Menachem M. Friedman
Israeli sociologist and historian of Haredi Judaism (1936–2020), professor at Bar-Ilan University and co-author with Samuel C. Heilman of The Rebbe (2010). Not the UK charity trustee of the same name.
- This page is about the Israeli sociologist. For the UK charity trustee, see Menachem Friedman.
| Menachem M. Friedman | |
|---|---|
| Image | |
| Born | 2 December 1936 Bnei Brak, Mandatory Palestine |
| Died | 16 March 2020 |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Residence | |
| Occupation | Sociologist and historian; professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Bar-Ilan University (1973–2006), later emeritus |
| Known for | Founding the academic study of Haredi society; the term "society of learners" (hevrat ha-lomdim); The Rebbe (2010, with Samuel C. Heilman) |
| Parents | |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | |
| Sibling(s) | |
| Education | |
| Predecessor | |
| Website | |
Menachem M. Friedman (2 December 1936 – 16 March 2020) was an Israeli sociologist of religion and historian of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Judaism. He taught at Bar-Ilan University from 1973 to 2006.[1] At his death the Israeli news site Arutz Sheva described him as regarded by many as the founder of the study of Haredi society as an independent field, and as the scholar who coined the term "society of learners" (חברת הלומדים).[2] His work on Chabad-Lubavitch culminated in The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson (2010), written with the American sociologist Samuel C. Heilman.[3]
Career
According to the Bibliothèque nationale de France authority record, Friedman was born in Bnei Brak on 2 December 1936. He was a professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, from 1973 to 2006.[1] His university page described his field in his own words: "As a sociologist of religion and a Jewish historian, I combine the two fields by studying the process of secularization and the confrontation between religious and non-religious Jewish groups from the end of the 19th century to the contemporary era as well as the process of extremism (including stringency within the framework of decision-making in Halacha (Jewish Law) and zealotry."[4]
Arutz Sheva lists among his books a study of non-Zionist Orthodoxy in Mandatory Palestine (1918–1936), a study of the Haredi community in Jerusalem written with Yosef Shilhav, and The Haredi Society: Sources, Trends and Processes. It also notes that a festschrift in his honour, HaGedolim, edited by Benjamin Brown and Nissim Leon, appeared in 5777 (2016–17).[2] He died on 16 March 2020 at the age of 83.[2][1]
Work on Chabad
Friedman's best-known English essay on the movement is "Habad as Messianic Fundamentalism: From Local Particularism to Universal Jewish Mission". It appeared in 1994 in Accounting for Fundamentalisms, a volume of the Fundamentalism Project edited by Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby.[5] David Berger lists it among the main secondary works on Chabad's "history and messianic orientation".[5] Friedman also wrote a long Hebrew essay, "Messiah and Messianism in Habad Hassidic Sect" (2001).[6]
According to their preface, Heilman and Friedman were "both independently researching the Lubavitcher Hasidim and their Rebbe" in the early 1990s. They decided to write a joint book in 2007.[3] They described their division of outlook this way: "One of us was convinced that the Lubavitcher phenomenon needed to be understood as profoundly affected by its American context, the other was no less powerfully persuaded that it needed to be seen through the prism of Jewish and Israeli realities." They added that "one of us was more comfortable writing in Hebrew and the other in English".[7] The book draws on Friedman's own interviews, including one with Barry Gourary on 1 September 1991.[8] On Schneerson's education, it cites a 1998 Haaretz interview with Friedman by Avirama Golan, "Messiah Flesh and Blood".[9]
Reception and Chabad criticism of The Rebbe
The book won a National Jewish Book Award.[10] Michael Berenbaum called the two authors "the two most distinguished sociologists of contemporary Orthodox Judaism".[11] Lubavitch critics, however, disputed "its details as well as its overall thesis".[12] The Lubavitch spokesman Zalman Shmotkin called the authors' speculations "psychobabble".[13]
One criticism concerned Friedman personally. The New York Times reported that Steven I. Weiss of the Jewish Channel criticised the authors "for not noting outright that Mr. Friedman served as an expert witness against the rebbe during a lawsuit in the 1980s over ownership of the Chabad library". Heilman replied: "We have no ax to grind."[13] This is Weiss's claim as reported by the newspaper. The two published judgments in the library case, Agudas Chasidei Chabad v. Gourary, refer to expert witnesses but name none of them, so the claim has not been checked against the court record.[14]
The fullest Chabad-side critique is The Afterlife of Scholarship (2011) by Rabbi Chaim Rapoport. He describes himself as "a disciple of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe".[15] He argues that the book's errors "are so fundamental and pervasive that they actually serve to disqualify this work as a serious historical or biographical document".[16] Heilman and Friedman answered his first version on the Seforim Blog in June 2010.[17] See Samuel C. Heilman for more on the book's reception.
Use on Powerbase
Friedman is cited here almost entirely as co-author of The Rebbe. That book is a main secondary source for these pages:
- Menachem Mendel Schneerson
- Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn
- Shalom Dovber Schneersohn
- Chabad messianism
- Chabad-Lubavitch timeline
- The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Points that Chabad writers dispute are given alongside Chabad-side accounts. He is a different person from the UK charity trustee at Menachem Friedman.
Works
- Hevrah ve-dat: ha-Ortodoksyah ha-lo-Tsiyonit be-Erets-Yisra'el, 1918–1936 [Society and Religion: The Non-Zionist Orthodox in Eretz-Israel, 1918–1936]. Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 1977/78 (Hebrew).
- (ed., with Emmanuel Sivan) Religious Radicalism and Politics in the Middle East. 1990.
- Ha-Hevrah ha-Haredit: Mekorot, Megamot ve-Tahalikhim [The Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) Society: Sources, Trends and Processes]. Jerusalem: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, 1991 (Hebrew).
- "Habad as Messianic Fundamentalism: From Local Particularism to Universal Jewish Mission", in Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby (eds.), Accounting for Fundamentalisms: The Dynamic Character of Movements. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994, pp. 328–357.
- Hevrah be-mashber legitimatsyah: ha-Yishuv ha-yashan ha-Ashkenazi, 1900–1917 [A Society in a Crisis of Legitimacy: The Old Ashkenazi Yishuv, 1900–1917]. 2001 (Hebrew).
- "Messiah and Messianism in Habad Hassidic Sect", in David A. Joel, Maya Lebovitz, Yehoram Mazor and Moti Anbari (eds.), Gog and Magog Wars. Tel Aviv: Yediot Aharonot–Hemed, 2001, pp. 174–229 (Hebrew).
- (with Samuel C. Heilman) The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-691-13888-6; paperback 2012, ISBN 978-0-691-15442-8.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Friedman, Menachem (1936-....)", authority record, Bibliothèque nationale de France (updated 26 August 2020, citing Haaretz, 20 March 2020). Library authority record.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Michal Levi, "פרופ' מנחם פרידמן הלך לעולמו" ("Prof. Menachem Friedman has died"), Arutz Sheva (inn.co.il), 16 March 2020. Press (Hebrew).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Samuel C. Heilman and Menachem M. Friedman, The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010 (paperback 2012), Preface, p. xvi.
- ↑ "Prof. Menachem Friedman", Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Bar-Ilan University (last updated 15 June 2020). Institutional source.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 David Berger, The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference, London and Portland, Oregon: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, ch. 1, p. 4 n. 1. Critical source.
- ↑ Heilman and Friedman, The Rebbe (2010), p. 289 (notes to chapter 2, n. 17).
- ↑ Heilman and Friedman, The Rebbe (2010), Preface, pp. xvi–xvii.
- ↑ Heilman and Friedman, The Rebbe (2010), p. 290 (notes to chapter 2, n. 27).
- ↑ Heilman and Friedman, The Rebbe (2010), p. 86 (footnote).
- ↑ Who Will Lead Us?, University of California Press, book page (author note: The Rebbe "winner of the National Jewish Book Award"). Publisher's page.
- ↑ Michael Berenbaum, "Book Review: The Rebbe: The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson", Jewish Journal, 16 July 2010.
- ↑ Sue Fishkoff, "Seeking the real rebbe: New books about Schneerson aim to separate man from myth", J. The Jewish News of Northern California, 28 May 2010. Press.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Patricia Cohen, "Rabbi's Biography Disturbs Followers", The New York Times, 14 June 2010 (corrected 17 June 2010). Press.
- ↑ Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States v. Gourary, 650 F. Supp. 1463 (E.D.N.Y. 6 January 1987), and 833 F.2d 431 (2d Cir. 17 November 1987). Court records.
- ↑ Rapoport, The Afterlife of Scholarship (2011), Kindle p. 4 of 197. Chabad-side.
- ↑ Chaim Rapoport, The Afterlife of Scholarship: A Critical Review of 'The Rebbe' by Samuel Heilman and Menachem Friedman, Oporto Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-615-53897-6, Kindle edition, Kindle p. 3 of 197. Chabad-side.
- ↑ "Response and Rejoinder to Chaim Rapoport's The Afterlife of Scholarship", the Seforim Blog, 30 June 2010.