Who are Haredim? And why are they the source of both increasing attention and continuing misunderstanding? New Trends in the Study of Haredi Culture and Society draws on the innovative research of leading scholars from a variety of disciplines—including history, religious studies, demography, linguistics, and geography—to trace the growing prominence of Haredi (often called ultra-Orthodox) Jews in Jewish life. Haredi Jews are committed to preserving a measure of segregation from the rest of society consistent with the guiding principles of their forebears; yet increasingly, they are appearing more visibly and assertively in public spaces. Demographic analysis suggests that they will constitute a much larger share—nearly one-quarter—of the world Jewish population over the next twenty years. By examining the evolution of political, cultural, and social trends in Haredi communities across the globe, this interdisciplinary and transnational volume sheds important light both on Haredi communities and on the societies of which they are part.
FOREWORD
EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION
PART I: CULTURE AND SOCIETY
A “Demographic Hybrid”: Haredi Demography in the Early Twenty-first Century, by Daniel Staetsky
Serving the Jews, Serving the Empire: Discursive Hierarchy and Messianic Temporality in Russian Chabad, by Galina Zelenina
Innovation and Conservatism in Hasidic Pop Culture and Language, by Chaya R. Nove
Communal Self-Regulation and State Law: The Case of the “Kosher Cellphone in Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox Community”, by Shuki Friedman
Stuck in Neutral: Some Ethnographic Reflections on Haredim, Education, and the State, by Lea Taragin-Zeller
PART II: POLITICS IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Kosher Socialism? A History of Haredi Judaism and the Left, by Nathaniel Deustch
Ultra-Orthodox Judaism and the State of Israel: New Perspectives, by Itamar Ben Ami
From a Negligible Minority to a Rising Force: Three Formative Events in Post-1977 Haredi History, by Benjamin Brown
The Haredi Parties and the Rightist Camp in Israel 1948–2022: From Preference to Default, by Nissim Leon
Politics, National Identity, and Democracy: A Comparison of Haredi Political Attitudes and Behavior in the United States and Israel, by Nechumi Malovicki-Yaffe, David N. Myers, Mark Trencher, and Chaya Lehrfield-Trop
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
ABOUT THE USC CASDEN INSTITUTE
David N. Myers is Distinguished Professor of History and holds the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he serves as the director of the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. He also directs the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate. He is the author or editor of more than fifteen books in the field of Jewish history, including, with Nomi M. Stolzenberg, American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York, which was awarded the 2022 National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish studies.
Nechumi Malovicki-Yaffe is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Policy at Tel Aviv University. Her research primarily focuses on power dynamics, authority, and the violation of authority and norms. She specializes in using the ultra-Orthodox community, from which she hails, as a case study to gain insights into various social processes. She has authored two books on the ultra-Orthodox community and has published articles in numerous leading journals.
