![Gil Tamary is the Washington bureau chief for Israel s Channel 10 News](https://www.uc.edu/news/articles/legacy/enews/2008/11/e9232/jcr:content/image.img.cq5dam.thumbnail.500.500.jpg/1534516488940.jpg)
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 years 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 200809 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:
- How does the world at large matter to the Jewish world? How does the particular (Jewish) interpret the universal (world events)?
- What accounts for the harmonious relationship between Jewish values and universal values?
- 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 20082009 school year. The first speaker will be presenting this Thursday night at the University of Cincinnatis 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.
Related Stories
Designing the next generation of drug delivery
July 18, 2024
UC Assistant Professor Briana Simms talks to PhRMA about using nanoparticles to deliver medicine.
Mural by UC grad honors U.S. military history
![Local 12 logo](/content/dam/refresh/uc-news/news-icons/dark/wkrc-logo-dark.png)
July 17, 2024
Local 12 highlighted a new mural by University of Cincinnati graduate and artist Brandon Hawkins that pays tribute to U.S. military history.
Social media fuels extreme political rhetoric
![Local 12 logo.](/content/dam/refresh/uc-news/news-icons/dark/wkrc-logo-dark.png)
July 17, 2024
UC College of Arts and Sciences Professor Jeffrey Blevins tells Local 12 that online algorithms fuel political polarization on social media.