Lichter Lecture Focuses on Jews and the Challenges of Cosmopolitanism

Each year, the Judaic Studies Department in the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences presents the Lichter Lecture Series, made possible by the Jacob and Jennie L. Lichter Fund of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati. This year’s lecture series focuses on

“Jews and the Challenges of Cosmopolitanism.”

A Jewish philosopher, Philo of Alexandria, made one of the earliest references to the term "cosmopolitan" or "citizen of the world." Almost two thousand years later, the assimilated Viennese philosopher Karl Popper continued the Jewish endorsement of cosmopolitanism in his classic work, The Open Society.

What makes cosmopolitanism so attractive to the Jewish people? Distinguished philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah observes that cosmopolitanism encompasses two ideals — “universal concern and respect for human difference."  We have obligations both to all human life and particular human lives. Since these ideals can clash, writes Appiah, "there's a sense in which cosmopolitanism is the name not of the solution but of the challenge." Similarly, Judaism can be aptly characterized as a complex mediation between universalism and particularism. For Jews, cosmopolitanism embodies an essential dilemma of the Jewish experience.

Through the 2008–09 Lichter lecture series, we will examine the Jewish encounter with cosmopolitanism. As cosmopolitanism represents such a broad topic, the series focuses on particular encounters between the Jewish world and the world at large. Through these specific case studies, we hope to shed light on the following questions:

1. How does the world at large matter to the Jewish world? How does the particular (Jewish) interpret the universal (world events)?
2. What accounts for the harmonious relationship between Jewish values and universal values?
3. What accounts for the tense relationship between Jewish values and universal values?

In order to explore these questions, we have invited three outstanding, world-renowned speakers to give the following lectures during the 2008–2009 school year. The first speaker will be presenting this Thursday night at the University of Cincinnati’s Uptown Campus.

Who: Gil Tamary Washington Correspondent for Channel 10 News in Israel

What:

The Peace Process in the Middle East: The Impact of the United States' New Administration and Israel's New Government.

When:

Thursday, Nov. 20, 7:30 p.m.

Where:

Campus Rec Center, Room 3240, Uptown Campus

At the conclusion there will be a reception with light refreshments.

For further information call the Department of Judaic Studies at 513-556-2297.

Parking is available at the Woodside or Campus Green garages located on Woodside Drive off of Martin Luther King Dr.
 
Mark your calendars: the next Lichter Lecture will be Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009, 7:30 p.m., at Raymond Walters College. Deborah Hertz will present “From the Business Wife to the High Culture Mother: The Origins of Reform Judaism in Modern Germany.”

The Lichter Lectures in Judaic Studies is made possible by the Jacob and Jennie L. Lichter Fund of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati.