MOMENT
Inside a Hasidic Schism
Naomi Ragen
Summer Issue 2022

On two evenings in late May, the streets of Jerusalem were once again the scene of violent riots. Incensed mobs threw stones, glass bottles and punches, upending cars, vandalizing property and littering the streets with debris. Victims, including a police officer, were hospitalized, and police were forced to use water cannons and to rescue elderly Rabbi Shaul Alter, head of the Hasidic breakaway group that was the target of the violence. Instead of the usual political or ethnic opponents, both sides of this conflict were black-garbed, fur-hatted Gur Hasidim. Far from being a fringe group whose battles affect only themselves, Gur Hasidim are the largest and wealthiest Hasidic group in Israel, well acquainted with Israel’s halls of power. READ MORE