Recovering a Lost Treasure: The History of Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Hasidic Archive

In 1949, the Jewish press reported on the establishment of a “Committee for the Study of Hassidism,” with the purpose “to gather and to record all data on the movement, such as teachings, customs and practices, aphorisms of the masters, miracle-tales, songs, and the like.” This project was headed by Rabbi Prof. Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972). For many years this proposed Hasidic archive has been considered lost to history, but in recent years it has been rediscovered. In this presentation: 1) we will relate the history and fate of the archive 2) present some highlights of the collection and 3) discuss the relevance of these materials for new directions in Hasidic research.