Rise of Hasidic Judaism

Hasidic Judaism arose in the eighteenth century in Eastern Europe, in the region of Podolia in present-day Ukraine, around Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov. He taught that sincere prayer, joy and devotion to God were as important as scholarly learning, a message that appealed to many ordinary Jews. The movement spread across Poland, Lithuania and neighbouring lands, organised around charismatic leaders called rebbes whose positions often passed to their descendants. It met strong opposition from the Misnagdim, traditional rabbis such as the Vilna Gaon. The Holocaust destroyed most of the Hasidic communities of Europe, but survivors rebuilt them in Israel and the United States, where groups such as Chabad-Lubavitch and Satmar are well known.

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