Noted scholars of Judaism will be featured in two upcoming events sponsored by the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale.
On Wednesday, Sept. 13, philosopher and social activist Rabbi David Hartman will present a talk titled "Jewish Tradition and the War for the Soul of the State of Israel" at 5 p.m. at Yale University Press, 302 Temple St. Immediately following his talk, Hartman will sign copies of his recent book "Israelis and the Jewish Tradition: An Ancient People Debating Its Future," published by Yale University Press. The Yale Press is a cosponsor of the event, which is free and open to the public.
On Thursday, Sept. 14, Jacob Neusner, professor of religion and theology at Bard College, will deliver the first Henry Kohn Lecture on the topic "If Ideas Mattered: The Intellectual Crisis of American Judaism." His talk, which is also free and open to the public, will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Slifka Center, 80 Wall St.
Hartman won the National Jewish Book Award for Jewish Thought in 1971 for his Ph.D. dissertation "Maimonides: Torah and Philosophical Quest." After serving for 11 years as rabbi of Tiferet Beit David Jerusalem in Montreal, he and his family immigrated to Israel in 1971. In 1976 he founded the Shalom Hartman Institute and its Lev Ahron Service Center, an institute dedicated to developing a new understanding of the classical heritage of Judaism in order to provide moral and spiritual direction for Judaism's confrontation with modernity. In both his work and social activism, Hartman seeks to realize the spiritual and political opportunities the state of Israel offers the Jewish people, and he has expressed his commitment to religious pluralism by trying to overcome religious polarization in Israeli society.
The content of Hartman's book "Israelis and the Jewish Tradition" is from the Dwight H. Terry Lectures he delivered at Yale in 1998. His other books include "A Living Covenant: The Innovative Spirit in Traditional Judaism" and "A Heart of Many Rooms."
Neusner's present research concerns the social teachings of Rabbinic Judaism. His first book in a series on the subject, "Corporate Israel and the Individual Israelite," is currently in press. The second volume, "Between Israelites: Resolving Conflict," is underway.
Neusner is a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University and is a life member of Clare Hall at Cambridge University in England. He is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and academic medals.
Henry Kohn '39, '42 LAW, established the lectureship in his name to enable the Slifka Center to bring to Yale speakers from all areas of discourse who might deepen and expand the community's sense of Jewish history and destiny. A founder of the Slifka Center, Kohn also founded the American Jewish Society for Service, which brings Jewish high school students to community work projects around the United States during summer recess. He recently established a chair for an associate professor in Yale's Department of Economics as well as a lectureship at New York's 92nd Street Y.
For further information on the lectures, call the Slifka Center at (203) 432-1134.
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