At a recent talk I gave on my new book, “The Pious Ones: The World of Hasidim and Their Battles With America,” a friend in the audience came away with some rather sharp comments, agreeing with some of the points I made, but finally dismissing Hasidim with the words “They’re a cult.”
Although the book has a half-dozen chapters on the controversies, or the “battles,” in which Hasidim have been embroiled — instances of sex abuse of young men by teachers; violations of zoning laws by Hasidic sects seeking to build bigger houses for their teeming families; modesty squads that bully clothing merchants and housewives into following a rigid interpretation of demure dress; publicly financed buses on which men and women sit in separate sections — I never addressed the question of whether Hasidism was a cult.
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