The Princeton Institute for Hasidic Thought brings together distinguished scholars from diverse fields, facilitating communication and cross-pollination between modern academic disciplines and traditional Jewish mysticism. Far from inherently incompatible, our guiding intuition is that these different intellectual worlds have much to contribute to one another, and that their encounter promises to deepen and transform our understanding of both. Given its emphasis on the ways in which Divinity is to be found not simply beyond, but within worldly experience, the Hasidic tradition offers us a uniquely powerful framework for refashioning our human self-understanding as modern subjects. Chassidus has the potential to re-enchant the world, not by rejecting modernity in favor of old dogmas, but by allowing us to encounter the modern condition itself as an expression of something Godly.

Our primary purpose is one of translation–in the broadest sense of the word. Not to reduce one discourse to another, or to elide their differences, instead we aim to make Hasidic learning and modern scholarship accessible to one another on their own terms. Whether by publishing English translations of Hasidic works, hosting seminars and other teaching initiatives, or supporting original scholarship, our aim is first and foremost to open up the language of Hasidic thought to modern audiences. Without compromising its authenticity or independence, these projects aim to render the Hasidic worldview legible and compelling to the modern mind, revealing its potential to inject new meaning into contemporary life. In turn, our hope is that this encounter will open up new ways of understanding Chassidus itself, not by changing its meaning but by offering new languages with which it can express itself.