Earlier this month “slumlord” Hasidic Jewish rabbi Menachem Stark was kidnapped and murdered in New York City. The New York Post asked: “Who didn’t want him dead?” This created a firestorm of protest from the Hasidic, Ultra-Orthodox community which esteemed him for his large donations to Jewish charities. It has also focused attention on crime and corruption in New York’s large Hasidic community.
What are the origins of Hasidic Judaism? What does it teach? Do Hasidim’s religious beliefs incline them to disproportionate involvement in fraud and crime? These are questions I will consider in this three-part overview of the growing presence and power of Hasidic Judaism, particularly in New York City and bordering northeastern states.
For Orthodox Jews the greatest sources of religious authority are not the law and prophets of the Old Testament but the oral traditions of the Pharisees, contained in the vast and rambling Babylonian Talmud and its mystical/revolutionary companion, the Zohar, or “Kabbalah.”
