Post-Holocaust Immigration and Hassidic Leadership: The Cases of Viznitz and Satmar

Abstract

Immigration, particularly forced immigration, has a profound impact on every aspect of immigrants’ lives. One such aspect is their religious convictions and practices. Nowadays, Migration Studies is a major academic field that produces many books and articles each year. This article examines the impact of forced immigration on the daily practices and internal relationships between leaders and followers of a specific religious group—Hassidism, in one particular period—the early second half of the 20th century. It does so by examining how two Hassidic leaders, the Satmar Rebbe in America and the Viznitzer Rebbe in Israel, established their communities after the Holocaust. This is one of only a few academic studies that explore post-Holocaust Hassidism, with a specific focus on the effects of forced immigration on its development. Throughout Jewish history, large-scale immigration and the inevitable need to adapt to new political, religious, and cultural circumstances had a profound influence on the way Jews conducted their religious affairs. This article explores how the uprooting of Hassidism from Eastern Europe after the Holocaust and its transplantation in countries that were new to them prompted Hassidic leaders who wanted to reestablish their communities to adopt a new set of leadership priorities. The result was that despite bearing the same title, Hassidic communities that were established after the Holocaust were very different from those that operated in Europe previously.