The Joyce Z. and Jacob Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies

Joyce Z. and Jacob Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies
1155 East 60th Street, Room 302A
Chicago, IL 60637
773.702.7108
ccjs@uchicago.edu

 

Event Archive 2016 - Present

Conference: Jewish Difference Under Empire

Description: 
Jewish Difference Under Empire:Identity and Alterity across the Maghreb, France, and Israel/Palestine Scholarship in Jewish studies has become increasingly attentive to the impact of colonial expansion and transnational exchange on Jewish life and writing. As the editors of the recent volume, Colonialism and the Jews put it: “In failing to grapple with colonialism, Jewish historians disregarded essential dimensions of the modern Jewish experience. In European colonies from the British antipodes to French North Africa, Jewish economic, religious, and social life was transformed in important ways by the encounter with empire.” Taking this as our starting point, we aim to continue conversations about the overlaps between Judaism and “other Others,” to use and expand Sergei Dogolpolski’s term. The goal is not to create an overarching theory of alterity, but to explore new possibilities for conceptualizing the production of race, minority, and difference, and the philosophical and political responses generated out of those experiences.
Date: 
Monday, November 18, 2019

Lecture by Nitzan Lebovic: A Temporal Turn: Buber, Benjamin, Arendt, and Celan

Description: 
A Temporal Turn: Buber, Benjamin, Arendt, and Celan A German Jewish Time, tells the story of a group of twentieth-century Jewish intellectuals who grappled ceaselessly with concepts of time and temporality. The project brings into dialogue key thinkers, including the philosopher of religion Martin Buber, the critical theorist Walter Benjamin, the political scientist Hannah Arendt, and the poet Paul Celan, who stand at the center of our contemporary understanding of religion, critical theory, politics, and literature. All four, and many colleagues around them who identified with their approaches saw time—not space—as the key to their individual and collective experience, rejecting definitions of self based on borders, territory, or geographic/national origin. Short Bio: Nitzan Lebovic received his B.A. in History and Theory of Literature from Tel Aviv University and his Ph.D. from UCLA. His first book, titled The Philosophy of Life and Death: Ludwig Klages and the Rise of a Nazi Biopolitics (2013) focuses on the circle around the Lebensphilosophie and anti-Semitic thinker Ludwig Klages. His second book, Zionism and Melancholy: The Short Life of Israel Zarchi, came out in Hebrew in 2015 and was published in June 2019 with the 'New Jewish Philosophy and Thought' series at Indiana University Press. He is also co-editor of The Politics of Nihilism (2014) and of Catastrophes: A History and Theory of an Operative Concept (2014), and has edited special issues of Rethinking History (Nihilism), Zmanim (Religion and Power), The New German Critique (Political Theology), Comparative Literature and Culture (Complicity and Dissent), and Political Theology (Prophetic Politics).
Date: 
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Category: 
Lectures

New Budapest Orpheum Society: 'Every Voice of Comfort Pierced My Heart'

Description: 
“Every Voice of Comfort Pierced My Heart” — The New Budapest Orpheum Society Commemorates Kristallnach The New Budapest Orpheum Society Julia Bentley, mezzo-soprano Philip V. Bohlman, artistic director and commentary Jim Cox, bass violin Stewart Figa, baritone Danny Howard, percussion Iordanka Kissiova, violin Ilya Levinson, arrangements, piano, and musical director Don Stille, accordion When synagogues and Jewish shops across Germany were systematically burned and the material culture of German Jews were destroyed on Kristallnacht – the Night of Broken Glass, November 9, 1938 – the full force of anti-Semitism and the violence that would transform it into the final stages of the Shoah were unleashed. With this afternoon of commemoration in Fulton Hall the New Budapest Orpheum Society, the ensemble-in-residence of the Humanities Division, gathers songs of remembrance and resistance to give voice to the Jewish lives that were driven from Germany and, in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, from elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe. Of even greater significance are the voices of those who did not survive, but whose struggle and dignity are present in the Jewish music of survival. During the course of this commemoration performance, the ensemble weaves testimonies from the witnesses to Kristallnacht into the narrative of the program, again enhancing the voices that were not silenced. The repertory of commemoration ranges from folk song to art song, songs of exile and songs of survival, the music of sacrifice and the music of redemption, with compositions by Paul Dessau, Mordechai Gebirtig, Ilya Levinson, Darius Milhaud, and singer-songwriters from diverse European cabaret scenes.
Date: 
Sunday, November 10, 2019

Conference: Rabbinic Judaism and Its Contexts

Description: 
RABBINIC JUDAISM AND ITS CONTEXTS *** SUNDAY : CLASSICS BLDG *** MONDAY: SWIFT HALL (3rd floor) Rabbinic Judaism was born twice, in the spaces and cultures of Roman Palestine and Sasanian Iran. Rabbinic lore and argument must be understood in relation to these contexts, even in its desire to stand apart from them. The conference celebrates a new generation of scholarship, dedicated to historical, comparative and critical readings of the rabbis and their texts. The papers will speak to the broadest possible audience, and the conference will conclude with a general discussion in which all are invited to participate. Please see the website for schedule and details.
Date: 
Sunday, November 10, 2019

Naomi Chazan - 'Gender and Democracy in Israel'

Description: 
Visiting Patinkin Professor Naomi Chazan will give a public lecture on Thursday, November 7. Naomi Chazan is professor emerita of Political Science and African Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and co-director of the Center for the Advancement of Women in the Public Sphere at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, where she is also a senior research fellow. Active in a variety of women’s, human rights, and peace organizations, she was one of the founders of the Israel Women’s Network and served as president of the New Israel Fund. Prof. Chazan was first elected to the Knesset in 1992 on the Meretz ticket and was a Knesset Member for three terms, until 2003. She served as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and was a member of the Economics, Foreign Affairs and Defense, Education, Immigration, and Status of Women committees. She has written and edited many books on comparative politics and has published numerous articles on African politics, the Israeli-Arab conflict, politics in Israel, and the status of women.
Date: 
Thursday, November 7, 2019
Category: 
Lectures

David Harris - Hebrew Bible Workshop

Description: 
PhD student David Harris, Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, will present a paper for the Hebrew Bible Workshop. Location to be determined. For information, contact workshop coordinator Justin Moses at jpmoses@uchicago.edu.
Date: 
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Category: 
Workshops

Public lecture by Leora Batnizky: Perplexed by What? Guides to Modern Jewish Life from Krochmal to Leibowitz

Description: 
Public lecture by Leora Batnitzky: 'Perplexed by What? Guides to Modern Jewish Life from Krochmal to Leibowitz' in the Swift Hall Common Room (1st floor) Leora Batnitzky is Ronald O. Perelman Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of Religion at Princeton University. Abstract: Scholars continue to debate the meaning of perplexity in Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed, but what cannot be doubted is that the Guide assumes perplexity, however simple or complex this perplexity may be. In contrast, the modern Jewish thinkers considered in this talk—Nachman Krochmal, Hermann Cohen, Emmanuel Levinas, Leo Strauss, and Yeshayahu Leibowitz—turn to Maimonides not to respond to or to meditate upon the nature of perplexity but rather to stimulate perplexity in the first place. More specifically, and despite their significant differences, Krochmal, Cohen, Levinas, Strauss and Leibowitz all use Maimonides in contending that the primary problem for modern Jews, and indeed for modern people, is not the need to resolve metaphysical perplexity but instead the need to awaken political perplexity. The conclusion of the talk considers the implications of the uses of Maimonides by these 19th and 20th century Jewish thinkers for thinking about both the modern Jewish condition and the condition of modern philosophy in the 21st century. Bio: Leora Batnitzky is Ronald O. Perelman Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of Religion at Princeton University, where she has been on the faculty since 1997. Her teaching and research interests include modern Jewish thought and intellectual history, philosophy of religion, hermeneutics, and contemporary legal and political theory. She is the author of Idolatry and Representation: The Philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig Reconsidered; Leo Strauss and Emmanuel Levinas: Philosophy and the Politics of Revelation; and How Judaism Became a Religion. She is also co-editor of The Book of Job: Ethics, Aesthetics, and Hermeneutics; Instituting Rights and Religion; and Jewish Legal Theories, as well as of the journal Jewish Studies Quarterly. She is currently working on two book projects—the first on conversion controversies in Israel and India as they relate to global debates about religious freedom and the second on the Jewish apostate and Catholic saint Edith Stein.
Date: 
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Category: 
Lectures

'Not in Search of Messages': A Primo Levi Study Day

Description: 
This workshop brings together a group of scholars from various fields of inquiry for a sPlease join us for a study day marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Primo Levi. On Monday, October 28th, at 5 p.m., Philippe Mesnard, Professor of Comparative Literature at the CELIS (Centre de Recherches sur les Littératures et la Sociopoétique), Université Blaise Pascal, will deliver a keynote lecture titled, 'The Truth of the Witness According to Primo Levi.' We will then spend the day on Tuesday, October 29th, in a series of seminars with literary scholars, historians, and anthropologists from the US, Europe, and Israel. Primary readings (recommended but not required for participation in the seminar) along with more information are available at: ccjs.uchicago.edu/primolevi. This event is sponsored by the Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies and the Jean and Harold Gossett Fund in Memory of Holocaust Victims Martha and Paul Feivel Korngold, the France Chicago Center, the Franke Institute for the Humanities, and the Department of Romance Literatures and Languages.tudy day to commemorate Primo Levi’s 100th birthday, which takes place in the summer of 2019. Rather than inviting a group of Levi specialists for an academic conference, we have chosen to invite scholars from a wide range of fields, including Anthropology, Black Studies, Genocide Studies, Jewish History, and Comparative Literature, for a conversation about the enduring relevance of Levi’s writing. The keynote lecture by Philippe Mesnard (Professor of Comparative Literature in the Department of Modern Languages, Université Clermont Auvergne) will set the stage for the conversation through a broad discussion of questions of testimony in literature. On the following day, participants have been invited to choose a primary text by Levi (if they wish, it can be paired with a brief text by another author), which will be pre-circulated to everyone interested in the workshop. Participants will then lead seminars of 75 minutes each on their chosen texts. This event is sponsored by the Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies and the Jean and Harold Gossett Fund in Memory of Holocaust Victims Martha and Paul Feivel Korngold, the Chicago France Center, the Franke Institute for the Humanities, and the Department of Romance Literatures and Languages.
Date: 
Monday, October 28, 2019
Category: 
Workshops

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