Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers: An Intimate Journey among Hasidic Girls

by Stephanie Wellen Levine, Carol Gilligan (Foreword by)

Overview

A rare look into the lives of Hasidic youth

From the ardently religious young woman who longs for the life of a male scholar to the young rebel who visits a strip club, smokes pot, and agonizes over her loss of faith to the proud Lubavitcher with a desire for a high-powered career, Stephanie Wellen Levine provides a rare glimpse into the inner worlds and daily lives of these Hasidic girls.

Lubavitcher Hasidim are famous for their efforts to inspire secular Jews to become more observant and for their messianic fervor. Strict followers of Orthodox Judaism, they maintain sharp gender-role distinctions.

Levine spent a year living in the Lubavitch community of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, participating in the rhythms of Hasidic girlhood. Drawing on many intimate hours among Hasidim and over 30 in-depth interviews, Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers offers rich portraits of individual Hasidic young women and how they deal with the conflicts between the regimented society in which they live and the pull of mainstream American life.

This superbly crafted book offers intimate stories from Hasidic teenagers' lives, providing an intriguing twist to a universal theme: the struggle to grow up and define who we are within the context of culture, family, and life-driving beliefs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814751978
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	08/06/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	255
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.73(d)

About the Author

Stephanie Wellen Levine teaches at Tufts University.

Carol Gilligan is University Professor at NYU, where she initiated the Radical Listening Project and the co-founder of PACH. She isthe author of In a Different Voice and numerous other books including The Birth of Pleasure and Joining the Resistance.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	Foreword	xi
	Introduction: What I Sought, What I Found	1
1	The Community: A Cultural and Psychological Tour	27
2	The Cast	67
3	Esther (Estie) Gutman: Wild Times and Holy Designs	73
4	Rochel Lehrer: Evolving, Not Rebelling	87
5	Nechama Dina (Dini) Rockoff: Chutzpah and Holiness	107
6	Chaya Jacobson: Strip Clubs and Soul-Searching	124
7	Gittel Kassin: Medicine and Marriage	139
8	Malka (Malkie) Belfer: Miniskirts and the Messiah	158
9	Leah Ratner: Mystic and Maverick	175
10	Into the Future: Adulthood and Insights from the Hasidim	191
	Notes	231
	Selected Bibliography	235
	Index	241
	About the Author	255

What People are Saying About This

Riv-Ellen Prell

"Dazzling--beautifully written, fascinating to read, and unpredictable. I began this book wondering if there was anything new to learn about the much- studied Lubavitch community of Crown Heights. I closed the book convinced that Levine has not only captured a complexity of young women's lives I would never have imagined, but that what she learned in Crown Heights illumines any understanding of teenage girls in the United States." (Riv-Ellen Prell, author of Fighting to Become Americans: Jews, Gender and the Anxiety of Assimilation)

Rachel Simmons

"In an age that is at times overly concerned with girls' self-destruction, here is a welcome sign of girls' strength and healthy development. Levine teaches an important and seldom taught lesson: we may find resilience where we least expect it. Her unprecedented insight into this hidden culture is an important addition to the growing body of work on girls." Rachel Simmons, author of Odd Girl Out)

Daniel Gordis

"Stephanie Levine offers us a rare glimpse into a world usually hidden from us. Hers is a compassionate but not uncritical take on the world of today's Hasidic girls, and through her investigation of this often misunderstood society, we come to see these people not simply as different, but as complex, nuanced and facing many of the same issues of self-definition that all of us, in whatever world we inhabit, wrestle with throughout our lives. Mystics, Mavericks and Merrymaker sis the product of a keen eye and an engaging pen, and is sure to provide both understanding and insight to all its readers." (Dr. Daniel Gordis, author of If a Place Can Make You Cry: Dispatches from an Anxious State)

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

"This sensitive portrait is full of surprises for those who believe patriarchal religion can nurture only passivity or rebellion. Levine's diverse and outspoken girls help us see the complexity of female development in a little-known but surprisingly familiar world." (Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, author of A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812)

Editorial Reviews

"At all times, Levine's genuine respect for the community shines through. The book is eminently readable and undoubtedly fascinating."

Jewish Chronicle

"Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers presents a comprehensive snapshot of women's experience in Crown Heights . . . Levine's personal response to the Lubavitcher way of life weaves itself into each chapter and is one of the book's most engaging aspects."

Eric Caplan

"Stephanie Levine's book is full of surprises."

Midstream

"Lively tales of girls who long for the lives of male scholars, and rebels who visit strip clubs, smoke pot, and dream of high-powered careers."

Books to Watch out For

"In an era seemingly plagued with sex, anorexia and depression among our nation's girls, a page from Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers is a refreshing peek into the possibilities for growth, strength and self."

The Jewish New Weekly of Northern California

"Levine's book shows young Lubavitchers mingling spiritual fervor with the joys and fears all young people experience, from shopping to worrying about their weight."

Boston Globe

"The light Levine's research sheds on her understanding of our secular culture and her recommendations should be required reading for educators across the country."

Moment Magazine

"Through her vivid descriptions of everyday life and dramatic portraits of seven girls, Stephanie Wellen Levine has provided a riveting account of the daily lives of Lubavitch girls. We learn about Hasidim, the Crown Heights community and Judaism. We sense the serenity and joy of being a deeply religious person committed to observing Jewish traditions and spreading this message to others. As a study of adolescent girls, the book offers much information that would be of special interest to parents, grandparents, and educators."

Jewish Book World

"Seven fascinating profiles of Lubavitch girls…at turns charming and scandalous."

The Jerusalem Report

"Captures the voices of [Hasidic] girls and their worldviews, in complexity, subtlety and depth, and with heart."

The Jewish Week

"Compelling…moving…with a talent for inventive images"

The New York Sun

"Deeply touching and written with a fiction writer's flair for the lyrical phrase"

JBooks

"With precision and color, Levine places readers smack in the neighborhood and in the interiors of the girls' inner thoughts and in the spiritual beliefs and routines of their families."

The Jewish Advocate

"Levine does a splendid job of presenting how the girls cope, and paints vivid pictures of Shabbat around their family tables."

The Jerusalem Post Lit. Quarterly

"Levine steps back and lets the girls speak for themselves; their voices, layered with determination, yearning, confusion and wonder, emerge clearly."

Na'amat Woman Book Reviews

"Her book is neither a jargon-laden academic study nor a work of pop sociology. It is instead more like an old-fashioned novel in its richly detailed study of character and milieu."

The Jewish Standard

"In an age that is at times overly concerned with girls' self-destruction, here is a welcome sign of girls' strength and healthy development. Levine teaches an important and seldom taught lesson: we may find resilience where we least expect it. Her unprecedented insight into this hidden culture is an important addition to the growing body of work on girls."

Rachel Simmons