The Visual Culture of Chabad [Paperback]

This book is the first full-length study of a complex visual tradition associated with the Hasidic movement of Chabad.The Visual Culture of Chabad unfolds the history of the rabbinical Schneerson family and the modern Hasidic movement they built. Through the prism of Chabad portraits, architecture, and ceremonial objects, one sees the powerful sway the Schneerson family held over their Eastern European flock, the reemergence of the Chabad movement in America after the Holocaust, and the provocative engagement of public space. The last scion of the Chabad dynasty encouraged an unprecedented public campaign to force Gods hand into ushering in the messianic age. The products of this campaign largely define Judaism in the public sphere.The Visual Culture of Chabad unfolds the history of the rabbinical Schneerson family and the modern Hasidic movement they built. Through the prism of Chabad portraits, architecture, and ceremonial objects, one sees the powerful sway the Schneerson family held over their Eastern European flock, the reemergence of the Chabad movement in America after the Holocaust, and the provocative engagement of public space. The last scion of the Chabad dynasty encouraged an unprecedented public campaign to force Gods hand into ushering in the messianic age. The products of this campaign largely define Judaism in the public sphere.This book presents the first full-length study of a vast and complex visual tradition produced, revered, preserved, banned, and destroyed by the Hasidic movement of Chabad. This rich repository of visual artifacts provides the archaeological data for an analysis of how the movement consolidated its influence during a period of political and economic transformation and survived its immigration to America in the wake of the Holocaust. As one of the most self-documented and media-preserved modern Jewish movements, Chabads rich material culture, including the hand-held portrait, the rebbishe space, the printers mark, and thelÓ1