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The Rebbe: The Life And Afterlife Of Menachem Mendel SchneersonStock informationGeneral Fields
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DescriptionFrom the 1950s until his death in 1994, Menachem Mendel Schneerson - revered by his followers worldwide simply as the Rebbe - built the Lubavitcher movement from a relatively small sect within Hasidic Judaism into the powerful force in Jewish life that it is today. Swept away by his expectation that the Messiah was coming, he came to believe that he could deny death and change history. Samuel Heilman and Menachem Friedman paint an unforgettable portrait of Schneerson, showing how he reinvented himself from an aspiring French-trained electrical engineer into a charismatic leader who believed that he and his Lubavitcher Hasidic emissaries could transform the world. They reveal how his messianic convictions ripened and how he attempted to bring the ancient idea of a day of redemption onto the modern world's agenda. Heilman and Friedman also trace what happened after the Rebbe's death, by which time many of his followers had come to think of him as the Messiah himself. AwardsWinner of National Jewish Book Award for American Jewish Studies 2010. Runner-up for Choice Magazine Outstanding Reference/Academic Book Award 2011. Author descriptionSamuel Heilman is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Queens College and holds the Harold Proshansky Chair in Jewish Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Menachem Friedman is professor emeritus of sociology at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Table of contentsList of Illustrations xi The Rebbes of ChaBaD? xiii Preface xv Chapter 1: Farbrengen: The Gathering of the Emissaries 1 Chapter 2: Death and Resurrection 29 Chapter 3: Coming of Age in a Time of Transition 65 Chapter 4: E ntering the Court of Lubavitch 90 Chapter 5: From Survival to Uforatzto 130 Chapter 6: On a Mission from the Rebbe in Life 163 Chapter 7: From Resurrection to Death: We Want Moshiach Now 197 Chapter 8: On a Mission from the Rebbe in His Afterlife 248 Glossary of Hasidic and Lubavitcher Terms 279 Notes 283 Index 331 |