Marcin Wodziński (born 30 May 1966) is a professor of Jewish Studies at
University of Wrocław
, ''Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau'' (before 1945)
, free_label = Specialty programs
, free =
, colors = Blue
, website uni.wroc.pl
The University of Wrocław ( pl, Uniwersytet Wrocławski, U ...
in
Wrocław
Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, 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
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews ( pl, Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich) is a museum on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. The Hebrew word ''Polin'' in the museum's English name means either "Poland" or "rest here" and relates to a ...
in Warsaw.
Wodziński is from the city of
Świdnica
Świdnica (; german: Schweidnitz; cs, Svídnice; szl, Świdńica) is a city in south-western Poland in the region of Silesia. As of 2019, it has a population of 57,014 inhabitants. It lies in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, being the seventh larges ...
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
Ḥasīd ( he, חסיד, "pious", "saintly", "godly man"; plural "Hasidim") is a Jewish honorific, frequently used as a term of exceptional respect in the Talmudic and early medieval periods. It denotes a person who is scrupulous in his observ ...
. 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 41% living in the US and 48% living in Israel.
Wodziński's 2018 book ''Historical Atlas of Hasidism'' was awarded the 2018 National Jewish Book Award for Scholarship.
Books
* ''Jews in Silesia'' (2001)
* ''Haskalah and Hasidism in the Kingdom of Poland: A History of Conflict'' (Oxford, 2005)
* ''Hasidism and Politics: The Kingdom of Poland, 1815--1864'' (2011)
* ''Historical Atlas of Hasidism'' (2018)
See also
* Heinrich Graetz
Heinrich Graetz (; 31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was amongst the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective.
Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz to a butcher family in Xions (now Książ Wielkopo ...
* Simon Dubnow
Simon Dubnow (alternatively spelled Dubnov, rus, Семён Ма́ркович Ду́бнов, Semyon Markovich Dubnov, sʲɪˈmʲɵn ˈmarkəvʲɪtɕ ˈdubnəf; yi, שמעון דובנאָװ, ''Shimen Dubnov''; 10 September 1860 – 8 Dece ...
* Salo W. Baron
Salo Wittmayer Baron (May 26, 1895 – November 25, 1989) was a Polish-born American historian, described as "the greatest Jewish historian of the 20th century". Baron taught at Columbia University from 1930 until his retirement in 1963.
Life
...
References
External links
*
20th-century Polish historians
Polish male non-fiction writers
Living people
University of Wrocław faculty
Historians of Jews and Judaism
People from Świdnica
1966 births
21st-century Polish historians
{{poland-academic-bio-stub