Trio Explores the Rebbe’s Social Impact in Academic Book

By COLlive reporter

A new book that explores the Rebbe‘s revolutionary outlook on society will be released in time for Gimmel Tammuz, the 25th yahrzeit of the Rebbe.

“Social Vision: The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Transformative Paradigm for the World,” the 300-page book is being published by Herder and Herder, an independent publisher based in New York City.

It was written by Professor Philip Wexler, a leading sociologist and education expert, who has authored 30 works on sociology, education, religion and spirituality.

In Social Vision, Wexler distills the Rebbe’s voluminous public teachings, letters, and private conversations to make his ideas accessible to the general reader, and demonstrates the enduring relevance of the Rebbe’s teachings to the manifold crises of modern life, politics, and culture.

The Rebbe was not simply a religious figure, but also a great philosopher who boldly upended conventional polarizations between tradition and progress, religion and science, mysticism and society, the description of the book reads.

Social Vision tells the story of how the Rebbe not only channeled his ideas into a global Jewish renaissance in the aftermath of the Holocaust, but also articulated a universal vision whose influence continues to shape better policymaking for a better world.

Wexler, emeritus Professor of Sociology of Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, co-authored the book with his son, Michael Wexler, and author and graduate of Princeton University and Eli Rubin, a Lubavitcher chossid and a graduate research student in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College London.

The book discusses the Rebbe’s engagement with the American counterculture of the 1960s, his vocal championship of a cabinet-level Department of Education, his advocacy for criminal justice reform, and his ecological philosophy, all bear directly on current policy debates in the 21st century.

Jonathan Sarna, Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University, said the book “illuminates the Rebbe’s distinctive views on American society, the role of the individual and the community, the purpose of education, and much more … a bracing introduction to the central ideas that shaped Chabad-Lubavitch in America.”

The book is available for pre-order on Amazon.com and SeforimDeals.com (for a discounted price).