Since its inception in 2016, the Institute of Jewish Spirituality and Society. whose mission is advancing scholarship and social transformation, has held five conferences and published four books, including:
Social Vision: The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Transformative Paradigm for the World, by Philip Wexler, Eli Rubin and Michael Wexler (2019)
Social Vision is the first volume to seriously explore the Lubavitcher Rebbe's social ideas and activism. The Rebbe 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,” the Rebbe's socio-mystical worldview is compellingly framed as a transformative paradigm for the universal repair of society. The library of the Rebbe’s talks and writings is voluminous, but critics have described this distillation as artful, engaging, ambitious, bracing, relevant, and imperative.
Philip Wexler, Executive Director of the Institute of Jewish Spirituality and Society and Emeritus Professor of Sociology of Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has published 18 books on sociology, education, postmodernism and religion.
Eli Rubin is editor and research writer at Chabad.org and a graduate research student at University College London. He has studied Hasidic literature and Jewish Law at the Rabbinic College of America, and at Yeshivot in the UK, the US and Australia
Michael Wexler 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 is the creator of projects for Fox, ABC, Microsoft, AFLAC, SiriusXM Radio, and more. He is a Princeton University graduate with a degree in English Literature and a master’s of fine arts (MFA) in creative writing.
Jewish Spirituality and Social Transformation: Hasidism and Society, by Philip Wexler (2018)
A collection of essays presented at the Institute’s Inaugural Conference in Briarcliff Manor, New York during the summer of 2017, this unique volume brings together internationally renowned scholars from diverse disciplines who bring Jewish spiritual knowledge and practice to bear on contemporary issues in society, including gerontology and education.
Among the leading scholars who appear in this volume are Jonathan Garb, Gershom Scholem Professor of Kabbalah in the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Elliot R. Wolfson, Marsha and Jay Glazer Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Vocal Rites and Broken Theologies: Cleaving to Vocables in R. Israel Ba‘al Shem Tov’s Mysticism, by Moshe Idel (2019)
This volume deals with the central practices of the founder of Hasidism, Rabbi Israel Ba‘al Shem Tov and its sources in the Safedian Kabbalah of Rabbi Moses Corovero. These include the loud pronunciation of the vocables during prayer, study of the Torah and eventually profane speech, as conducive to some form of union with the divine.
Moshe Idel is a senior research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute and the Max Cooper Professor of Jewish Thought at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has served as a visiting professor and researcher at universities and institutions worldwide, including Yale, Harvard, and Princeton universities in the United States, and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Idel, the greatest authority in his field, has redefined the understanding of Hasidic tradition which, until now, has never existed in the scholarly sphere.
Spiritual Education: The Educational Theory and Practice of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, by Aryeh Solomon (2019)
In this expansive volume, Solomon addresses many issues discussed in contemporary society and presents different educational methodologies shared by the Rebbe throughout the period of his leadership. This vast collection of the Rebbe’s teachings offers multitudinous wisdom to bear on a wide array of contemporary issues in the education system.
Aryeh Solomon completed undergraduate studies at Sydney University. Since 1984 he has served as College Rabbi to 1,600 students at Moriah College and he is the spiritual leader of its Hugo Lowy Synagogue. At La Trobe U., Dr. Solomon's second dissertation was awarded the prestigious Nancy Mills Medal.
