewish movement. Many of these groups were founded to succeed previous Chabad leaders, acting as rivals to some of the dynastic rebbes of Chabad. Others were founded by former students of the movement, who, in forming their own groups, drew upon their experiences at Chabad. Since the founding of Chabad in 1775, the movement has had seven leaders, or rebbes. There were at least eleven leaders of the offshoot groups, who were either relatives or students of the Chabad rebbes. Major offshoots The major groups to have split from the Chabad movement, forming their own Chabad-styled Chasidic groups, often positioned themselves as legitimate successors of previous Chabad leaders. Major offshoot groups of the Chabad movement include: Strashelye Strashelye was founded after the death of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of the Chabad movement. The Strashelye branch was formed as the result of a dispute of Rabbi Shne ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |