Philip Wexler (1943-2023) [1] was a professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was first appointed in 2002 as Professor of Sociology of Education and then Unterberg Chair in Jewish Social and Educational History. After retirement he was visiting professor in the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences at the University of Wuppertal, Germany. [2]
Wexler received a bachelor's degree from New York University and master's and doctoral degrees in sociology from Princeton University.
Wexler was William Scandling Professor of Sociology and Education at the University of Rochester. He then moved to Jerusalem where he did field research on newly religious youth, and studied Jewish mystical texts in Hebrew and Yiddish. While on leave from the Hebrew University, he served as Bronfman Professor at Brandeis University. [3] [4] He died on March 25, 2023. [5]
Wexler is the author of a number of books in the fields of sociology of religion and sociology of education. He was Editor of the American Sociological Association journal, Sociology of Education . During 2008–2009, together with Jonathan Garb, he convened a year- long working group at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Jerusalem, on “Sociology and Anthropology of Jewish Mysticism in Comparative Perspective.” The working group meetings and conferences produced a book, “After Spirituality: Studies in Comparative Mysticism,” [6]
Meshullam Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, commonly called "Reb Zalman", was one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal movement and an innovator in ecumenical dialogue.
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known to adherents of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or simply the Rebbe, was an Orthodox rabbi and the most recent Rebbe of the Lubavitch Hasidic dynasty. He is considered one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century.
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. It is one of the largest Hasidic groups as well as one of the largest Jewish religious organizations in the world. Unlike most Haredi groups, which are self-segregating, Chabad mainly operates in the wider world and it caters to secularized Jews.
A Rebbe or Admor is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties. 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 Tzadikim.
Gershom Scholem was a German-born Israeli philosopher and historian. Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of the Kabbalah, Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish mysticism at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Kalonimus Kalman Szapiro, was the Grand Rabbi of Piaseczno, Poland, who authored a number of works and was murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
Hillel Zeitlin (1871–1942) was a Ashkenazi Yiddish and Hebrew writer and poet. A leading pre-Holocaust Jewish journalist, he was a regular contributor to the Yiddish newspaper Moment, among other literary activities. He was the leading thinker in the movement of pre-World War II "philosophical Neo-Hasidism".
Messianism in Chabad refers to the contested beliefs among some members of the Chabad-Lubavitch community—a group within Hasidic Judaism—regarding the Jewish messiah. Some members of the Chabad community believe that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the deceased seventh Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch dynasty, is the Jewish messiah. The issue remains controversial within both the Chabad movement and the broader Jewish community.
Samuel C. Heilman is a professor of Sociology at Queens College, City University of New York, who focuses on social ethnography of contemporary Jewish Orthodox movements.
Elliot R. Wolfson is a scholar of Jewish studies, comparative mysticism, and the philosophy of religion.
Arthur Green is an American scholar of Jewish mysticism and Neo-Hasidic theologian. He was a founding dean of the non-denominational rabbinical program at Hebrew College in Boston. He describes himself as an American Jew who was educated entirely by the generation of immigrant Jewish intellectuals cast up on American shores by World War II.
Likkutei Sichos, literally, "Collected Talks" contains both the scope and the core of the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and is the most authoritative source-text for Schneerson's way of explaining Judaism and the world writ large.
Herman Branover is a Russian Israeli physicist and Jewish educator. He is best known in the Jewish world as an author, translator, publisher, and educator. Branover is known in the scientific community as a pioneer in the field of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). In his personal conduct he adheres to the customs and mystical philosophy of Chabad Hasidism.
Chabad philosophy comprises the teachings of the leaders of Chabad-Lubavitch, a Hasidic movement. Chabad Hasidic philosophy focuses on religious concepts such as God, the soul, and the meaning of the Jewish commandments.
Dirah betachtonim, is a significant theological concept in Chabad philosophy describing the ultimate desire of God as relating to the manifestation of the divine presence within the material world.
Marvin Alan Sweeney is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Claremont School of Theology (1994–present). Dr. Sweeney was trained under the tutelage of Rolf P. Knierim at Claremont Graduate University. He was a Yad ha-Nadiv/Barecha Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow in Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he worked with Moshe Greenberg (1989-1990); a Lilly Theological Research Grant Recipient (1997-1998); and a Fellow of the Summer Institute for Modern Israel Studies, sponsored by the American Jewish Committee and Brandeis University (2004). Sweeney previously taught in the Religious Studies Department and Judaic Studies Program at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL (1983-1994), and he has served as Dorot Research Professor at the W. F. Albright Institute in Jerusalem, Israel (1993-1994); Visiting Professor of Bible at the Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles, CA ; Underwood Professor of Divinity at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea (2011); visiting scholar at Chang Jung Christian University in Tainan, Taiwan (2015); and Professor of Tanak at the Academy for Jewish Religion California, Los Angeles, CA (2000-2019). He also serves on the faculty of Religion at Claremont Graduate University (1994–present). In 2019, Sweeney relocated to Salem, Oregon, due to the attempted transfer of Claremont School of Theology to Willamette University.
Moshe Idel is a Romanian-born Israeli historian and philosopher of Jewish mysticism. He is Emeritus Max Cooper Professor in Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and a Senior Researcher at the Shalom Hartman Institute.
Yehuda Liebes is an Israeli academic and scholar. He is the Gershom Scholem Professor Emeritus of Kabbalah at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Considered a leading scholar of Kabbalah, his research interests also include Jewish myth, Sabbateanism, and the links between Judaism and ancient Greek religion, Christianity, and Islam. He is the recipient of the 1997 Bialik Prize, the 1999 Gershom Scholem Prize for Kabbalah Research, the 2006 EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture, and the 2017 Israel Prize in Jewish thought.
Ada Rapoport-Albert was an Israeli-British scholar whose scholarship focused on Jewish mysticism, Sabbateanism, and gender in Hasidic Judaism. Rapoport-Albert also served as the president of the Jewish Historical Society of England.