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  • Hasidic Warsaw: Reb Zalmen and the Aleksander Shtibl

    Hasidic Warsaw by Hofer, Yechiel; Boyarin, Jonathan; Boyarin, Jonathan;

    Reb Zalmen and the Aleksander Shtibl

    Series: Yiddish Voices;

      • GET 18% OFF

      • Publisher's listprice GBP 50.00
      • The price is estimated because at the time of ordering we do not know what conversion rates will apply to HUF / product currency when the book arrives. In case HUF is weaker, the price increases slightly, in case HUF is stronger, the price goes lower slightly.

        22 575 Ft (21 500 Ft + 5% VAT)
      • Discount 18% (cc. 4 064 Ft off)
      • Discounted price 18 512 Ft (17 630 Ft + 5% VAT)
      • Discount is valid until: 31 October 2026

    18 512 Ft

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    Product details:

    • Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)
    • Date of Publication 20 August 2026

    • ISBN 9781350517400
    • Binding Hardback
    • No. of pages208 pages
    • Size 198x129 mm
    • Language
    • 700

    Categories

    Short description:

    A unique depiction - part ethnography, part memoir, part novel - of the Polish Hasidic world on the eve of the First World War.

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    Long description:

    This book provides the first English translation of Yechiel Hofer's book, Reb Zalmen.

    Centering on a particular denizen of the Aleksander Hasidim's shtibl (prayer house), it offers a unique and intimate portrait of the lives of those who went inside to pray, eat, study, and argue there in the early 20th century. It is hard to imagine that Reb Zalmen was not an actual figure - someone the young Yechiel Hofer actually knew and loved - although finding any trace of him today would be a daunting task. Reb Zalmen was that rare thing, a traditional Jew without a family. His last name is never given; all we are told is that he had originally come to Warsaw from the town of Siedlec.

    Regardless of Reb Zalmen's historical existence, Hasidic Warsaw provides rich material for the ethnography of Polish Hasidism in the early 20th century. It reveals what it was like to experience 'Gentile' Warsaw for someone who spends all his time in the Jewish quarter; to confront the new waves of doubt and fashion that threatened the folkways followed there; the rivalries and alliances between different Hasidic courts and their followers; the bitterness of poverty and the struggle to transcend hunger.

    Jonathan Boyarin's introduction orients the reader toward the changing demographic and political situation of Polish Hasidim in the early 20th century. It points to the distinct facets of Warsaw Hasidic life and law that structure the chapters of Hasidic Warsaw, guiding the reader towards their own contemplation of the interplay between fiction and memory.

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    Table of Contents:

    Introduction - Jonathan Boyarin, Cornell University, USA
    Reb Zalmen by Yechiel Hofer (1960), Translated into English by Jonathan Boyarin
    Notes
    Glossary
    Bibliography

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