Judaism and the New Reason: Reconciling Jewish Learning and the Science of Knowing
Randi Rashkover, George Mason University Thursday, September 10, 2015 | noon | Lattie F. Coor Hall, room 3323
Understanding Judaism in a Pluralistic World: Who is My Neighbor and Who is the StrangerThursday, September 10, 2015 | 7 p.m. | Temple Emanuel, Tempe
For centuries, Jewish philosophers have sought to negotiate between a science of knowing and the study of Jewish texts. Still, it can be argued that the much 20th and 21st century Jewish thought has reveled in a rejection of the effort to reconcile Jewish and non-Jewish learning, influenced as it has been by post-war doubts about the value of human reason. A new engagement between Judaism, Jewish text study and recent trends in philosophy is called for. Such an engagement begins where the work of Hermann Cohen left off by providing a renewed account of transcendental logic and reflection in the context however of a post-Kantian analysis of language, cognition and the negotiation between theoretical and practical knowing.
From State to Star: Franz Rosenzweig’s Passage from Political Philosophy to Philosopher of Religion
2015 Harold and Jean Grossman Lectures in Jewish Thought Jules Simon, University of Texas at El Paso Thursday, October 1, 2015 | noon | Lattie F. Coor Hall, room 3323 Franz Rosenzweig is one of the most important Jewish Philosophers of the 20th Century whose body of work continues to challenge our traditional philosophical and religious sensibilities. For this talk, I will present a reading of Rosenzweig’s passage from his early years as a committed and patriotic academic student of the German state to his identity as a Jewish philosopher-in-exile who, in his socio-political life choices and intellectual commitments, enacted a critique of the German state he had previously so eagerly embraced. I will do so by exploring the genetic relationship of his early work, Hegel and the State, to the work that earned him international fame, The Star of Redemption.more
Rediscovered Voices: The Music and Stories of Jewish Composers
Wednesday, October 7, 2015 | 7 p.m. Congregation Beth Israel | 10406 North 56th Street, Scottsdale
This free concert and lecture features Arizona Opera vocalists. Audiences will explore music from Jewish refugee composers, as well as other selections from the middle of the 20th century. Selections will include music from Arizona Lady, Brundibár and Der Kaiser von Atlantis, among others.
This Arizona Opera project is funded by a grant from the Jewish Commumity Foundation of Greater Phoenix. Community partner: ASU Jewish Studies.
Suddenly They Were Gone: Austria’s and Hungary’s ways of dealing with their Jewish Past
Ursula Mindler-Steiner Assistant Professor Andrássy University Budapest and Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz
Wednesday, October 14, 2015 | 4:30 p.m.| Lattie F. Coor Hall, room 4403
This talk will be an overview of the course of events in Austria and Hungary, to the present day. Questions addressed will include: Which different strategies and politics were used to avoid a discussion about the past? Why? How did they try to establish a “new identity”, a new “collective memory”? Who were essential supporters among society? To what extent was it successful? What is to say about the most recent developments, where the National Socialist past is connected to the current “refugees crisis”? download flyer