Yehuda Kurtzer
Brandeis University -- Hornstein Program
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Yehuda Kurtzer is Visiting Assistant Professor and the inaugural Chair of Jewish Communal Innovation at Brandeis University. He received his PhD in Jewish Studies at Harvard, where he specialized in rabbinic Judaism in antiquity. His current project on "Jewish Memory" aims to articulate a new vision of Jewish particularism, rooted in past paradigms but timely for the present.
Jewish Continuity in the 21st century :
How?
- Saturday 4:30PM–5:45PM Tower Board Room
As the Jewish community has been evolving, new and innovative organizations, minyanim and websites are emerging to fill gaps and broaden horizons. In this panel, leaders of these initiatives will offer their views on the Jewish community and the question of Jewish continuity; and will offer insights in how these views have helped produce and shape their innovative projects.
When History Comes
History, Memory, and the Challenge of Modernity
Identity & Responsibility, Torah & Text
- Sunday 8:30AM–9:45AM Empire Room 1
Some have argued that whereas Jews used to interpret their past through the lens of collective memory, modernity necessarily entailed a rejection of this mode in favor of the more scientific historical method. Modern Jews are implicitly and explicitly questioning this turn. Is a rejection of collective memory necessary? Is it useful in constructing Jewish identity? Using texts and contemporary examples, we will ask a key question for the Jewish future: What is the future of the Jewish past?
“What Shall the Alexandrians Do?”
Place and Space in Rabbinic Literature, Part I
Advanced, Torah & Text
- Sunday 5:30PM–6:45PM Embassy Room 2
In this advanced, two-part text-based class, we will consider the role of place—and more specifically regional geography—as a criterion in the formation of rabbinic law and lore. What are the boundaries to the environments that produce rabbinic texts? Do the boundaries imagined by the texts match ancient political boundaries, or do they reflect a different ethos about place and space? Part I will consider halakhic examples. Part II will focus on rabbinic travel narratives.
“I Saw it in Rome”
Place and Space in Rabbinic Literature, Part II
Advanced, Torah & Text
- Monday 8:15AM–9:30AM Empire Room 3 North
In this two-part advanced text-based class, we will consider the role of place—and more specifically regional geography—as a criterion in the formation of rabbinic law and lore. What are the boundaries to the local environments that produce rabbinic texts? Do the boundaries imagined by the texts match ancient political boundaries, or do they reflect a different ethos about place and space? Part I will consider halakhic examples. Part II will consider rabbinic travel narratives.
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