Talk:David Twersky (New Square)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Judaism Portal David Twersky (New Square) is part of WikiProject Judaism, a project to improve all articles related to Judaism. If you would like to help improve this and other articles related to the subject, consider joining the project. All interested editors are welcome. This template adds articles to Category:WikiProject Judaism articles.
Project Judaism To-do: edit purge watch Here are some tasks you can do: Requests: Jewish and Biblical Units of Measurement or some such name, to include material of Ancient Hebrew units of measurement but also Talmudic units and use in Halacha (a la the Hebrew Wikipedia article he:מידות ומשקלות תורניים) Collaboration of the week { Cleanup: Jewish mythology - needs to be rewritten to be inline with our other mythology articles. Expand: Yom Ha'atzmaut - quite short for an article of such importance Wikiversity: School of Jewish Studies. Part of the new open content university, Wikiversity. Stubs: Category:Judaism stubs, Category:Tanakh stubs, Category:Synagogue stubs Update: Portal:Judaism is WikiProject Judaism's frequently updated portal. You can help make this the best portal on Wikipedia. Look at the talk page to see how you can help. Template loop detected: Template:WikiProject Judaism
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.	Biography Portal
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]

Violence against other Hasidic Jews New Book Reveals Darker Chapters In Hasidic History

http://www.forward.com/articles/new-book-reveals-darker-chapters-in-hasidic-histor/

Allan Nadler

“Neehaz ba-Svakh: Pirkei Mashber u-Mevucha be-Toldot ha-Hasidut” (“Caught in the Thicket: Chapters of Crisis and Discontent in the History of Hasidism”), written by David Assaf, chair of Tel Aviv University’s Jewish history department, appeared in Israel just three months ago, but it has already generated fierce controversy. Indeed, although the book, which is in Hebrew, can be ordered from the publisher, it cannot be easily obtained in bookstores. ..

The purpose of Assaf’s book is to revisit and clarify some of the most shocking episodes in the history of Hasidism, events that have been deliberately suppressed or extensively distorted for apologetic purposes by Hasidic historiography. ..

.. .Many Americans were shocked earlier this year by the revelations of intense intra-Hasidic violence that accompanied the battle for leadership of Satmar Hasidism between the respective followers of rabbis Aharon and Zalman, after the death of their father, Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum. But next to Assaf’s chapter on the violent persecution of Bratzlaver Hasidim of the mid 19th century, perpetrated mainly by rabbis David Twersky of Talne and Yitzhak Twersky of Skver, contemporary Satmar skirmishes appear quite tame. In addition to their anti-Bratzlav activities, Assaf recounts the general tendency of the Talner and Skverer Hasidim to use intimidation and a variety of violent means, including death threats, rock throwing, home invasions and hostile synagogue takeovers, to “conquer” a string of shtetls in the southern Ukraine in the mid 1860s. The violence got so bad that the tsarist government was finally compelled in 1868 to issAssaf's book is primarily based onue a law prohibiting Hasidic rebbes in the Ukraine from extending their leadership beyond their own towns. But as Assaf documents, the persecution of Bratzlaver Hasidim continued even after the Holocaust, in Jerusalem and Brooklyn in the 1970s and ’80s.. .

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Skver_%28Hasidic_dynasty%29"

This article does not refer to the same "David Twerski" as the one mentioned by Nadler. Rather, it refers to the great-grandson of Yitzhak Twersky of Skver. --Kotzker 16:33, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

Allan Nadler is a professor of religious studies at Drew University. Neither Nadler nor Assaf are religious, and both are known to have a disrespect and are biased against orthodox Jewish people. Assaf's goal is to discredit and paint a negative picture on all Chassidim. This book Nadler is quoting from, is based on newspaper articles from those times and era he (Assaf) is referring to, which mainly is form the Ha'mailitz which was known as a secular newspaper full of fiction and false accusations against religious Jews.

This article from Assaf does not belong here; rather, on a separate page on Assaf; who he is, his biography, his books, his articles, and how he is perceived and respected by people as a writer, author, and historian.

[edit] Clean up

A cleanup is sorely required. Just look at statements such as this:

"Since he succeeded his late father, he has been a pillar of courage, strength and hope to Jewish People from all walks of life who come to visit the Rebbe to discuss their spiritual and/or personal matters, seek his advise and get his blessings."

Enough said. How notable is he anyway? Olockers 11:34, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

He doesn't have a blank User page, for a start. In fact, besides leading a community oftens of thousands, he makes the front pages of the papers when travels abroad. That's plenty notable.--Redaktor 10:47, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] English

"Unusual for a traditional Hasidic rebbe, he is fluent in English and Hebrew, besides his native Yiddish" Is this so unusual today? The present Rebbes of Satmar, Bobov, Belz, etc. also are fluent in English and/or Hebrew, only the older generations (Viznitz, Skulen, etc.) are not. As far as Rebbes his age and younger it's pretty common. Bobover1 (talk) 16:14, 1 June 2008 (UTC)