A Life Apart: Hasidism In America -- Hasidism in Europe

On September 29, 1785, the Chasidic sect of Judaism was excommunicated in Kraków, Poland. An excerpt from the article:

"Hasidism met with much opposition from the Jewish establishment. The center of opposition to Hasidism in the late eighteenth century was Vilna, Lithuania, the leading city of traditional Torah study. A campaign against the Hasidim was led by Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon, known as the Gaon (Hebrew for "great scholar") of Vilna. Bans and excommunications were issued against Hasidism in 1772, and again in 1781, 1784, and 1796. Other Jews were commanded not to marry, to help bury, or even to share food or drink with the "heretical sect." Rabbi Elijah did not lack conviction: "Had I the power, I would punish these infidels as the worshippers of Baal were punished of old." (The Biblical Elijah "slaughtered" the prophets of Baal.)."