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Life Long Learning Lecture Series

Past Sessions
Wednesday, May 15, 2019 10 Iyar 5779 - 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 3 Iyar 5779 - 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Wednesday, April 24, 2019 19 Nisan 5779 - 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Wednesday, April 17, 2019 12 Nisan 5779 - 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Wednesday, April 10, 2019 5 Nisan 5779 - 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Wednesday, April 3, 2019 27 Adar II 5779 - 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM

April 3

Zionism's Answer to the Jewish Problem

By the second half of the 19th century, the optimism regarding Jewish political and social emancipation had diminished. In Eastern Europe, massive numbers of Jews lived in restricted areas. A political movement calling for the creation of a Jewish state in Israel emerged as a novel response. 

Three Zionist Visions

Ahad Ha-Am (1856-1927) saw Israel as a spiritual center attracting an elite leadership who would shape a new secular culture for Israel and the Diaspora. Jacob Klatzkin (1882-1948) believed the only meaningful goal of Zionism was to regain the land of Israel and normalize the conditions of Jewish existence. Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) believed that Zionism exemplified the highest ideals of American culture. 

April 10

The Jewish Adventure with Socialism

Socialism and Marxism had an enormous appeal for Jews living in Western and Eastern Europe. Socialism's utopian ideas resonated as a radical means of alleviating their wretched status in European society. Unfortunately, when the socialist revolution lost its initial élan, Jews were left more frustrated than ever. 

Hermann Cohen's Religion of Reason

Hermann Cohen (1842-1918) represents both a final stage of 19th-century Jewish thought in Germany and the beginning of a new set of responses to the challenges of Jewish identity in the 20th century. For Cohen, the essence of Judaism was ethical monotheism grounded in a prophetic universalism stressing moral commitments to humanity and emphasizing a mission to bring about a utopian future. 

April 17

Leo Baeck's Mystery and Commandment

Leo Baeck (1873-1956) pursued a prominent career as a rabbi in Berlin. Like Cohen, he underscored the central role of ethical monotheism in Judaism, but departed from him in stressing the role of religious consciousness as well. x

Martin Buber's Religious Existentialism

Martin Buber (1878-1965) is probably the best-known Jewish social and religious philosopher of the 20th century. His works embody his guiding principles of dialogue and meaningful human encounter with the other and with the divine. 

April 24

Jewish Law—Martin Buber vs. Franz Rosenzweig

Buber's closest collaborator was the Jewish theologian Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929). They disagreed intensely, however, on Jewish ritual observance. In a work addressed to Buber entitled The Builders, Rosenzweig challenged him to adopt the same openness towards Jewish observance that he had demonstrated towards the study of Jewish texts.

Mordecai Kaplan and American Judaism

Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983) was perhaps the most original of American Jewish thinkers who "reconstructed" Judaism to meet the needs of second-generation American Jews. Anthropology offered Kaplan a rationale for Jewish group cohesiveness in place of the traditional doctrine of chosen-ness. 

May 8

Abraham Heschel—Mystic and Social Activist

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-72), although the product of the Hasidic world of Eastern Europe, wrote for American Jews. He attempted to describe the concept of divine revelation: the process by which God reaches out to human beings. x

Theological Responses to the Nazi Holocaust

In the first edition of After Auschwitz, published in 1961, Richard Rubenstein (1924- ) claimed that the destruction of European Jewry meant Jews could no longer affirm the myth of an omnipotent God or its corollary, the election of Israel. Emil Fackenheim (1916- ) provided a meaningful response to Rubenstein in his 1970 work God's Presence in History. 

May 15

Feminist Jewish Theology

The emergence of feminist theology within the Jewish community is a relatively recent phenomenon of the 1960s and 1970s. Jewish feminism has contributed to a new understanding of Judaism through new readings of classical texts and liturgy, new scholarship in Jewish history, and new theological perspectives that take gender into account.

Current Trends in Jewish Thought

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Fri, March 29 2024 19 Adar II 5784