Emil Fackenheim Lecture with David B. Ruderman

In his talk, David Ruderman recreates the ambiance of the first Ghetto in Venice established in 1516 and others that followed, attempting to show that despite closure and physical hardship, Italian Jews created a vibrant cultural space for themselves while living in close proximity with their Christian neighbors. His historical reconstruction also leads him to ask the contemporary question for modern Jews: Are ghettos good or bad for Jews?

David B. Ruderman is a leading scholar of Jewish history and thought in early modern Europe and has directed the prestigious Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania for the past 17 years. Author of the comprehensive volume Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe (Yale University Press, 2001), his most recent books are Early Modern Jewry: A New Cultural History (Princeton, 2010) and Connecting the Covenants: Judaism and the Search for Christian Identity in Eighteenth-Century England (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007). Ruderman has taught at Yale University, at the University of Maryland, the Graduate School of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The National Foundation for Jewish Culture honored him with its lifetime achievement award in 2001.

Location: Universität Potsdam, Komplex I Am Neuen Palais, Haus 9, Raum 1.14

Organisation: Abraham Geiger Kolleg