Hasidism in Ukraine: Dynasties, Rebbes, and their Teachings

In conjunction with the exhibition “Hasidism on the Territory of Ukraine,” developed by the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, scholar Alti Rodal will provide an overview of the beginnings and spread of the Hasidic movement on Ukrainian lands in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Through the portrayal of the lives and legends surrounding the most influential and charismatic of the Hasidic leaders (the tzadikim or rebbes) and a discussion of their most memorable teachings and their legacies, Rodal will evoke the dynamics of a religious movement that captured large swaths of the Pale of Settlement and that continues to influence the Jewish world today.

Alti Rodal is co-director of the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter. She is an historian, writer, former professor of Jewish history, and former official and advisor to the Government of Canada. She was educated at McGill, Oxford, and Hebrew Universities in history and literature. She researches and writes about aspects of identity, Jewish history and culture, and inter-communal relations.

For more information see the Jewish Community Library’s website.