From Publishers Weekly
This remarkable ethnographic profile goes behind the scenes of Lubavitcher Judaism to explore how the movement's enthusiastic young emissaries, or schlihim, carry the Rebbe's message throughout the world. Armed with pamphlets, Shabbos candles and the dream of making all Jews more observant, these idealistic young married couples set up shop in unlikely locales like Peoria, Ill.; Anchorage, Ala.; or Salt Lake City, Utah. There they will tirelessly teach and fundraise-not just for a year or two, but for the rest of their lives. Fishkoff, a regular contributor to Moment and The Jerusalem Post, draws upon dozens of interviews with these schlihim, their supporters and their detractors. Traversing the country to do her research, she attended Shabbos dinners, mikvah demonstrations, Friday afternoon street proselytizing sessions and even a star-studded Chabad telethon in Los Angeles. (The telethon, Fishkoff rightly points out, is the perfect symbol for the way these Hasids have simultaneously eschewed and engaged with American culture, using technology to further their outreach.) Most interestingly, she includes interviews with Reform and Conservative Jews who, surprisingly enough, are often the chief financial backers of local Chabad initiatives. Though Fishkoff makes an effort to include some individuals' critiques of the movement, this is by no means an expos‚; one leaves the book sharing her own tender admiration for the energetic dedication of the Rebbe's followers. Fishkoff writes robustly and engagingly, and her portrait of Chabad is not only profoundly respectful, but also poignant and full of joy.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Although most people have not heard of the Lubavitcher Hasid, a sect of Orthodox Jewry, many are familiar with the outreach programs the group runs, such as the Chabad Houses on college campuses. Their aim is to make Jews more observant, and their inspiration comes from their now-deceased rebbe, Menachem Schneerson, who some believed to be the long-awaited Messiah. Fishkoff, a newspaper reporter, explains that her book is neither a history of the movement nor an expose. Her focus is on Chabad's outreach programs and what motivates the many emissaries who are trying to bring Jews back to their roots. Eminently readable, rather like a very long New Yorker piece, this perceptive account explains the movement by introducing those who are a part of it: the L.A. rabbi whose star-studded telethon garners millions of dollars each year; the young rabbi at Harvard whose Chabad House is surprisingly popular; the Hasidic couples who have traveled to such unlikely places as Salt Lake City and Alaska to establish a religious foothold. Mostly positive in her comments, but no apologist, Fishkoff will draw in readers of many religious persuasions. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
"Rich in telling anecdotes and thumbnail portraits, Fishkoff's narrative is infused with the sense of joy radiated by her subjects.... For both the serious and casual observer of Jewish life, this is valuable reading." --Sandee Brawarsky, The Jewish Week

"The Rebbe's Army shows a tenacious reporter and an intellectually curious person on the case. Fishkoff has brought the scattered shlichim indelibly together on the page." --Samuel G. Freedman, New York Times Book Review

"With a critical but appreciative eye, Sue Fishkoff explains why so many secular people have such a warm spot in their hearts for the Chabad movement, and especially for its army of “shaliachs.”  A wonderful book about a fascinating group of people.  We can learn much both from the book and from the emissaries about whom she writes." --Alan Dershowitz

"Chasidism teaches its followers human warmth, which is superbly reflected in Sue Fishkoff's book." --Elie Wiesel

"The Rebbe's Army is a fascinating account of the Chabad movement and its emissaries. I read it with interest and recommend it highly." --Jon Voight

"The Rebbe's Army is an accurate, detailed portrait of the outreach efforts of Chabad, which has become a major movement in American Judaism. Fishkoff intimately chronicles the life and work of the husband-and-wife emissaries of the late Rebbe: specifically, their efforts to revive Jewish commitment throughout the world. She reveals their inner struggles--even crises--and brings to life the unbelievable sacrifices they make. While painting a sympathetic picture, she manages to capture accurately the tensions within the movement, the variety of reactions to it within the wider Jewish community, and the difficulties engendered by the Rebbe's passing, which Chabad is still working to overcome." -- Lawrence H. Schiffman, Chair, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University

"Fishkoff's account of the lives of the thousands of emissaries of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe is reportage of the highest order. We are given the facts about this Jewish monastic-missionary movement but, more important, we are taken into the inner lives and commitments of its emissaries. Fishkoff makes us see and understand these passionate, caring, and loving people." --Arthur Hertzberg, author of A Jew in America: My Life and a People's Struggle for Identity

"Sue Fishkoff has provided a clear view of Lubavitcher Hasidim that will explain their mysterious attraction to many who have encountered them.  The Rebbe's Army resonates with the wonder and fascination that have marked the meetings between the marginally Jewish and these emissaries of the charismatic rabbi from Brooklyn.  For those who want to see what the appeal of Lubavitcher life is, and what makes these Hasidim so dedicated to their mission, this book is a good place to start." --Samuel Heilman, Professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology, CUNY, and author of Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-Orthodox Jewry



From the Hardcover edition.


Review
"Rich in telling anecdotes and thumbnail portraits, Fishkoff's narrative is infused with the sense of joy radiated by her subjects.... For both the serious and casual observer of Jewish life, this is valuable reading." --Sandee Brawarsky, The Jewish Week

"The Rebbe's Army shows a tenacious reporter and an intellectually curious person on the case. Fishkoff has brought the scattered shlichim indelibly together on the page." --Samuel G. Freedman, New York Times Book Review

"With a critical but appreciative eye, Sue Fishkoff explains why so many secular people have such a warm spot in their hearts for the Chabad movement, and especially for its army of ?shaliachs.?  A wonderful book about a fascinating group of people.  We can learn much both from the book and from the emissaries about whom she writes." --Alan Dershowitz

"Chasidism teaches its followers human warmth, which is superbly reflected in Sue Fishkoff's book." --Elie Wiesel

"The Rebbe's Army is a fascinating account of the Chabad movement and its emissaries. I read it with interest and recommend it highly." --Jon Voight

"The Rebbe's Army is an accurate, detailed portrait of the outreach efforts of Chabad, which has become a major movement in American Judaism. Fishkoff intimately chronicles the life and work of the husband-and-wife emissaries of the late Rebbe: specifically, their efforts to revive Jewish commitment throughout the world. She reveals their inner struggles--even crises--and brings to life the unbelievable sacrifices they make. While painting a sympathetic picture, she manages to capture accurately the tensions within the movement, the variety of reactions to it within the wider Jewish community, and the difficulties engendered by the Rebbe's passing, which Chabad is still working to overcome." -- Lawrence H. Schiffman, Chair, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University

"Fishkoff's account of the lives of the thousands of emissaries of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe is reportage of the highest order. We are given the facts about this Jewish monastic-missionary movement but, more important, we are taken into the inner lives and commitments of its emissaries. Fishkoff makes us see and understand these passionate, caring, and loving people." --Arthur Hertzberg, author of A Jew in America: My Life and a People's Struggle for Identity

"Sue Fishkoff has provided a clear view of Lubavitcher Hasidim that will explain their mysterious attraction to many who have encountered them.  The Rebbe's Army resonates with the wonder and fascination that have marked the meetings between the marginally Jewish and these emissaries of the charismatic rabbi from Brooklyn.  For those who want to see what the appeal of Lubavitcher life is, and what makes these Hasidim so dedicated to their mission, this book is a good place to start." --Samuel Heilman, Professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology, CUNY, and author of Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-Orthodox Jewry

FROM THE PUBLISHER

“Excuse me, are you Jewish?” With these words, the relentlessly cheerful, ideologically driven emissaries of Chabad-Lubavitch approach perfect strangers on street corners throughout the world in their ongoing efforts to persuade their fellow Jews to live religiously observant lives. In The Rebbe’s Army, award-winning journalist Sue Fishkoff gives us the first behind-the-scenes look at this small Brooklyn-based group of Hasidim and the extraordinary lengths to which they take their mission of outreach.
They seem to be everywhere—in big cities, small towns, and suburbs throughout the United States, and in sixty-one countries around the world. They light giant Chanukah menorahs in public squares, run “Chabad houses” on college campuses from Berkeley to Cambridge, give weekly bible classes in the Capitol basement
in Washington, D.C., run a nonsectarian drug treatment center in Los Angeles, sponsor the world’s biggest Passover Seder in Nepal, establish synagogues, Hebrew schools, and day-care centers in places that are often indifferent and occasionally hostile to their outreach efforts. They have built a billion-dollar international empire, with their own news service, publishing house, and hundreds of Websites.
Who are these people? How successful are they in making Jews more observant? What influence does their late Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson (who some thought was the Messiah), continue to have on his followers? Fishkoff spent a year interviewing Lubavitch emissaries from Anchorage to Miami and has written an engaging and fair-minded account of a Hasidic group whose motives and methodology continue to be the subject ofspeculation and controversy.

Author Biography: Sue Fishkoff is the associate editor of a weekly newspaper in Monterey County, California, and a regular contributor to The Jerusalem Post and Moment, among other publications. She has received journalism awards from the National Newspaper Association, the B’nai B’rith World Center, and the American Jewish Press Association. She lives in Pacific Grove, California.

SYNOPSIS

California journalist Fishkoff describes the outreach in North America of the contemporary Chabad-Lubavitch movement within Hasidic Judaism. She emphasizes how the small group arrived from Russia and became players on the American Jewish scene, and the young couples who move to places with little or no Orthodox presence to spread the word. Some of her account has been published in The Jerusalem Post and Moment. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

The New York Times

Fishkoff proves herself the equal of the most tireless shlichim as she tracks their work from the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska to the retirement belt of South Florida. A contributing writer for The Jerusalem Post, Fishkoff funnels her copious research into a comprehensive, fluent book compromised only by a somewhat worshipful tone. — Samuel G. Freedman

Publishers Weekly

This remarkable ethnographic profile goes behind the scenes of Lubavitcher Judaism to explore how the movement's enthusiastic young emissaries, or schlihim, carry the Rebbe's message throughout the world. Armed with pamphlets, Shabbos candles and the dream of making all Jews more observant, these idealistic young married couples set up shop in unlikely locales like Peoria, Ill.; Anchorage, Ala.; or Salt Lake City, Utah. There they will tirelessly teach and fundraise-not just for a year or two, but for the rest of their lives. Fishkoff, a regular contributor to Moment and The Jerusalem Post, draws upon dozens of interviews with these schlihim, their supporters and their detractors. Traversing the country to do her research, she attended Shabbos dinners, mikvah demonstrations, Friday afternoon street proselytizing sessions and even a star-studded Chabad telethon in Los Angeles. (The telethon, Fishkoff rightly points out, is the perfect symbol for the way these Hasids have simultaneously eschewed and engaged with American culture, using technology to further their outreach.) Most interestingly, she includes interviews with Reform and Conservative Jews who, surprisingly enough, are often the chief financial backers of local Chabad initiatives. Though Fishkoff makes an effort to include some individuals' critiques of the movement, this is by no means an expos ; one leaves the book sharing her own tender admiration for the energetic dedication of the Rebbe's followers. Fishkoff writes robustly and engagingly, and her portrait of Chabad is not only profoundly respectful, but also poignant and full of joy. (Apr. 15) Forecast: This book is expected to garner significant attention in the Jewish-American press, so Schocken plans to promote it with national print advertising in the Jewish Week, the Forward and Moment. The book will also be promoted at the Monterey, Calif.-based author's own lecture appearances. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

A former New York correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, Fishkoff gives us a fascinating but sympathetic look from the outside of a popular Jewish mystical movement that is thriving in the United States. Chabad-Lubavitch, a Brooklyn-based sect of Hasidic Jews, is known for the many schools, orphanages, and summer camps it organizes and provides at a minimal cost to all Jews. Although fund-raising is key, Chabad has maintained lean administrative costs. Chabad's aim to revitalize Judaism has garnered a positive response from Jews of all stripes, including presidential aspirant Joseph Lieberman and Bush political spokesman Ari Fleisher. But there have been problems within Chabad. About a decade ago, as the great aged religious leader Rabbi Schneerson lay on his deathbed, there were some in the Chabad movement who proclaimed him the long-awaited Messiah. The author makes clear that this did great damage to the movement. Fishkoff has written an easy-to-read examination of the many American faces of Chabad, and his book should be owned by most libraries that have patrons interested in Jewish movements and mysticism.-Paul Kaplan, Lake Villa Dist. Lib., IL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews