- University of Haifa, Department of Jewish History and Thought, Faculty Memberadd
- Jewish Studies, Renaissance Studies, German Idealism, Renaissance Humanism, 19th-century German philosophy, Modern Jewish Philosophy, and 51 moreHistory of the Book, Portuguese History, Portuguese Literature, Early Modern print culture, Social and Political Philosophy, Ethics, Marxism, Theories of Socialism, Feminist Theory, Feminist Philosophy, Solidarity Economy, Continental Philosophy, Friedrich Nietzsche, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida, Émmanuel Lévinas, Translation, Medieval Iberia, Translation Studies, Translation theory, Translation and Interpretation, Translation History, History of Translation, Sephardic Literature and Culture, Hispano medieval Studies, Intellectual History of Al andalus, Polemics and Apologetics, Hispano arabic Studies, Literatura Sefardí, Abner of Burgos, Political Philosophy, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud, Book History, Print Culture, Manuscripts and Early Printed Books, Early Modern Intellectual History, Rare Books and Manuscripts, History of Books, Printing, and Publishing, Philosophy, Islamic Philosophy, Islamic Law, Medieval Jewish-Muslim Encounters, Judeo-arabic manuscripts regarding Islam, Polemics of Jewish Authors against Islam, Christian Hebraism, Greek Literature, Intellectual History, Dimitri Gutas, Graeco-Arabic translation movement, Urban History, and Medieval Jewish Philosophyedit
- I teach early modern and modern Jewish Philosophy at the University of Haifa. I am the newly appointed director of th... moreI teach early modern and modern Jewish Philosophy at the University of Haifa. I am the newly appointed director of the Bucerius Institute for the research of contemporary German History and Society. My research focuses on the relationship of Jewish thinkers to two main philosophical shifts: the shift from Medieval philosophy to early modern thought (14th-17thcentury), and the shift from early modern to modern thought (18th-20thcentury). I published three books and many articles on diverse aspects of Jewish thought and literature in the Renaissance and several essays on German 20th century philosophy. I translated many works of Freud, Benjamin, Scholem, Idel and Abravanel.edit
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Gustav Landauer was an unconventional anarchist who aspired to a return to a communal life. His antipolitical rejection of authoritarian assumptions is based on a radical linguistic scepticism that could be considered the theoretical... more
Gustav Landauer was an unconventional anarchist who aspired to a return to a communal life. His antipolitical rejection of authoritarian assumptions is based on a radical linguistic scepticism that could be considered the theoretical premise of his anarchism. The present volume aims to add to the existing scholarship on Landauer by shedding new light on his work, focussing on the two interrelated notions of skepsis and antipolitics. In a time marked by a deep doubt concerning modern politics, Landauer’s alternative can help us to more seriously address the struggle for a different articulation of our communitarian and ecological needs.
Research Interests: Philosophy Of Language, Jewish Studies, Anarchism, Mysticism, Martin Buber, and 11 moreSocial movements and revolution, Jewish Philosophy, Socialism, 19th-century German philosophy, Modern Jewish Philosophy, Skepticism, Gustav Landauer, 20th-century German philosophy, German-Jewish Studies, Sprachphilosophie, and Jewish political thought
Don Isaac Abravanel (1437–1508) was one of the great inventors of Jewish modernity. A merchant, banker, and court financier, a scholar versed in both Jewish and Christian writings, a preacher and exegete, a prominent political actor in... more
Don Isaac Abravanel (1437–1508) was one of the great inventors of Jewish modernity. A merchant, banker, and court financier, a scholar versed in both Jewish and Christian writings, a preacher and exegete, a prominent political actor in royal entourages and Jewish communities, Abravanel was one of the greatest leaders and thinkers of Iberian Jewry in the aftermath of the expulsion of 1492. This book, the first new intellectual biography of Abravanel in twenty years, depicts his life in three cultural milieus—Portugal, Castile, and post-expulsion Italy—and analyzes his major literary accomplishments in each period. Abravanel was a traditionalist with innovative ideas, a man with one foot in the Middle Ages and the other in the Renaissance. An erudite scholar, author of a monumental exegetical opus that is still studied today, and an avid book collector, he was a transitional figure, defined by an age of contradictions. Yet, it is these very contradictions that make him such an important personality for understanding the dawn of Jewish modernity.
Research Interests: Jewish Studies, Early Modern History, Portuguese Studies, Renaissance Studies, Renaissance Humanism, and 15 moreIberian Studies, Early Modern Portuguese History, Jewish History, History Portuguese and Spanish, Jewish Thought, Medieval Jewish Philosophy, Early Modern Political Thought, Modern Jewish Philosophy, Sephardic Studies, Early Modern Philosophy, Hispanic Studies, Iberian Culture, Sephardic Literature and Culture, Isaac Abarbanel, and Isaac Abravanel
An intellectual biography of Don Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508) in the prestigious series "Outstanding Minds and great Personalities in Jewish History" released by the Zalman Shazar Center.
Research Interests: Jewish Studies, Portuguese Studies, Portuguese History, Renaissance Studies, Renaissance Humanism, and 13 moreIberian Studies, Jewish History, Medieval Iberian History, Early Modern Intellectual History, Jewish Thought, Jewish Philosophy, Medieval Jewish Philosophy, Early Modern Jewish Philosophy, Sephardic Studies, Early Modern Jewish History, 14th and 15th centuries Portugal, Modern Jewish Thought, and Italian Jewish history
Il libro mira a ricostruire un episodio di storia toscana ed ebraica che, pur dipanandosi, nel 1493, per soli sei-sette mesi, consente di evidenziare una lunga serie di aspetti peculiari del rapporto fra ebrei e cristiani nel Rinascimento... more
Il libro mira a ricostruire un episodio di storia toscana ed ebraica che, pur dipanandosi, nel 1493, per soli sei-sette mesi, consente di evidenziare una lunga serie di aspetti peculiari del rapporto fra ebrei e cristiani nel Rinascimento italiano. Si tratta di una serie di accuse, processi, incarcerazioni, incriminazioni fatte contro la persone del noto prestitore ebraico Davide da Tivoli che se conchiudono con la chiusura del suo banco a Lucca e la sustituzione del prestito ebraico dal Monte di Pietà. La vicenda ha potuto essere indagata, fin negli aspetti più minuti, grazie ad un incrocio fortunato di una larghissima gamma di fonti, sopratutto una notevole collezione di 19 lettere di cui si presenta qui una edizione critica. Il dossier delle lettere merita particolare attenzione per l’altissimo livello socio-economico e culturale dei corrispondenti, Davide da Tivoli e suoi due cognati Isacco e Simone da Pisa, i cui nomi sono tutti ben noti nella storia dell’ebraismo rinascimentale italiano. Ma la vera eccezionalità del dossier è legata al fatto di accogliere, oltre a corrispondenza in volgare, anche lettere scritte in ebraico, accompagnate da traduzioni coeve. Questa collezione di lettere ci permette di addentrarci nell’attività epistolare quotidiana di numerose famiglie ebraiche in Toscana nel tardo Quattrocento, e ci offre una perspettiva rara sia sui rapporti familiari, sociali e culturali fra prestitori ebraici sia sul loro legami con persone e instituzione del mondo cristiano.
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Almost five hundred years after his death, Don Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508) remains a legendary figure of Sephardic history, and above all of the Expulsion of 1492. There are numerous“portraits” that have been painted of him by pre-modern... more
Almost five hundred years after his death, Don Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508) remains a legendary figure of Sephardic history, and above all of the Expulsion of 1492. There are numerous“portraits” that have been painted of him by pre-modern and modern scholars. And still we hesitate and cannot discern which is the true one. This first critical edition of Abravanel’s Portuguese and Hebrew letters opens a unique window on a complex cultural process of assimilation and dissimulation of humanism among the fifteenth-century Jewish elite. On the one hand, it establishes Abravanel’s assimilation of Iberian humanism and of major aspects of the Petrarchian consolatio; on the other hand, it points at the strategies used by him to dissimulate and adapt humanism to Jewish leadership. The duality of Jewish humanists like Don Isaac was obviously a great richness, but it indicated as well their difficulty in expressing themselves coherently and comprehensively in one of the two agoras - Jewish or Christian – in which they were involved as literati and writers. The present edition and study of Abravanel’s Portuguese and Hebrew letters sheds a new light on the complexity of this new figure of the Jewish humanist.
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Hebrew translation of the Geshom Scholem's first masterpiece Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism
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Les amants les plus scandaleux du XXe siècle en furent aussi les deux plus importants philosophes. En 1924, Hannah Arendt a dix-huit ans. C'est une jeune étudiante avide de savoir, mince, avec des yeux rayonnants et une intelligence vive... more
Les amants les plus scandaleux du XXe siècle en furent aussi les deux plus importants philosophes. En 1924, Hannah Arendt a dix-huit ans. C'est une jeune étudiante avide de savoir, mince, avec des yeux rayonnants et une intelligence vive comme l'éclair. Elle rencontre Martin Heidegger, trente-quatre ans, marié et père de famille, qui enseigne la philosophie à l'université de Marbourg. De petite taille, maigre et d'allure sportive, introverti, plein de fureur mais aussi d'une surprenante modestie, il attire à son cours les étudiants les plus prometteurs, notamment Hans-Georg Gadamer, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Karl Löwith, Günther Anders, Leo Strauss, Hans Jonas... Comme l'expliquera quarante ans plus tard Hannah Arendt, "la rumeur le disait : la pensée est redevenue vivante, les trésors de la culture qu'on croyait morts reprennent sens. Il y a un maître, il est peut-être possible d'apprendre à penser."
Entre Arendt et Heidegger débute alors une liaison durable et turbulente où l'amour et la philosophie vont s'entremêler. Avec en toile de fond un moment dramatique de l'histoire intellectuelle, celui qui, en Allemagne, a vu la pensée "allemande" et la pensée "juive" séparées dans la violence.
Entre Arendt et Heidegger débute alors une liaison durable et turbulente où l'amour et la philosophie vont s'entremêler. Avec en toile de fond un moment dramatique de l'histoire intellectuelle, celui qui, en Allemagne, a vu la pensée "allemande" et la pensée "juive" séparées dans la violence.
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This chapter presents how Don Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508), one of the greatest leaders and thinkers of Iberian Jewry in the period of the expulsion of 1492, understood the biblical gure of King Solomon in the immediate aftermath of 1492.... more
This chapter presents how Don Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508), one of the greatest leaders and thinkers of Iberian Jewry in the period of the expulsion of 1492, understood the biblical gure of King Solomon in the immediate aftermath of 1492. To counter the power of the Catholic monarchs, who were responsible for expelling Don Isaac Abravanel and his coreligionists from the Iberian Peninsula, Don Isaac wrote a commentary on the books of Kings. This commentary extols the might of King Solomon. It dedicates half of Abravanel's commentary to a description and discussion of various aspects of King Solomon's kingdom. This chapter focuses on the idealization of King Solomon and its meaning.
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The journey of Byzantine scholar Manuel Chrysoloras and his stay in Florence at the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries has been celebrated as an event that decisively shaped the course of European humanism. The later return of... more
The journey of Byzantine scholar Manuel Chrysoloras and his stay in Florence at the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries has been celebrated as an event that decisively shaped the course of European humanism. The later return of Enlightenment humanism to Ottoman lands in the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries can be described as the return of Chrysoloras. This return is generally known in a fragmentary form as a regional phenomenon: the story of Greek, Arab, Turkish and Jewish nationalisms and of the Ottoman reforms. It is also framed historically as the evolution from a traditional and theological society to new forms of epistemic, literary, civic and national communities, while often leaving aside failures and later contradictory transformations. The present essay offers an integrative study of modern humanism in late Ottoman and post-Ottoman contexts. The migration of Enlightenment humanism to the Middle East raised a wide range of expectations, projecting a new national or imperial organization within a harmonious diplomatic relationship with Christian Europe and the Americas. Yet, the more the revivalist and reformist projects evolved, the more they involved ethnic and religious conflicts and colonial intervention. This article illuminates the rise and fall of humanism in Middle Eastern contexts.
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The article presents an inter-regional and inter-religious discussion of the crisis of liberalism that challenges some of the common assumptions in the study of intellectual history. The paper begins by painting with a broad brush the... more
The article presents an inter-regional and inter-religious discussion of the crisis of liberalism that challenges some of the common assumptions in the study of intellectual history. The paper begins by painting with a broad brush the migration of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European liberal transformations to the rapidly changing Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century. In the second part, the essay focuses on Paris’s interwar intellectual scene, where this expansion of liberalism is reflected critically from the perspective of the European crisis of the 1930s. Moving from the East to the West, the chapter reconstructs step by step a growing convergence that established itself between the theopolitical question of the late Ottoman Empire and important intellectual trends in the interwar period in Paris. For this purpose, it uses as a guiding thread a Jewish intellectual episode: Leo Strauss’s rediscovery of a Jewish–Islamic philosophical model successfully developed during the Middle Ages. The reconstruction of this episode and its intellectual background in the 1930s illuminates an overlooked interconnection with similar questioning in the late and post-Ottoman Levant.
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Jean-François Lyotard's intellectual evolution in the late 1970s and 1980s is well known in continental philosophy. In 1979, with the publication of The Postmodern Condition, Lyotard became famous for his report on "the obsolescence of... more
Jean-François Lyotard's intellectual evolution in the late 1970s and 1980s is well known in continental philosophy. In 1979, with the publication of The Postmodern Condition, Lyotard became famous for his report on "the obsolescence of the metanarrative apparatus of legitimation". Later, in his magnum opus Le diférend he expanded on this, claiming that "a universal rule of judgment between heterogeneous genres is lacking in general". Yet, this creative moment in Lyotard's career, responsible for shaping the philosophical concept of the postmodern condition, is rarely connected to his book La guerre des Algériens (1989). This work was supposed to implement his new postmodern concepts in relation to the war in Algeria. The present article looks at La guerre des Algériens, within its broader historical and philosophical context, as a unique opportunity to evaluate the validity of Lyotard's philosophical shift, especially his new concept of radical heterogeneity at work in history.
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This article offers a history of the German concept of translation in four stages, moving from Luther’s Verdeutschung to Mendelssohn’s translation of the Psalms, and from the re-elaboration of the translation concept by Freud, Rosenzweig... more
This article offers a history of the German concept of translation in four
stages, moving from Luther’s Verdeutschung to Mendelssohn’s translation of the Psalms, and from the re-elaboration of the translation concept by Freud, Rosenzweig and Benjamin to Derrida’s Des tours de Babel. During the postwar years, many philosophers have studied different aspects of the Classical and Romantic elaboration of the German concept of translation. The contribution of this article is not to revisit these analyses, that are by now well known, but to shed light on the role played by certain Jewish thinkers in the history of the Germanic concept of translation at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 20th, and also, later, within the French philosophy of the years 1960-1990.
stages, moving from Luther’s Verdeutschung to Mendelssohn’s translation of the Psalms, and from the re-elaboration of the translation concept by Freud, Rosenzweig and Benjamin to Derrida’s Des tours de Babel. During the postwar years, many philosophers have studied different aspects of the Classical and Romantic elaboration of the German concept of translation. The contribution of this article is not to revisit these analyses, that are by now well known, but to shed light on the role played by certain Jewish thinkers in the history of the Germanic concept of translation at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 20th, and also, later, within the French philosophy of the years 1960-1990.
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This article proposes the first systematic explanation and analysis of Gustave Landauer’s central concept of Antipolitik. Liberation from the rule of the one or the many is at the heart of Landauer’s notion of antipolitics. For the... more
This article proposes the first systematic explanation and analysis of Gustave Landauer’s central concept of Antipolitik. Liberation from the rule of the one or the many is at the heart of Landauer’s notion of antipolitics. For the purpose of understanding the originality of Landauer’s antipolitical stance, this essay juxtaposes Landauer’s key texts on this concept with several sources that constitute its philosophical background. With reference to La Boétie, Hobbes, Nietzsche, Proudhon, Kropotkin, Aristotle, Tönnies, and Marx, it clarifies three central dimensions in Landauer’s concept of antipolitics: the psychological critique of political modernity, the search for a renewal of the spirit, and the therapeutic return to the community.
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This paper aims to shed new light on major features of the early Zionist construction of a Jewish political space. Revisiting two early debates of Martin Buber (1878-1965) with Max Nordau (1849-1923) and Hermann Cohen (1842-1918), the... more
This paper aims to shed new light on major features of the early Zionist construction of a Jewish political space. Revisiting two early debates of Martin Buber (1878-1965) with Max Nordau (1849-1923) and Hermann Cohen (1842-1918), the article points at the limitation of the Zionist political construction for a later articulation of the Jewish and Palestinian complexity in a shared or divided land. Herzl’s understanding of Zionism as a strictly political and economic apparatus brought to an historical and ideological debate at the fifth Zionist Congress in 1901 between the young Buber and the faithful associate of Herzl, Nordau. Against Nordau’s prioritization of the productivization of Jews, Buber developed in his famous speech on “Jewish Art” the necessity of a cultural and spiritual elevation of Jews. In 1916, in the middle of WWI, Buber’s cultural notion of Jewish national regeneration in Eretz Israel sets the backdrop for another debate and clash, this time with the German Jewish philosopher Hermann Cohen.
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This article intends to shed new light on the impressive series of “war writings,” in which Hermann Cohen developed the idea of a possible messianic collaboration of German imperial ambitions and a modern Jewish Diaspora regenerated by... more
This article intends to shed new light on the impressive series of “war writings,” in which Hermann Cohen developed the idea of a possible messianic collaboration of German imperial ambitions and a modern Jewish Diaspora regenerated by German Spirit (from Russia to America). My paper pays special attention to two lecture tours planed by Cohen in the year 1914, one to Petersburg, Moscow, Riga, Vilna and Warsaw in May 1914, a few weeks before the outbreak of WWI; the other a propaganda trip to America imagined at the beginning of WWI (Autumn 1914) by Cohen and a group of Jews linked to the Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens – a plan which failed and turned only into the publication of an article in several American newspapers in German, English and Yiddish in early 1915. The article brings into consideration new archival material concerning the political background of these two initiatives. The article demonstrates how Cohen’s writings and activities during WWI were deploying a new Jewish and Imperial politics – which sought to pave the way for a messianic integration of Jewish Diaspora in the Imperial project of Germany, understood as the political realization of German Idealism.
For the entire article, please write me ccohensk@univ.haifa.ac.il
For the entire article, please write me ccohensk@univ.haifa.ac.il
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The violent death of Landauer in May 1919 at the end of the Räterepublik of Munich left several of his best friends with a terrible feeling: a sense of tension between the unique hopes incarnated by Landauer and the spiritual and... more
The violent death of Landauer in May 1919 at the end of the Räterepublik of Munich left
several of his best friends with a terrible feeling: a sense of tension between the unique
hopes incarnated by Landauer and the spiritual and political void his passing left behind.
This article is an attempt to capture the tragic shift from a living revolutionary who projected his unique anarchist views onto the failed Munich Revolution to the efforts of a group of close friends who searched to save their dear Landauer from the infamy of failure, making of his months in Munich and his death an important amendment to his spiritual and political legacy.
several of his best friends with a terrible feeling: a sense of tension between the unique
hopes incarnated by Landauer and the spiritual and political void his passing left behind.
This article is an attempt to capture the tragic shift from a living revolutionary who projected his unique anarchist views onto the failed Munich Revolution to the efforts of a group of close friends who searched to save their dear Landauer from the infamy of failure, making of his months in Munich and his death an important amendment to his spiritual and political legacy.
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Les limites et échecs des Etats du Moyen Orient, ceux d’Israël et de ses voisins arabes, définissent en grande partie les dynamiques de la région. Ils diffusent également au-delà, déversant sur de nombreux « rivages » des sujets frappés... more
Les limites et échecs des Etats du Moyen Orient, ceux d’Israël et de ses voisins arabes, définissent en grande partie les dynamiques de la région. Ils diffusent également au-delà, déversant sur de nombreux « rivages » des sujets frappés d’un sceau traumatique. Cette faillite contagieuse invite à un nouvel examen de l’histoire politique et intellectuelle de la région pour y ressaisir l’articulation d’un espace politique, ses espoirs et sa décadence. Les pages qui suivent proposent au lecteur de revenir sur deux débats intellectuels très riches que le jeune et brillant Martin Buber (1878-1965) mena contre le leader sioniste Max Nordau (1849-1923) et le philosophe Hermann Cohen (1842-1918) au tournant du XXème siècle et au milieu de la Première Guerre Mondiale. Ces deux joutes menées par Buber éclairent rétrospectivement les premiers contours de l’espace politique israélien et contiennent en creux certaines impasses à venir.
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“For it is not impossible that a nation should have many leaders who convene, unite, and reach a consensus; they can thus govern and administer justice… Then also, why cannot they have terms of office…? When the turn of other magistrates... more
“For it is not impossible that a nation should have many leaders who convene, unite, and reach a consensus; they can thus govern and administer justice… Then also, why cannot they have terms of office…? When the turn of other magistrates comes to replace them, they will investigate the abuses of trust committed by earlier [magistrates]; Those found guilty will pay for their crimes… Finally, why cannot their powers be limited and determined by laws or norms?” These lines of Don Isaac Abravanel’s Commentary on 1 Sam 8 earned him fame in 20th century scholarship as “the first early modern Jewish republican thinker.” Yet, the history of the modern rediscovery of Abravanel’s political thought is relatively unknown, and more so, its philosophical and political meaning. My paper will try to elucidate an important part of this history, while emphasizing its value for an understanding of the criticism of the Wissenschaft des Judentums between the two World Wars.
Research Interests: Political Philosophy, Jewish Studies, Republicanism, Renaissance Studies, Renaissance Humanism, and 11 moreJewish History, Political Theology, Jewish Philosophy, Medieval Jewish Philosophy, Early Modern Jewish Philosophy, Medieval Jewish History, Sephardic Studies, Leo Strauss, Modern Jewish Thought, Jewish political thought, and Isaac Abravanel
A la question « quo vadis Israel ?», il est possible de répondre partiellement en juxtaposant l’été 2018, et notamment la loi fondamentale « Israël État-nation du Peuple Juif » votée le 19 juillet sous l’impulsion du gouvernement... more
A la question « quo vadis Israel ?», il est possible de répondre partiellement en juxtaposant l’été 2018, et notamment la loi fondamentale « Israël État-nation du Peuple Juif » votée le 19 juillet sous l’impulsion du gouvernement Netanyahu, et l’été 2011, où un mouvement de protestation commença le 14 juillet sur l’Avenue Rothschild à Tel Aviv, s’étendant ensuite à tout Israël et atteignant des proportions jamais connue dans le pays. Comment sommes-nous passés de l’espoir soulevé par le mouvement social de 2011 qui faisait suite au Printemps arabe de Tunisie et d’Egypte, à la réaction politique implacable déployée par les différents gouvernements Netanyahu? Les quelques pages qui suivent tenteront de faire passer, ou plutôt de faire chuter le lecteur du soulèvement de l’été 2011 au changement néfaste de régime qui s’annonce avec le vote de la loi fondamentale « Israël État-nation du Peuple Juif. » L’auteur de ces lignes, témoin engagé, ne prétend pas à une étude historique de cette chute. Il a simplement voulu faire résonner sur le papier certaines des voix discordantes de ces sept dernières années.
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A century separates Don Samuel Abravanel’s conversion (circa 1388) and the dramatic events which forced the Abravanels to emigrate from Seville to Portugal, and the flight of Isaac Abravanel and his family back to Castile in the years... more
A century separates Don Samuel Abravanel’s conversion (circa 1388) and the dramatic events which forced the Abravanels to emigrate from Seville to Portugal, and the flight of Isaac Abravanel and his family back to Castile in the years 1483-1485. Isaac Abravanel’s biography (1437-1508) was greatly determined by this double emigration. For 46 years, Abravanel lived and acted in Portugal. This period is rich in documents which illuminate the wide range of his activities in economy, politics, literature and philosophy. The present article outlines and analyses the historical, social and cultural processes which shaped the rise and fall of Don Isaac in the Portuguese Kingdom, as reflected in his documents, letters and writings during this period. The article proposes a comprehensive interpretation of Abravanel’s life and work which integrates historical, social, economic, political, literary, philosophical and theological considerations. Thanks to this integrative approach, the article presents a coherent historical figure of Abarvanel, while shedding new light on the Jewish and Christian socio-cultural history of 15th century Portugal.
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This papers analyzes a passage of a letter written by Isaac Abravanel, one of the prominent figures of Iberian Judaism in late 15th century. This case-study proposes a new approach to the late-medieval multilingualism of Iberian Jews. As... more
This papers analyzes a passage of a letter written by Isaac Abravanel, one of the prominent figures of Iberian Judaism in late 15th century. This case-study proposes a new approach to the late-medieval multilingualism of Iberian Jews. As developed in the article, the late-medieval multilingualism of Iberian Jews does not only refer to the use of different languages (Iberian vernaculars, Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic), but first to their role in the definition of a Jewish social space within Christian Iberian society.
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Don Isaac Abravanel (1437–1508) was a prominent Jewish political figure of the early modern period in the Iberian and Italian peninsulas. His exegetical work is replete with political insights and discussions of political themes. Some of... more
Don Isaac Abravanel (1437–1508) was a prominent Jewish political figure of the early modern period in the Iberian and Italian peninsulas. His exegetical work is replete with political insights and discussions of political themes. Some of these passages—such as his commentary on 1 Samuel 8, on Jethro's advice, on Daniel's prophecies, on Solomon's wisdom, and on the tower of Babel—have achieved substantial recognition throughout the early modern and modern periods. As already noted and studied by scholars such as Benzion Netanyahu, Shaul Regev, and Ram Ben-Shalom, the figure and the problem of the converso are often addressed in Abravanel's works, especially after the 1492 expulsion. Yet the link between Abravanel's theological-political conceptions and his disseminated remarks and thoughts on converts has not been studied as such. In this article I will try to partially fill this lacuna by studying a few of Abravanel's important texts on Jewish converts and by highlighting their theological and political background and meaning. Far from denying the historical, biographical, and familial importance of the converso phenomenon for Don Isaac, I will demonstrate that its acute political significance in the fifteenth-century Iberian Peninsula was understood by him within a rich and complex economic, cosmological, and theological framework. Modern historiography has attempted to separate the political dimension of the converso phenomenon apparent in Abravanel's biblical and messianic commentaries from the theological hermeneutical framework in which it is expressed. I will try to demonstrate that such an endeavor is doomed to fail and misses the true nature of Abravanel's theological-political perception of the conversos.
Research Interests: Jewish Studies, Jewish History, Jewish Thought, Early Modern Italy, Jewish Philosophy, and 10 moreJewish Messianism, Early Modern Philosophy, Conversos, "Conversos" in Medieval Iberia and Early Modern Spain, Portuguese Jews, medieval Spanish Jewish history, Expulsion of Jews, Moriscos and Conversos In Medieval and Early Modern Castilian Literature; Images of Granada In European Art and Literature, Early Modern English Political Philosophy, and Marranos Crypto-Jews Anusim Sephardics Sephardic-Jews Spanish-Jews Judaism Converts Proselytes
Le lien de Heidegger (1889-1976) aux Juifs, et plus particulièrement aux Juifs Allemands, peut être saisi dans toute son acuité à travers l'analyse comparée de deux livres publiés à quelques années d'intervalle: Tableaux Parisiens de... more
Le lien de Heidegger (1889-1976) aux Juifs, et plus particulièrement aux Juifs Allemands, peut être saisi dans toute son acuité à travers l'analyse comparée de deux livres publiés à quelques années d'intervalle: Tableaux Parisiens de Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) édités en 1923 et Sein und Zeit en 1927.
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Don Isaac Abravanel (1437–1508) was one of the first Jewish thinkers to express republican positions, yet very little is known about his knowledge of humanistic republican conceptions. Had he read Leonardo Bruni’s republican writings?... more
Don Isaac Abravanel (1437–1508) was one of the first Jewish thinkers to express republican
positions, yet very little is known about his knowledge of humanistic republican conceptions. Had he
read Leonardo Bruni’s republican writings? Had he even heard of them? In this essay I attempt to address
this philological gap by comparing Abravanel’s republican commentary on 1 Samuel 8 with Bruni’s
Laudatio florentinae Urbis, especially the motif of the plea to God to authorize a political regime. This
comparison is particularly useful for illuminating their respective positions on republicanism, their shared
interests and conceptions, as well as their divergent attitudes to their own political and historical environment.
This divergence, I argue, sheds light on the early modern Christian and Jewish receptions of ancient
republicanism.
positions, yet very little is known about his knowledge of humanistic republican conceptions. Had he
read Leonardo Bruni’s republican writings? Had he even heard of them? In this essay I attempt to address
this philological gap by comparing Abravanel’s republican commentary on 1 Samuel 8 with Bruni’s
Laudatio florentinae Urbis, especially the motif of the plea to God to authorize a political regime. This
comparison is particularly useful for illuminating their respective positions on republicanism, their shared
interests and conceptions, as well as their divergent attitudes to their own political and historical environment.
This divergence, I argue, sheds light on the early modern Christian and Jewish receptions of ancient
republicanism.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Jewish Studies, Italian Studies, Jewish History, Translation, Raymond Martini, and 10 moreJuan Andrés, Medieval Iberia, Conversion, Abner of Burgos, Hispano medieval Studies, Hispano arabic Studies, Sephardic Literature and Culture, Polemics and Apologetics, Literatura Sefardí, and Intellectual History of Al andalus
Research Interests: Jewish Studies, Renaissance Humanism, Translation, Raymond Martini, Juan Andrés, and 9 moreMedieval Iberia, Conversion, Abner of Burgos, Hispano medieval Studies, Hispano arabic Studies, Sephardic Literature and Culture, Polemics and Apologetics, Literatura Sefardí, and Intellectual History of Al andalus
Research Interests: Jewish Studies, History of the Book, Renaissance Humanism, Translation, Raymond Martini, and 10 moreJuan Andrés, Medieval Iberia, Conversion, Abner of Burgos, Hispano medieval Studies, Hispano arabic Studies, Sephardic Literature and Culture, Polemics and Apologetics, Literatura Sefardí, and Intellectual History of Al andalus
Research Interests: Jewish Studies, Renaissance Humanism, Translation, Raymond Martini, Juan Andrés, and 9 moreMedieval Iberia, Conversion, Abner of Burgos, Hispano medieval Studies, Hispano arabic Studies, Sephardic Literature and Culture, Polemics and Apologetics, Literatura Sefardí, and Intellectual History of Al andalus
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Jewish Studies, Renaissance Humanism, Translation, Raymond Martini, Juan Andrés, and 9 moreMedieval Iberia, Conversion, Abner of Burgos, Hispano medieval Studies, Hispano arabic Studies, Sephardic Literature and Culture, Polemics and Apologetics, Literatura Sefardí, and Intellectual History of Al andalus
A Philosophy for a new Middle East: Christians, Muslims and Jews and the rebirth of philosophy (19 th and early 20 th centuries) This course tells a story that has yet to be told: The regional history of philosophy in the Middle East in... more
A Philosophy for a new Middle East: Christians, Muslims and Jews and the rebirth of philosophy (19 th and early 20 th centuries) This course tells a story that has yet to be told: The regional history of philosophy in the Middle East in the early 20th-century. The seminar will focus on three intellectual centers: Beirut with its two Christian Universities and their impact on the Nahda movement and early Arab nationalism; Jerusalem with the Hebrew University, European Christian Missions and Palestinian learned societies; and Cairo, the heart of Muslim Reformism, Arab Nationalism and Liberalism, expressed in a wide range of religious, academic and cultural institutions. The seminar takes a comparative approach to the role played by modern philosophy in these three intellectual centers. It will study the reception of European philosophy and science by Middle Eastern intellectuals, as well as the philosophical transformation of Christian, Jewish and Islamic religious traditions in the emerging colonial and national contexts.
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בקורס נבחן בצורה תיאורטית והיסטורית את שאלת הגלות והתפוצה היהודית במאה העשרים ובתחילת המאה ה-21. נבקש לבחון את התפיסות והמשמעויות השונות של "הגלות" במדינת ישראל ובעיקר מחוץ לה, ואת מחשבתם של הוגים יהודים במקומות שונים הנוגעת לחיי העם... more
בקורס נבחן בצורה תיאורטית והיסטורית את שאלת הגלות והתפוצה היהודית במאה העשרים ובתחילת המאה ה-21. נבקש לבחון את התפיסות והמשמעויות השונות של "הגלות" במדינת ישראל ובעיקר מחוץ לה, ואת מחשבתם של הוגים יהודים במקומות שונים הנוגעת לחיי העם היהודי, כעם שחלקו הגדול חי בכל רחבי העולם, אך שומר על זיקות שונות עם ארץ-ישראל ועם מדינת ישראל.
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הקורס יתמקד בעת החדשה המוקדמת, החל בגירוש ספרד וביצירת המאה הט"ו ועד לימינו אנו. נפתח בצפת של המאה ה-16 ונדון בזרמים ראשיים בעולם הקבלי, השבתאי והחסידי, ונגיע עד להגותם של הר' קוק והרבי מלובביטש. מן ההיבט הפילוסופי, הקורס יחל בימי שפינוזה... more
הקורס יתמקד בעת החדשה המוקדמת, החל בגירוש ספרד וביצירת המאה הט"ו ועד לימינו אנו. נפתח בצפת של המאה ה-16 ונדון בזרמים ראשיים בעולם הקבלי, השבתאי והחסידי, ונגיע עד להגותם של הר' קוק והרבי מלובביטש. מן ההיבט הפילוסופי, הקורס יחל בימי שפינוזה באמסטרדם של המאה ה-17. דרך הדמות הרדיקלית של שפינוזה, נעמוד על השבר של הפילוסופיה המודרנית ועל הדרך החדשה שבה יהודים פיתחו פילוסופיה. בהמשך לכך נעקוב אחר הפילוסופים היהודים הגרמנים ממנדלסון עד רוזנצוויג, בנימין, ארנט ושטראוס. בנוסף נעיין בהגותם של שני פילוסופים יהודים צרפתים: עמנואל לוינס וז'אק דרידה. לסיום נדון בשאלה מהי הפילוסופיה שנוצרה בישראל, בהשראת הגותם של דמויות כמו ברגמן, שולם, ורוטנשטרייך. שני חלקי קורס המבוא נבנו מתוך דיאלוג בין ד"ר סדריק כהן סקלי שמתמחה בפילוסופיה של ימה"ב והעת החדשה לבין ד"ר רות קרא איוונוב קניאל שמתמחה במיסטיקה וקבלה. השיעורים נבנו כחטיבות נושאיות במטרה לחשוף את צירי המפגש בין התחומים, וכן את נקודות המתח והפולמוס, כך למשל בנוגע לתפיסת האלוהות, טבע האדם, הבריאה והגאולה.
Research Interests:
מטרת הקורס להעניק לתלמידים סקירה כרונולוגית של מקורות יסוד במחשבת ישראל, החל בתקופת הבית השני ועד לעת החדש המוקדמת. הקורס נבנה מתוך דיאלוג בין ד"ר סדריק כהן סקלי שמתמחה בפילוסופיה של ימה"ב והעת החדשה לבין ד"ר רות קרא איוונוב קניאל שמתמחה... more
מטרת הקורס להעניק לתלמידים סקירה כרונולוגית של מקורות יסוד במחשבת ישראל, החל בתקופת הבית השני ועד לעת החדש המוקדמת. הקורס נבנה מתוך דיאלוג בין ד"ר סדריק כהן סקלי שמתמחה בפילוסופיה של ימה"ב והעת החדשה לבין ד"ר רות קרא איוונוב קניאל שמתמחה במיסטיקה וקבלה. השיעורים נבנו כחטיבות נושאיות במטרה לחשוף את צירי המפגש בין התחומים, וכן את נקודות המתח והפולמוס, כך למשל בנוגע לתפיסת האלוהות, טבע האדם, הבריאה והגאולה.
Research Interests:
The Wolfson Chair is pleased to announce a call for applications for the Wolfson Chair Doctoral Fellowship in Jewish Thought for the 2024-25 academic year. The Wolfson Fellowship is designated for outstanding students registering in the... more
The Wolfson Chair is pleased to announce a call for applications for the Wolfson Chair Doctoral Fellowship in Jewish Thought for the 2024-25 academic year. The Wolfson Fellowship is designated for outstanding students registering in the departmental doctoral program and is granted for a period of four years. The annual fellowship award is in the amount of 78,000 ILS. (Tuition is covered in keeping with the terms of the Graduate Authority.) Preference will be given to students whose proposed research in the history of Jewish Thought is well-suited to the areas of expertise of the department faculty. Note that our department hosts world-renowned Digital Humanities projects that present ideal opportunities for Ph.D. research projects. A list of the faculty may be consulted here. Applicants must have received a Masters Degree in a field relevant to their proposed doctoral research and have been awarded a grade of no less than 90 on their MA thesis.
Research Interests:
הנהלת החברה ההיסטורית הישראלית, שמייצגת זה קרוב למאה שנה את קהיליית חוקרי וחוקרות העבר, מבקשת להביע את כאבה הגדול לנוכח ממשלה מסיתה ומסכסכת שקמה על אזרחי המדינה, העם היהודי וההיסטוריה היהודית. ההיסטוריה היא מבחנו המוסרי של האדם, ובדפי... more
הנהלת החברה ההיסטורית הישראלית, שמייצגת זה קרוב למאה שנה את קהיליית חוקרי וחוקרות העבר, מבקשת להביע את כאבה הגדול לנוכח ממשלה מסיתה ומסכסכת שקמה על אזרחי המדינה, העם היהודי וההיסטוריה היהודית. ההיסטוריה היא מבחנו המוסרי של האדם, ובדפי ההיסטוריה הנכתבים כעת נרשמת הקואליציה הבלתי קדושה של לאומנים, חרדים, נאשמים ועבריינים באותיות שחורות כרומסי החזון הציוני וערכי השיוויון והחירות של מגילת העצמאות. אנו מאמינים שמתוך השבר והכאב צומח מחנה של אזרחים ואזרחיות מכל הלאומים והמגזרים שיכונן מחדש במאבק נחוש חברת מופת מתוקנת, כמאמר הנביא: ציון במשפט תפדה ושביה בצדקה.
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We, historians of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel, accuse the sixth
government of Benjamin Netanyahu of endangering the very existence of the
State of Israel and the Israeli nation.
government of Benjamin Netanyahu of endangering the very existence of the
State of Israel and the Israeli nation.
Research Interests:
How would I and Thou read if it were written by a woman? Martin Buber was not a feminist thinker, however his philosophy has been occasionally viewed by its virtue of being feminine (Gustav Landauer) while, at other times, insulted as a... more
How would I and Thou read if it were written by a woman? Martin Buber was not a feminist thinker, however his philosophy has been occasionally viewed by its virtue of being feminine (Gustav Landauer) while, at other times, insulted as a philosophy for “ladies” (Yeshayahu Leibowitz). Yet, for generations, scholarship on Buber has been dominated by male scholars shaping Buber’s intellectual legacy and the interpretive canon of his works. As in the larger tradition of Jewish thought, women’s experiences, spiritual sensibilities, and intellectual expressions have rarely been acknowledged. At the same time, a new awareness of embodied thinking and positionality necessitates and makes urgent the presence of women’s voices.
The present project invites women scholars to join a conference in Haifa and read Buber from a multiplicity of philosophical and disciplinary perspectives. The presented papers of the conference will be submitted for publication as an edited volume. Our aim is to expand the canon of Buber scholarship and to offer a more inclusive reading of his multifaceted work.
Martin Buber (Vienna 1878 - Jerusalem 1965) was an extraordinarily versatile thinker writing on a variety of disciplines, including philosophy, politics, theology, ethics, education, Hasidism, Bible, translation, religion, sociology, psychology, art, and mysticism. We believe that Buber’s remarkable
multiplicity of interest invites a greater diversity of readership. We wish to bring to the forefront the voices of women’s scholarship to reclaim and reinvigorate Martin Buber’s legacy in light of the centenary of his seminal book I and Thou (1922/23).
By offering perspectives from women, our conference seeks to introduce new ways of reading and new approaches to Buber’s legacy, providing greater diversity and giving more attention to neglected voices. In this way, our conference will increase the visibility of women scholars from different cultural, religious, social, and ethnic backgrounds. Keynote Speakers: Prof. Vivian Liska, Universitity of Antwerpen, Prof. Leora Batnitzky, Princeton University The conference is scheduled to take place in Haifa, from July 17-18, 2023.
The present project invites women scholars to join a conference in Haifa and read Buber from a multiplicity of philosophical and disciplinary perspectives. The presented papers of the conference will be submitted for publication as an edited volume. Our aim is to expand the canon of Buber scholarship and to offer a more inclusive reading of his multifaceted work.
Martin Buber (Vienna 1878 - Jerusalem 1965) was an extraordinarily versatile thinker writing on a variety of disciplines, including philosophy, politics, theology, ethics, education, Hasidism, Bible, translation, religion, sociology, psychology, art, and mysticism. We believe that Buber’s remarkable
multiplicity of interest invites a greater diversity of readership. We wish to bring to the forefront the voices of women’s scholarship to reclaim and reinvigorate Martin Buber’s legacy in light of the centenary of his seminal book I and Thou (1922/23).
By offering perspectives from women, our conference seeks to introduce new ways of reading and new approaches to Buber’s legacy, providing greater diversity and giving more attention to neglected voices. In this way, our conference will increase the visibility of women scholars from different cultural, religious, social, and ethnic backgrounds. Keynote Speakers: Prof. Vivian Liska, Universitity of Antwerpen, Prof. Leora Batnitzky, Princeton University The conference is scheduled to take place in Haifa, from July 17-18, 2023.
Research Interests:
Presentation in Seminar Jewish Thought, European Thought in the Italy of the Long Renaissance. What does the study of previously untapped sources with a new series of questions reveal about the capacity for political action and the... more
Presentation in Seminar Jewish Thought, European Thought
in the Italy of the Long Renaissance.
What does the study of previously untapped sources with a new series of questions reveal about the capacity for political action and the formulation of political thought among Jewish men and women in Long Renaissance Italy (thirteenth to seventeenth centuries)? The minority situation and the resulting constant need for negotiation led to specific processes of political participation that can be traced in important documentary sources. However, this participation and documentation have thus far been neglected by historiography. This seminar will examine this "Jewish politics" in order to prove the existence of political agency and to describe it in terms of its specific characteristics (pragmatism, pursuit of group interests, recourse to mediation and alliances, its own institutional and documentary structuring) and its interactions with European politics. One fundamental aspect of the relationship between Jews and politics is the philosophical reflection that some Jewish intellectuals reserved for the political tradition. During the seminar, the participants will discuss important texts from the history of Jewish and Christian political thought (fourteenth and eighteenth centuries).
in the Italy of the Long Renaissance.
What does the study of previously untapped sources with a new series of questions reveal about the capacity for political action and the formulation of political thought among Jewish men and women in Long Renaissance Italy (thirteenth to seventeenth centuries)? The minority situation and the resulting constant need for negotiation led to specific processes of political participation that can be traced in important documentary sources. However, this participation and documentation have thus far been neglected by historiography. This seminar will examine this "Jewish politics" in order to prove the existence of political agency and to describe it in terms of its specific characteristics (pragmatism, pursuit of group interests, recourse to mediation and alliances, its own institutional and documentary structuring) and its interactions with European politics. One fundamental aspect of the relationship between Jews and politics is the philosophical reflection that some Jewish intellectuals reserved for the political tradition. During the seminar, the participants will discuss important texts from the history of Jewish and Christian political thought (fourteenth and eighteenth centuries).
Research Interests:
See press releases about this conference in the JNS and The Forward The Forward 2023: https://forward.com/culture/548114/martin-buber-i-and-thou-100th-anniversary-ginsberg-king-jewish The JNS 2023:... more
See press releases about this conference in the JNS and The Forward
The Forward 2023:
https://forward.com/culture/548114/martin-buber-i-and-thou-100th-anniversary-ginsberg-king-jewish
The JNS 2023:
https://www.jns.org/a-century-old-bubers-i-and-thou-will-endure-for-another-100-years-experts-say/
The Forward 2023:
https://forward.com/culture/548114/martin-buber-i-and-thou-100th-anniversary-ginsberg-king-jewish
The JNS 2023:
https://www.jns.org/a-century-old-bubers-i-and-thou-will-endure-for-another-100-years-experts-say/
