UCSIA/IJS-Chair 2008-2009: Prof. Dr. David Ruderman

Cross-Cultural Dialogues in Early Modern Europe:
A Textual Seminar and Conversation between Anthony Grafton (Princeton University / Universiteit Leiden) and David Ruderman (Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania / Universiteit Antwerpen)
Thursday 12/2/2009, 20:00
Universiteit Antwerpen, Prinsstraat 13 (Hof van Liere), 2000 Antwerpen

This encounter between two internaztionally renowned experts on Jewish-Christian relations will inaugurate the UCSIA/IJS-Chair 2008-2009. Starting from a reading of primary texts, Prof. David Ruderman and Prof. Anthony Grafton will engage in a dialogue about Jewish and Christian cultures in Early Modern Europe.


Two American Jewish Responses to Modernity: Mordechai Kaplan and Abraham Heschel
David Ruderman (Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania / Universiteit Antwerpen)
Thursday 5/3/2009, 20:00
Universiteit Antwerpen, Prinsstraat 13 (Hof van Liere), 2000 Antwerpen

Within the scope of the course “Modern Jewish Intellectual and Cultural History”, which Prof. David Ruderman will teach from the beginning of February until mid March 2009 at the University of Antwerp, Prof. Ruderman will dedicate an evening lecture to the life and work of Mordechai Kaplan, one of the strongest critics of Orthodox and Reform Judaism, and Abraham Joshua Heschel, who was among the few Jewish theologians widely read by Christians and who represented the Jewish community at the Vatican Council II.


“Modern Jewish Intellectual and Cultural History”
David Ruderman (Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania / Universiteit Antwerpen)
Tuesday 10, 17, 24 February, and Tuesday 3 and 10 March 2009, 18:00-21:15
Universiteit Antwerpen, Rodestraat 14 (R.013), 2000 Antwerpen

The course “Modern Jewish Intellectual and Cultural History” offers an overview of Jewish intellectual and cultural history from the late 18th century until the present. The course considers the Jewish enlightenment Reform, Conservative and Neo-Orthodox Judaism, Zionist and Jewish Socialist thought, and Jewish thought in the 20th century, particularly in the context of the Holocaust. Primary sources including Mendelssohn, Geiger, Hirsch, Herzl, Achad-ha-Am, Baeck, Buber, Kaplan, and others will be read and the interaction of these thinkers with their Christian European environment will be analyzed.

This course can be taken by anyone interested as well as as an optional course within the Arts Faculty (level: Bachelor). There are no specific prerequisites, except command of the English language.
For additional information and to register for this course, please contact the Institute of Jewish Studies: +32 (0)3 275 52 43 - ijs@uantwerpen.be


David B. Ruderman is the Joseph Meyerhoff Professor of Modern Jewish History and the Ella Darivoff director of the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Ruderman was educated at the City College of New York, the Teacher’s Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and Columbia University. He received his rabbinical degree from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, and his PhD in Jewish history from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Professor Ruderman has taught in the Graduate School of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at the Hebrew University. In June 2001, the National Foundation for Jewish Culture honored him with its lifetime achievement award for his work in Jewish history.
Selected Publications: Connecting the Covenants: Judaism and the Search for Christian Identity in Eighteenth-Century England (2007); Cultural Intermediaries: Jewish Intellectuals in Early Modern Italy (2004); Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe (2001); Jewish Enlightenment in an English Key: Anglo-Jewry’s Construction of Modern Jewish Thought (2000); Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe (1995).