Chasidim or Pietists was the name of a Jewish sect which appeared in the middle of the 18th century. Its adherents were strongly inclined to mysticism, depreciated the Old Testament and its ordinances, believed in extraordinary cures, etc. They were most numerous in Russian Poland, Romania, and some parts of Galicia and Hungary, and were regarded w... Found on http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/browse/CXCA.HTM