If Orthodox Judaism can be placed on a spectrum, Hasidim with their insular communities, lack of interest in secular education, and strict observance would seem to stand at one end, with the Modern Orthodox on the other. Yet, as Shlomo Zuckier has written, over the past two decades there have been attempts in the latter community to “incorporate aspects of Hasidism for the purposes of spiritual inspiration and revival.” Steven Gotlib reviews a collection of essays on this phenomenon of Orthodox neo-Hasidism, edited by Zuckier:

[G]iven attempts at using neo-Hasidism to reshape halakhic practice, it is hard to say that the concerns raised by [critics] are completely misdirected. On the contrary, one may agree with a point raised by Rabbi Shmuel Hain in the preface of the volume under review, which sees neo-Hasidism as “a potentially destabilizing force.” . . . At the same time, it is undeniable that contemporary Orthodox Jews are missing something that neo-Hasidism has to offer, namely, “to be open to heartfelt spiritual experiences, to talking about God, and to exploring the vast richness of Jewish theology, to reclaiming the emphasis on Jewish life as a quest to stand in the presence of God.”

Neo-Hasidism, then, comes with both great risk and great reward.

Stephen Daisley writes about the slaying of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim:

Yaron and Sarah were murdered in a climate of lies and vilification and hatred. . . . The more institutions participate in this collective madness, the more madness there will be. The more elected officials and NGOs misrepresent the predictable consequences of asymmetric warfare in densely populated territories, where much of the infrastructure of everyday life has a dual civilian/terrorist purpose, the more the citizenries of North America and Europe will come to regard Israelis and Jews as a people who lust unquenchably after blood.

The most intolerant anti-Zionism is becoming a mainstream view, indulged by liberal societies, more concerned with not conflating irrational hatred of Israel with irrational hatred of Jews—as though the distinction between the two is all that well defined anymore.

For years now, and especially after the October 7 massacre, the call has gone up from the pro-Palestinian movement to put Palestine at the heart of Western politics. To pursue the struggle against Zionism in every country, on every platform, and in every setting. To wage worldwide resistance to Israel, not only in Wadi al-Far’a but in Washington, DC. “Globalize the intifada,” they chanted. This is what it looks like.