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You are here: Home / Videos / The 1985 Lubavitch New York Library case
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The 1985 Lubavitch New York Library case

Presented by Simon Eder, assisted by Ivor Jacobs

Walk into a Chabad House almost in any part of the world and the late Rabbi Jacobs is held in the highest regard, given his testimony in the court case concerning the ownership of the Chabad library.

This event uncovers the huge controversy surrounding this case that split the family of the man some still consider to be the Messiah. What do we learn of the profound leadership of the late Menachem Mendel Schneerson z”l? Just what lay behind Rabbi Louis Jacobs’ expertise and immense interest in the Lubavitch movement?

Drawing on recently discovered archival material from the trial itself, Simon takes us on a journey charting the history of the movement, unravelling along the way its various power struggles, psychological intrigues and family deceptions! What he asks does the library in question, how it came to be and how it survived say about the Chabad movement.

Writings

  • PhD Dissertation
  • Articles
  • Book Reviews
  • Encyclopedia entries
  • ‘Ask the Rabbi’
  • Sermons / Divrei Torah
  • Bibliography

Articles Following the Seminar

Oxford Seminar in Advanced Jewish Studies

Orthodoxy, Theological Debate and Contemporary Judaism: A Critical Exploration of Questions Raised in the Thought of Louis Jacobs

Halakhah and Aggadah: The Modern Conversion Controversy in Light of Louis Jacobs’s Philosophy

What is ‘Modern’ in Modern Orthodoxy?

Theology and Conversion, Converts and Theology – The Picture in Britain

Back to Zechariah Frankel and Louis Jacobs? On Integrating Academic Talmudic Scholarship into Israeli Religious Zionist Yeshivot and the Spectre of the Historical Development of the Halakhah

‘Modern’ Orthodoxy in Antiquity and the Present Day

From Jacobs to the New Materialism: Revelation in Judaism after Metaphysics

Torah as the Word of God

Orthodoxy and the Challenge of Biblical Criticism: Some Reflections on the Importance of Asking the Right Question

Orthodox Judaism in Transition – An Oxymoron?

We Have Reason to Inquire: The Life and Works of Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs

Biblical Criticism and Late-Modern Orthodoxy in Israel

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