Word: habad
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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That mythological gatekeeper would be scanning the want ads today, according to a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews. Israeli members of the large and powerful Hasidic movement Habad are convinced that at any moment, the Redeemer will arrive in Jerusalem. In a burst of fervor, they have erected yellow billboards across Israel, instructing passersby to PREPARE FOR THE COMING OF THE MESSIAH. Bumper stickers carry the same message, as do electrified signs atop Habad cars. A full-page ad announcing "The Time for Your Redemption Has Arrived" has run in the New York Times, and Habad speakers have been crisscrossing...
Utter blasphemy is what many other religious Jews say. Critics of Habad, which is also known as the Lubavitch movement, after the Belarussian village of its founding, are both angry and worried. Eliezer Schach, one of Israel's leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis, has publicly called Schneerson "insane," an "infidel" and "a false Messiah." The local papers carried Schach's outrageous charge that Schneerson's followers are "eaters of trayf," food such as pork that is forbidden to Jews. Other detractors fret that Habad's Messianic passions will provoke a schism in Judaism or lead to mass disillusionment, driving believers from...