Word: orthodox
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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...
...that he is the Redeemer but has done little to discourage speculation. Two weeks ago, Schneerson received a vote of confidence from renowned Talmudic scholar Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. Though a Lubavitcher himself, Steinsaltz has a reputation for sober erudition, so it caused a small stir among the non-Habad Orthodox when he said Schneerson was "the most likely person on the scene now" to become the Messiah...
Habad's critics also say the group may be creating the conditions for large- scale spiritual disillusionment. "If you convince people that the Messiah is coming and he doesn't," says Amnon Levy, author of a book on the ultra- Orthodox, "a whole generation may lose its faith...
...bullets than by ballots. But in two days of polling last weekend, 64% of the registered voters in the central Yugoslav republic cast votes on whether to follow Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia into independence. Strong support among the republic's Muslims and Croats made for a virtually unanimous approval. Orthodox Serbs had been instructed to boycott the referendum. Even so, Western diplomats estimated that as many as 15% of Serbs also voted...