Thoughts On the Study of the Role of Women in Hasidism
Thu, 11 Feb 2021, 6 to 7 pm Greenwich Mean Time (UTC±0)
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Ada Rapoport-Albert’s research and writings concerned Hasidism in the 18th-20th centuries and the earlier Sabbatean movement, including the early structure of the Hasidic movement, and the role of gender in Jewish mysticism. A seminal article by her revised the idea that women enjoyed complete equality in the movement, illustrated by the career of the Maid of Ludmir, previously described as a female Hasidic rebbe. Ada claimed the ‘maid’ was disregarded in her role as rebbe by prominent male Hasidic leaders of the time. More recently, she wrote significant articles on the role of women in Habad, showing how each of the last three Lubavitcher rebbes made radical steps concerning women, first creating a female constituency in the community, then considering them Hasidim in their own right and eventually, she claimed, granting them the mystical status of tsaddik.
Tali (Naftali) Loewenthal lectures in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at UCL on topics in Jewish spirituality such as Hasidic prayer, rabbinic eschatology, Maimonides, gender in Orthodox Judaism, and Hasidism and modernity.
He studied Hebrew literature and Jewish history at University College London (1968-1971), followed by a Ph.D. on Hasidism (1981). He is the author of Communicating the Infinite: the Emergence of the Habad School (1990), Hasidism Beyond Modernity, Essays in Habad Thought and History (2020) and many articles, both academic and popular. He is an active member of the Chabad-Lubavitch hasidic movement.
