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NEWS RELEASE |
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the new school launches
jewish cultural studies program with focus on secular
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NEW YORK, October 23, 2009—The New School for General Studies announces the launch of a new Jewish Cultural Studies program this fall, as part of its Adult Bachelor's and Continuing Education programs. This curriculum explores Jewish cultural life, with a particular focus on secularism in Jewish communities and the contributions of Jewish thinkers to secular intellectual traditions.
To celebrate this launch, The New School will present Jewish Cultural Pluralism, a panel discussion on Monday, November 16, that will reflect on efforts to maintain autonomous cultural traditions within political states, and the ways in which Jewish thinkers have contemplated coexistence. Panelists include Michael Walzer, editor of Dissent and The Jewish Political Tradition, author of Pluralism and Democracy, On Toleration, and Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pluralism and Equality; and New School for Social Research professor Yirmiyahu Yovel, the editor of New Jewish Time: Jewish Culture in the Era of Secularization, and author of The Other Within: The Marranos, Split Identity and Emerging Modernity and Spinoza and Other Heretics.
Jewish intellectual life has deep roots at The New School. Between the World Wars, many prominent Jewish scholars lectured at the university in the social sciences, humanities, and the arts. In 1933, The New School demonstrated its commitment to academic freedom by establishing the University in Exile to provide a safe haven for persecuted scholars including Leo Strauss and Max Wertheimer; they were later joined by such distinguished Jewish emigrés as Hannah Arendt and Hans Jonas. Supported by a grant from the Posen Foundation, this new program explores the legacies of Jewish thinkers who questioned, engaged with, or adopted a secular stance.
“The New School is exactly the right place for a Jewish Cultural Studies Program,” said Carolyn Vellenga Berman, chair of Humanities at The New School for General Studies. “This program builds on and examines the line of inquiry that many of The New School’s early scholars wrestled with. We are offering a range of courses that explore secularism in Jewish communities and the contributions of Jewish thinkers to core intellectual traditions.”
Almaz Zelleke, associate dean for Academic Affairs at The New School for General Studies, added, “Despite the uncertain economy, The New School is continuing to expand its academic offerings, offering probing courses by distinguished scholars and practitioners.”
This year’s course offerings include: Ethics Without Religion: Secular Jewish Thought from Spinoza to Arendt, The Origins of Secular Society: A Jewish Intellectual History, The Literature of the Jewish-American Experience, and The Book of the world: Interpretation in Freud, Kafka, Benjamin, and Derrida.
The November 16 panel discussion will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the New School's Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Auditorium, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, 66 Fifth Avenue. Admission is free, but seating is limited and reservations are required by emailing [email protected].
To learn more about Jewish Cultural Studies at The New School visit: www.newschool.edu/jewishculture.
The New School for General Studies, the founding division of The New School, has been a leader in adult education since the early twentieth century. Independent-minded scholars, including historian Charles Beard and philosopher John Dewey, founded The New School in 1919 as a place where social criticism and modern arts could flourish. From its roots in the social sciences, the school has grown to encompass hundreds of courses in a variety of disciplines, as well as lecture series, seminars and public programs. Today, the school continues to honor its mission to serve the intellectual, cultural, artistic, and professional needs and interests of adult students by offering an innovative education to a growing number of undergraduates and adult learners. For more information, please visit www.newschool.edu/generalstudies/.
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