The making of leaders is a central topic of academic research today in areas that range from politics to religion to business management. Fundamental questions of how leadership is shaped, maintained, negotiated, and transferred are also prominent in research on Hasidism, arguably the most important socio-religious movement in modern Judaism.

This project aims to address these questions. It consists of two elements. The first one is the online lexicon of the Hasidic leaders, some 3,500 entries, which are to be an authoritative resource for the identification of Hasidic dynasties and individual leaders. The second element is the book length analysis of marriage strategies among Hasidic leaders, which we take to represent the social and spiritual capital of leadership in Hasidism.