Hasidism as a Modern Phenomenon

This chapter is an attempt to affirm that hasidism should indeed be classified as belonging to Jewish modernity and not thought of as a vestige of an earlier time and sensibility. The chapter claims that hasidism bears many of the hallmarks of modernity and was, arguably, the most successful of the nineteenth-century new Jewish movements. Hasidism was acknowledged as a subject in the process of modernisation by its self-consciously modernizing opponents, by government authorities, and by members of the new modern capitalist and proto-industrialist elites who gave it both generous financial support and political cover. The fact that the maskilim blamed hasidism for all of the misfortunes of the Jewish people, and used it as an excuse for the failure of the maskilic programme, should not be naively taken as evidence for hasidic withdrawal from the modern world. On the contrary, it is proof of how much they were engaged with it. Hasidim's willingness to compete on the modern field against Haskalah ideas and projects led to their victories over maskilim.