Synopsis
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994), known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, was one of the most influential personalities of the 20th century and the only rabbi ever awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Despite wide recognition of Schneerson's impact, this is the first volume to seriously explore his social ideas and activism. Schneerson not only engineered a global Jewish renaissance but also became an advocate for public education, criminal justice reform, women's empowerment, and alternative energy. From the personal to the global his teachings chart a practical path for the replacement of materialism, alienation, anxiety and divisiveness with a dignified and joyous reciprocity. Social Vision delves into the deep structures of social reality and the ways it is shaped and reshaped by powerful ideologies. Juxtaposed with sociologist Max Weber’s diagnosis of “inner worldly asceticism” as “the spirit of capitalism,” Schneerson's socio-mystical worldview is compellingly framed as a transformative paradigm for the universal repair of society. The library of Schneerson’s talks and writings is voluminous, but critics have described this distillation as artful, engaging, ambitious, bracing, relevant, and imperative.
About the Author
Philip Wexler, is Executive Director of the Institute of Jewish Spirituality and Society, and emeritus Professor of Sociology of Education and Unterberg Chair in Jewish Social and Educational History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was formerly at the University of Rochester as the Scandling Professor of Education and Sociology, where he was also Founding Dean of the Warner Graduate School (1989-2000). He later served as Director of the School of Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2002-2010), Visiting Bronfman Professor at Brandeis University (2010-2012), and Professor of Social Pedagogy and Social Policy at the Bergische University, Wuppertal, Germany (2012-2014). He received his Ph.D. in Sociology and Anthropology from Princeton University, where he was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellow. He has published eighteen books on sociology, education, postmodernism and religion.
Eli Rubin is an editor and research writer at Chabad.org, and a graduate research student in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College London. He has studied Hasidic literature and Jewish Law at the Rabbinical College of America, and at yeshivot in the UK, the US and Australia.
Michael Wexler is a Princeton University graduate with a degree in English Literature and a master's of fine arts (MFA) in creative writing. He has published six books of both fiction and non-fiction, including the acclaimed young-adult fantasy series "The Seems." He has served as an Adjunct Professor of writing at The University of Missouri-Kansas City and is the creator of projects for Fox, ABC, Microsoft, AFLAC, SiriusXM Radio, and more.
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