NPR's Robert Siegel Hosts A Conversation on Jewish Secularism
featuring Rebecca Goldstein, award-winning novelist and philosopher,
and David Biale, historian and author and
University for a Day on Jewish Secularism with Distinguished Scholars from the U.S. and Israel
Saturday, March 12, 2011
(New York, February 22, 2011) NPR’s Robert Siegel (All Things Considered) will host A Conversation on Jewish Secularism featuring novelist and philosopher Rebecca Goldstein (36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction) and historian and author David Biale (Not in the Heavens: The Tradition of Jewish Secular Thought) as part of a day-long program on Jewish secularism on Saturday, March 12 at 7:30 pm at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium. The events are sponsored by the Posen Foundation in collaboration with the New School’s Jewish Cultural Studies program.
These special public events are developed in conjunction with the Posen Foundation’s seventh annual Posen Conference, the academic conference of professors involved with the research and teaching of Jewish secularization, which will be held March 13-14 at Hunter College's historic Roosevelt House in collaboration with Hunter's Jewish Social Studies Program.
According to Felix Posen, chair of the Posen Foundation, “These special public events on this important and under-discussed topic were developed to take the greatest advantage of having this select group of scholars together in New York for the first time.” Mr. Posen added: “More than half of the Jewish population worldwide identifies as secular or somewhat secular. This is not a value statement; it is a matter of fact. And in the changing world these courses are of interest to all students—Jews and non-Jews alike.”
University for a Day offers a series of mini-courses on Jewish secularism, an exciting new field at the vanguard of Jewish Studies. A select group of scholars from throughout the U.S. and Israel will offer the public a sampling of their own courses in this field. University for a Day will be held at the New School’s Theresa Lang Community Center, 55 W. 13th St.; it will begin at 10 am with a keynote by David Biale and will continue, with brief breaks (and a break for lunch, which is included), until 5:30 pm.
A Conversation on Jewish Secularism, moderated by NPR’s Robert Siegel, features two important and erudite thinkers who have written about secular Jewish history: David Biale, author of Not in the Heavens and Chair of the Department of History at the University of California–Davis; and Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity, an intellectual biography of the first secular Jew.
“Not since the time of the European Enlightenment, in the eighteenth century, has so much passionate discussion swirled around the philosophical issues of religion and science, faith and reason,” said Goldstein. “As is apt to happen in emotional discussions, positions get flattened, nuance squeezed out. The notion of Jewish Secularism is a way of injecting some of the complexity back into the discussion.”
The discussion about Jewish secularism comes at an auspicious time. Recent studies, including the 2001 American Jewish Identity Survey (AJIS 2001), show that almost half of American Jews see themselves as "secular" or "somewhat secular." Another important study—the 2008 American Religious Identity Survey (ARIS)—shows a dramatic increase overall in secularity among the American population (from 8.2 percent in 1990, to 14.2 percent in 2001, to 15 percent in 2008). ARIS 2008 shows that the Jewish population continues to secularize at a more rapid pace than the American population at large. More information is available at www.americanreligionsurvey-aris.org
"This underscores the need for innovative courses on the secularization of Jewish life and thought," said Mr. Posen. "It also spotlights the need for new approaches to the subject.
"These core courses are unique," Mr. Posen continued. "Unlike other Jewish Studies courses, which may touch on Jewish secularization, the "core" courses in the Posen grant program treat Jewish secularization as its own discrete subject, and devote an entire quarter, semester, or year to its understanding."
David Biale added:
“Jews have been at the forefront of movements of secularization since the age of Enlightenment and are among the most secular of peoples in today's world. Yet the intellectual and social origins of this tendency toward secularism are poorly understood. A Conversation on Jewish Secularism will explore the Jewish secular tradition, its roots in the Jewish religion and its continuing legacy today.”
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The full list of mini-courses offered as part of University for a Day is available at www.posenfoundation.com/events.html
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