New book announcement; He-Gedolim
By Eliezer Brodt
הגדולים: אישים שעיצבו את פני היהדות החרדית בישראל, בעריכת בנימין בראון, נסים ליאון, קובץ מאמרים לכבוד פרופ'מנחם פרידמן ובהשראתו, מגנס מכון ון ליר, 958 עמודים
For the most part academic books are not found or read in regular "layman" or Chareidi circles, nor can one purchase them in most seforim stores. From time to time a volume emerges from the world of academia that captivates and makes waves among various crowds of regular people. An example would be some of the works of Professor Dovid Assaf (here) which many Chassdim were fascinated to read. Another such book was the work of Professor Benny Brown on the Chazon Ish, which the Yeshiva world was very curious to read. When this volume (see here) came out a few years back, over 1000 copies were sold in a period of two weeks. That may well be the record for an academic book (in Hebrew) selling in such a short amount of time. There were advertisements in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak stating that this work is a must have for a Jewish home. Until today it's unknown who put up the signs. Of course within a few months various attacks were written about the book, as mentioned here.
This new volume, hot off the press from Magnes and Van Leer, promises to be another such volume. It contains thirty chapters about the Gedolim. There are articles devoted to the Gedolim of the Yeshivah, Chassidic and Sefardi world, many of which have never really been properly discussed in academia.
Just to give a plug to the Ceforim Blog – it is quoted three times, (I even made it into a footnote; this is my second "Footnote"– of prominence in academic literature similar to the movie The Footnote :-) ) and Professor Marc Shapiro has an essay in the volume. I am sure some of these essays will be the starting point of much further research and discussion of these Gedolim.
Of course the immediate reaction of many when they look through the table of contents is: "why isn't so and so there?" and "what is the exact criteria to 'get in' to the volume?". The editors anticipated these issues and others, and deal with it in the introduction (PDF available upon request, see my email address below).
The volume is dedicated to Professor Menachem Friedman, who is one of the "founders" of the academic research of the Charedi world.
Here are the Table of Contents of this special work.
Part of the proceedswill be going to help support the efforts of the Seforim Blog.
Copies of this work will be arriving at Biegeleisen shortly.