The Rebbe's Army
Subtitle: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch
Edition: 1st edition
Publisher: Schocken
Published: April 15, 2003
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 352
ISBN-13: 9780805241891
Subjects: United States; Religion; History; Religion - Judaism; Judaism - Hasidism; Religion / Judaism / Movements; Sociology, Social Studies; Hasidism; 20th century; Habad; Judaism
First sentence: The lights were dimmed in the Grand Ballroom at the Brooklyn Marriott, but two things were still visible-a sea of black coats and hats crowded around more than a hundred linen-bedecked tables, and a makeshift mechitza separating dozens of elegantly dressed women from their husbands.
Description: Journalist Fishkoff spent a year interviewing Lubavitch emissaries from Anchorage to Miami to give us the first behind-the-scenes look at this Brooklyn-based group of Hasidim and the extraordinary lengths to which they take their mission of outreach. They seem to be everywhere--in big cities, small towns, and suburbs in sixty-one countries. They have built a billion-dollar international empire, with their own news service, publishing house, and hundreds of Websites. Who are these people? How successful are they in making Jews more observant? What influence does their late Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson (who some thought was the Messiah), continue to have on his followers?