Prof. Gadi Sagiv

Gadi Sagiv is an associate professor in the Department of History, Philosophy, and Judaic Studies at The Open University of Israel. His field of research is modern Jewish history, in particular, Eastern European Hasidism. 

Sagiv is currently engaged in several digital projects on Hasidism with two of the most prominent scholars of Hasidism, Marcin Wodziński (University of Wrocław) and Uriel Gellman (Bar Ilan University). One of these projects, Toward Automatic Annotation of Hasidic Stories, funded by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) and conducted at the Open University in collaboration with the DHSS Hub, focuses on the historical digital analysis of Hasidic stories from 1814 to 1914.


Selected publications:

Marriage, leadership, and dynasties in Hasidism: big data approach. Religion, 55 (1), 20–42. Wodziński, M., Gellman, U., & Sagiv, G. 2024.

Jewish Blues: A History of a Color in Judaism. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022.

Hasidism: A New History.  Princeton University Press, 2017.

Habad: History, Theology, Image. The Zalman Shazar Center, 2016.

The Chernobyl Hasidic Dynasty and Its Place in the History of Hasidism. The Zalman Shazar Center, 2014.