Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center, HUJI

It took us a while to absorb our amazing retreat, but we're finally here to share!

This month we concluded the academic year and capped off the center's annual seminar with a two-day retreat at Kibbutz Tzuba. What an incredible experience it was!

During these two days we heard fascinating lectures from our center colleagues, delved deep into questions of tradition and interpretation, and experimented with interpretation ourselves through personal artistic creation. We took walks in nature, connecting ideas with experience, and of course maintained our own cherished traditions throughout.

We had a wonderful year, rich with meaningful content and enriching fellowship, and we're already excited for the year ahead!

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Paul Mendes-Flohr, long-time director of the Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center and the preeminent historian of German-Jewish thought for nearly half a century, died on Thursday. Born in Brooklyn in 1941, Prof. Mendes-Flohr pursued his graduate studies at Brandeis University under the likes of Alexander Altmann and Nahum Glatzer, from whom he learned to approach scholarship, he would often say, as craft, as calling, and as service. He completed his dissertation on Martin Buber’s social thought in 1972. By the early 1970s, Prof. Mendes-Flohr had moved to Jerusalem and was teaching at the Hebrew University. He went on to serve as Professor in the Department of Jewish Thought for decades, and he directed the Rosenzweig Center during one of its most fruitful periods. In the early 2000s, he took up a professorship at the University of Chicago, and from that time on until his retirement, he split each academic year between Chicago and Jerusalem.

Through his countless monographs, his broad-minded anthologies of Jewish Thought and edited volumes, the magisterial collection of Buber’s writings he edited, and the scores of up-and-coming scholars he advised, Prof. Mendes-Flohr shaped the field of Modern Jewish Thought in incomparable fashion. He also invested his heart and soul in stamping the field with his ethos. Prof. Mendes-Flohr committed himself to engaging in the very kind of dialogue with others that was described and analyzed by the German-Jewish thinkers about whom he wrote. He believed such dialogue could nourish the values of equality, justice, and compassion which the world so sorely needs. Prof. Mendes-Flohr was an advocate and activist for peace and for Arab-Jewish dialogue. He engaged in interreligious dialogue of all kinds, and reached students all over the globe.

I was fortunate to have been one of those students. As an undergraduate, I took Prof. Mendes-Flohr’s course on “Modern Jewish Religious Thought” at the Rothberg School at Hebrew University in 1991. Preoccupied by the philosophical and theological questions raised in that course, and inspired by the way Prof. Mendes-Flohr sought to combine heart and mind in responding to them, I returned in 1994 to continue my studies with him, completing my MA and PhD under his guidance. My years as Prof. Mendes-Flohr’s student taught me scholarly patience and attention to nuance; the importance of careful and compelling writing; how the smallest biographical details reveal human concerns of great import, and thus how to think fruitfully about the relationship between life and thought. In a 2021 interview in honor of the Rosenzweig Center’s thirtieth anniversary, Prof. Mendes-Flohr said, ”My wish for the Rosenzweig Center is that it retain [an] ethos of intellectual integrity and probity. And intellectual integrity, of course, means ethical integrity as well.”

At the end of the funeral on Friday, with family, friends, colleagues, and students graveside, Rita Mendes-Flohr and family led a rendition of “Ol’ Man River,” a favorite of Prof. Mendes-Flohr’s. The song juxtaposes a mournful despair over inequality and oppression to the ongoing, natural flow of the river in the face of human inhumanity: “Ol’ man river, he must know something” – something, it seems, we haven’t learned yet.

Prof. Mendes-Flohr leaves behind him a legacy of dialogue and scholarship as humanizing forces. May we all prove worthy of that legacy. And may his memory be for a blessing.

Benjamin Po***ck

The latest issue of Naharaim is now available!

This special issue, curated by Jan Kühne, is dedicated to the life and work of German-Jewish writer and Zionist activist Sammy Gronemann. Discover insightful essays and articles exploring his legacy.

[Link in the comments]

We are delighted to announce the publication of Naharaim 17, issues 1 and 2!

[links to both issues are in the comments]

These issues feature thought-provoking contributions on a range of topics, including political theology, literature, education, cultural transfer, and literary reception in the German-Jewish context. Readers will find insightful analyses of the works and activities of esteemed authors and thinkers such as Walter Benjamin, Leo Strauss, Carl Schmitt, Leah Goldberg, Siegfried Kracauer, Gershom Scholem, Franz Kafka, Martin Buber, and Philip Roth.

Founded by the FRMRC in 2007, Naharaim is a bi-annual publication by De Gruyter. It is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal that showcases the latest research on philosophical, literary, and historical aspects of German-Jewish culture. The journal publishes articles in both English and German.

This latest volume continues Naharaim's tradition of excellence and represents an essential contribution to the field of German-Jewish studies. We invite scholars and enthusiasts alike to explore the rich insights offered in these new issues, and submit their own contributions on German-Jewish history, literature, and thought to be considered for publication in future volumes.

****
Table of Contents - Issue 1

Introduction

The Absence of Redemption: A Twentieth-Century Jewish Political Theology
Leora Batnitzky

Contra Schmitt: Walter Benjamin, Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt
Vivian Liska

“I Seek the Stars in the Daytime”: Citation, Recitation, and Leah Goldberg’s Hidden German Poem
Michal Peles Almagor

From Pariah to Baboon: Ludwig Robert’s Parody of Michael Beer’s Paria
Ezra Loren Engelsberg

Supplement: Der Pavian. Trauerspiel in einem Akt von Ludwig Robert

****
Table of Contents - Issue 2

Introduction

Special Section: Theological-Political Predicaments. Representations of Religion and Politics in the German-Jewish Context

Märchenhafter Materialismus. Zur Konkretion der profanen „Theologie“ Siegfried Kracauers in seinen Figurationen des Jüdischen
Ansgar Martins

Leo Strauss and Edith Stein in the Grip of the Theopolitical
Antoine Lévy

Between a Dream and Its Realization: Locating Utopia and Zionism in Kafka’s American Story
Joshua David Shelly

Scholem’s Kafka: Not a Nihilistic, but Rather a Secular, Kabbalist
Steven Weinberg

Abraham Halevi Fraenkel, Martin Buber and Adult Education at the Hebrew University
Rakefet Cohen-Anzi

Scripture, Sovereignty and National Self-Determination in Martin Buber’s Bein Am Le’Artzo (1944)
Abraham Rubin

Other Contributions

The Jewish Risk: Philip Roth in Sixties West Germany
Kai Sina

Now officially out – Naharaim 16, no. 2!

With a special section on language, translation and cultural transfer in history and poetry, and more contributions on German-Jewish thought.

Starring: Avot Yeshurun, Gershom Scholem, Martin Buber, Herbert Marcuse and many more!

(link in comments)

Are you interested in Classical German Philosophy? Deal with "Realism" motives and questions?

We are happy to announce an international conference on "The Concept of Reality in Classical German Philosophy" to be held at our center at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, June 5-7, 2023.

Those interested in participating submit a title and a short informative abstract by October 31, 2022, directly to the address: [email protected].
Presentations should not exceed 30 minutes and can be conducted in either German or English.

We are very excited to participate in the fascinating international conference on the life and philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig, which will take place in Frankfurt next week!
Many members of our center, including Prof. Benjamin Po***ck, the director of the center, fellows, researchers, and alumni, will share their knowledge and innovations, and we wish them a lot of success.

VERANSTALTUNGSTIPP | ANALOG

Und noch ein Tipp, diesmal für eine große Konferenz an der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt: "Der Stern der Erlösung – ein Jahrhundert später: Franz Rosenzweig und die Geschichte | The Star of Redemption – a Century Later: Franz Rosenzweig and History".

Die Tagung vom 17. bis 20. Juli ist kostenlos, eine Anmeldung ist nicht erforderlich. Das Programm und alle Infos gibt es hier:
https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/121522570/Rosenzweig_Kongress_2022

Organisiert von:
Internationale Rosenzweig-Gesellschaft e.V. / Buber-Rosenzweig-Institut für jüdische Geistes- und Kulturgeschichte der Moderne und Gegenwart / Martin Buber Professur für Jüdische Religionsphilosophie / Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center, HUJI

Christian Wiese

Naharaim 16, no. 1 is out!
With seven new exciting articles on German-Jewish literature and thought, among them the first scholarly study of the author’s library of German-Hebrew aphoristic poet Elazar Benyoëtz, which the FRMRC received as a gift last year.

Table of Contents:

"Nationalismus als Umkehr: Etwas zur jüdischen Meta-Politik der Moderne"
Asher D. Biemann

"Franz Rosenzweig’s Concept of Redemption as a Vehicle for Confronting the Philosophical Problem of Contemporary Transhumanism"
Joseph (Yossi) Turner, Nadav Shifman Berman

"'No Sin to Limp': Critique as Error in Geoffrey Hartman’s Essays on Midrash"
Samuel P. Catlin

"Dialectical Abnormality? Jewish Alienation and Jewish Emancipation between Hegel and Marx"
Emir Yigit

"The Anxiety of Tradition: Unrealized Weddings in Berdichevsky’s Yiddish Stories"
James Adam Redfield, Tamar Gutfeld

"Ein Stück Heimat? Hans Mayers ambivalente Sicht auf Israel"
Stefan Hermes

"'A Self-Portrait in Books' — Reflections on the Aphoristic Library of Elazar Benyoëtz"
Jan Kühne, Anna Rosa Schlechter

[link in comments]

Join us on the international conference "Jewish Wit, Zionist Satire, and Humane Humor – On the Life and Works of Sammy Gronemann”!
The conference will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 5-6, at room 2001, Rabin Building. Mt. Scopus.

Some of the panels are hybrid, and we invite you to join on:
https://huji.zoom.us/j/85457159908?pwd=gat6f-cuZO8vI3NToHuUdVz4vZkOri.1

Next Tuesday, June 14, we will inaugurate the Elazar Benyoëtz-author’s library at the Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center.

A bilingual Austrian-Israeli poet, Benyoëtz is one the most successful aphorists of contemporary German-language literature. The festive inauguration of his author’s library at the Rosenzweig Center is also the occasion to celebrate Benyoëtz’s 85th birthday.
Following a laudation by Prof. Alfred Bodenheimer, Benyoëtz himself will offer a poetry reading, accompanied by the Austrian pianist Paul Gulda.

Elazar Benyoëtz-author’s library inauguration will take place at 17:30 at The Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center, room 3205, Rabin Building, Mt. Scopus.
The laudation and reading by Benyoëtz himself will take place at 18:00 at Barbara Mandel auditorium, 4th floor, Mandel Building.
Both events will be held in German.

Austrian Ambassy Isreal European Forum at The Hebrew University Center for Austrian Studies