Of Mice and Hasidic Men: Reb Shayele as Populist Patron Saint.
This article focuses on an emergent, transnational Hasidic revival movement centered around the Kerestirer Rebbe, Yeshaya Steiner (Shayele), a Hungarian miracle worker who lived in Hungary from 1851 to 1925. His iconic portrait is commonly associated with mystical protection against the infestation...
| Publicado en: | Jewish Quarterly Review Vol. 115; no. 1; pp. 99 - 136 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of Pennsylvania Press
Winter2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=183290675&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 183290675 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00216682 2HA jtl: Jewish Quarterly Review issn: 00216682 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Winter2025 vid: 115 iid: 1 pid: 4636 pub: University of Pennsylvania Press artinfo: ui: 183290675 10.1353/jqr.2025.a952521 ppf: 99 ppct: 37 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 4.1MB tig: atl: Of Mice and Hasidic Men: Reb Shayele as Populist Patron Saint. aug: au: Shuman, Sam su: Saints Rabbis Zaddikim Hasidim Populism Poland sug: subj: Poland Saints Rabbis Zaddikim Hasidim Populism keyword: Hasidism hospitality Kerestirer Rebbe masculinity mediation patron saint patronage political theology populism Reb Shayele sovereignty Yeshaya Steiner ab: This article focuses on an emergent, transnational Hasidic revival movement centered around the Kerestirer Rebbe, Yeshaya Steiner (Shayele), a Hungarian miracle worker who lived in Hungary from 1851 to 1925. His iconic portrait is commonly associated with mystical protection against the infestation of rodents in Jewish homes and businesses. I reveal how this is only one small piece of his broader populist appeal, however. I do this by interweaving hagiographic texts, Hasidic social media, and ethnography with anthropological theory and political theology on hospitality, sovereignty, and patronage.I contend that Shayele operates as a populist patron saint of protection against other "intruders" into everyday Hasidic life (e.g. police, inspectors, and judges). In invoking the sovereign authority of a dead Hasidic master, Shayele's male followers talk back, quite literally, to power—held by multiple social actors and distributed across multiple jurisdictions, including living Hasidic leaders and state authorities. Rather than rehearsing a normative cosmopolitan account of hospitality, which frames hospitality as a series of rights endowed to the stranger, I reframe hospitality as a site of mediation between human, metahuman, and divine actors. Hospitality offers guests refuge from a world always imagined as hostile and exterior to it; the saint, as a threshold figure, polices boundaries, protecting welcome intruders (guests) from unwelcome intruders (enemies).While largely dormant for nearly a century, this revival movement shares a common political grammar with a resurgent populist politics. His hospitality extends to patrons, cronies, and friends; his sovereign authority shields patrons from (common) enemies and from consequences. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Jewish Quarterly Review is the property of University of Pennsylvania Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Jewish Quarterly Review holder: University of Pennsylvania Press dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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