Beth El hosts noted author

GLENN DYNNER…will speak at Cong. Beth El on Apr. 1. Noted author and educator Glenn Dynner will be speaking on Hasidic Jewry on Tuesday, Apr. 1 at 7:30 p.m. at Cong. Beth El's Appel Campus, 8000 Main Street, Voorhees. A professor of Judaic Studies at Sarah Lawrence College, he is the author of "Men of Silk: The Hasidic Conquest of Polish Jewish Society" (Oxford University Press, 2006). The book was published with the support of the Koret Publication Prize for Jewish Studies. It was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Awards.

In his lecture, Dynner will discuss Hasidism, the kabbalah inspired movement founded by Rabbi Israel Ba'al Shem Tov, and its dramatic ascendancy during the early 19th Century. He will show how newly discovered Polish archival sources are merged with age-old Hasidic tales to reveal fresh perspectives on Hasidism's conquest of Jewish communities in Eastern Europe.

This lecture, part of Beth El's CoLeL (Community of Lifelong Learners) Series, is free and open to the public.

For more information contact Yaffa Fuchs at yfuchs@bethelsnj.org. .