Home Page 

Prof. Gadi Sagiv, Associate Professor

gadi_sagiv
Contact Info

The Open University of Israel Department of History, Philosophy, and Judaic Studies One University Road, P.O.B. 808 Ra’anana 4353701, Israel
Fax:972-9-7781416 Email:[email protected]

Additional Information

Areas of Interest
  • Hasidism
  • History of Jews in Eastern Europe
  • Modern Jewish History
  • Messianism
  • Ritual Studies
  • Color Studies

2010
Ph.D., Judaic Studies, Tel Aviv University (summa cum laude)
2003
M.A., Jewish Philosophy, Tel Aviv University (summa cum laude)
1991
B.Sc., Mathematics, Tel Aviv University (magna cum laude)
2021-
Associate Professor, Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, The Open University of Israe​
2015-2021
Senior Lecturer, Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, The Open University of Israel
2014-2015
Visiting Senior Lecturer, Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, The Open University of Israel
2012
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of History of the Jewish People and Contemporary Jewry, Teaching Fellow
2011-2014
Postdoctoral Fellow, The Martin Buber Society of Fellows (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
2011-2014 (summers)
Visiting Scholar, Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture, Leipzig University (Member of the Research Group: ‘New History of Hasidism’)
2011
Postdoctoral Fellow, Katz Center of Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania (Declined due to acceptance of the Buber Fellowship)
2000-2011
Various Teaching Positions (Instructor, Adjunct Lecturer, Teaching Fellow), Department of Hebrew Culture, Tel Aviv University

 

Jewish Blues: A History of a Color in Judaism (Under Contract with University of Pennsylvania Press)

Modern Jewish Messianism. Raanana: The Open University of Israel, 2019 (Hebrew, 360 pp.)

Hasidism: A New History [co-authored with David Biale, David Assaf, Benjamin Brown, Uriel Gellman, Samuel Heilman, Moshe Rosman, and Marcin Wodziński], Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018 (875 pp.).

Dynasty: The Chernobyl Hasidic Dynasty and its Place in the History of Hasidism, Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 2014 (Hebrew; 452 pp.).

Finalist of the 2016 Goldshtein-Goren Award for the best book in Jewish Thought.

Habad: History, Theology, Image, eds. Jonatan Meir and Gadi Sagiv, Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 2016 (Hebrew/English; 343+114 pp.).

Habad in the Twentieth Century: Spirituality, Politics, Outreach, eds. Jonatan Meir and Gadi Sagiv, Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 2018 (152 pp.)

Children and Childhood in Hasidic Courts, Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry 36 (forthcoming 2022).

A Hasidic Leader Migrating to America: Egodocuments by Rabbi Yehoshua Heschel Rabinowitz of Monastyryshche (18601938), Zutot: Perspectives on Jewish Culture (forthcoming 2022).

The Narcissism of Small Differences? On Rituals and Customs as Hasidic Identity Markers, Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry 33 (2021), pp. 151-171.

Ritualization as Religious Renewal in 18th-Century Hasidism, Zutot: Perspectives on Jewish Culture 16 (2019), pp. 19-29.

Dazzling Blue: Color Symbolism, Kabbalistic Myth, and the Evil Eye in Judaism, Numen 64 (2017), pp. 183-208.

“A New Perspective on the Tekhelet Controversy of the Late Nineteenth Century,” Zion 82 (2017), pp. 59-95 (Hebrew).

“Deep Blue: Notes on the Jewish Snail Fight,” Contemporary Jewry 35 (2015), pp. 285-313.

“Hasidism in Tsarist Russia: Historical and Social Aspects,” Jewish History, 27 (2013) pp. 241-269 (with David Assaf).

“Hasidism and Cemetery Inauguration Ceremonies: Authority, Magic, and Performance of Charismatic Leadership,” Jewish Quarterly Review 10,3 (2013), pp. 328-351.

“The Rectification of the Covenant and the Element of Asceticism in Chernobyl Hasidism,” Rachel Elior (ed.), ‘New Old Things’: Myths, Mysticism and Controversies, Philosophy and Halacha, Faith and Ritual in Jewish Thought through the Ages, Jerusalem 2011 [=Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought, 23], pp. 355-406 (Hebrew).

Yenuka: On Child Leaders in Hasidism,” Zion 76 ,(2011), pp. 139-178 (Hebrew).

“Gog and Magog in Hasidism: Actualizing, Spiritualizing, and Marginalizing the Evil that Precedes Redemption,” Gog and Magog: Contributions toward a World History of an Apocalyptic Motif, eds. Georges Tamer, Lutz Greisiger, and Andrew Mein (forthcoming 2022).

“The Hasidic Sermon as Drama: Some Notes on the Relationship between Text and Its Performance,” Moshe Idel Jubilee Volume (Hebrew, forthcoming 2022).

“Eastern European Hasidism and Philosophy,” The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Philosophy, eds. Yitzhak Melamed and Paul Franks. London; New York: Oxford University Press (forthcoming 2022).

“Ritual and Practice in Hasidism,” The Routledge Handbook of Jewish Ritual and Practice, ed. Oliver Leaman. London; New York: Routledge (forthcoming 2022).

“Homilies,” Studying Hasidism: Sources, Methods, Perspectives. ed. Marcin Wodziński. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2019, pp. 18–35.

“Habad Hasidism vs. ‘Hasidism of Poland’: Comparisons and Mutual Images,” Habad: History, Theology, Image, eds. Jonatan Meir and Gadi Sagiv, Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 2016, pp. 223-264 (Hebrew; with Ada Rapoport-Albert).

“Some Notes on Forgetting in Jewish Mysticism,” Forgetting: An Interdisciplinary Conversation. Edited by Giovanni Galizia and David Shulman. Jerusalem: Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2015, pp. 152-171.

“Hasidism in Tsarist Russia: Historical and Social Aspects,” Israel Bartal and Ilia Lurie (eds.), History of the Jews in Russia, Vol. 2: Jews in Imperial Russia, Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, 2012, pp. 75-112 (Hebrew; with David Assaf).

‘Хасидизм в царской России: исторические и социальные аспекты,’ И. Барталь, И. Лурье (ред.), История еврейского народа в России. Т.2: От разделов Польши до падения Российской империи, 1772-1917, Москва: Иерусалим, 2012. С. 101-146 (с Давидом Ассаф).

“A History of Hasidism: Origins and Developments,” The Wiley-Blackwell History of Jews and Judaism, ed. Alan T. Levenson, Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, pp. 277–290.

The Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Berlin: De Gruyter.

Entries:
1. “Messiah (Modern Judaism),” Vol. 18 (2020), pp. 866–869.
2. “Messianic Age (Modern Judaism),” Vol. 18 (2020), pp. 914–918.

Gershon David Hundert (Editor in Chief), The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, Yale University Press, 2008.
Entries:
“Apt Hasidic Dynasty,” pp. 62-63.
“Barukh ben Yehi’el of Mezhbizh,” p. 129
“Kosov-Vizhnits Hasidic Dynasty,” pp. 929-930.
“Mosheh Leib of Sasov,” p. 1208.
“Savran-Bendery Hasidic Dynasty,” pp. 1668-1669.
“Stratin Hasidic Dynasty,” pp. 1809-1810.
“Uri ben Pinḥas of Strelisk,” pp. 1952-1953.
“Yeḥi’el Mikhl of Zlotshev,” p. 2047.

Review of: Asaf Yedidya, Criticized Criticism – Orthodox Alternatives to Wissenschaft des Judentums, 1873-1956, Jerusalem: The Bialik Institute, 2013 (Hebrew). In: Identities: Journal of Jewish Culture and Identity 7 (2016), 145-150 (Hebrew).

Review of: Marcin Wodziński, Hasidism and Politics: The Kingdom of Poland, 1815–1864, Oxford and Portland: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2013. In: Studia Judaica, 17: 2014, nr 2 (34), pp. 177-187.

Review of: Baruch Sterman with Judy Taubes-Sterman, The Rarest Blue: The Remarkable Story of an Ancient Color Lost to History and Rediscovered, Guilford, CT: Lyons Press. In: Haaretz Books Supplement, March 28, 2014, pp. 10-11 (Hebrew).

Review of: Marcin Wodziński, Haskalah and Hasidism in the Kingdom of Poland: A History of Conflict, Oxford and Portland: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2005. In: Mo'ed: Annual for Jewish Studies, 18 (2008), pp. 180-183 (Hebrew).

“Hasidic Dynasties,” Avishar Har-Shefi and Rela Kushelevsky (eds.), The Anthology of Hasidic Thought and Literature, Bar-Ilan University Press (forthcoming).

“Mendel Piekarz (1922-2011),” Gal-Ed: On the History and Culture of Polish Jewry, 23 (2012), pp. 219-224 (Hebrew).