Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies

The Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies is a DFG-Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe directed by Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Veltri. It opened in October 2015 and will run for nine years. The central aim of the Maimonides Centre is to explore and research scepticism in Judaism in its dual manifestation as a purely philosophical tradition and as a more general expression of sceptical strategies, concepts, and attitudes in the cultural field.

MCAS offers a senior and junior fellowship programme that allows both internationally established scholars and aspiring early career researchers to participate for either extended or shorter periods of time.

The senior fellows for this summer term are:

• Agata Bielik-Robson (University of Nottingham)
• Alessandra Veronese (Università di Pisa)
• Serena Di Nepi (Sapienza Università di Roma)
• Michael Friedrich (Universität Hamburg)
• Anat Schechtman (University of Texas at Austin)
• Diego Lucci (American University in Bulgaria)
• Saverio Campanini (Alma Mater - Università di Bologna)
• Leore Sachs-Shmueli (Bar-Ilan University)
• Svetlana Natkovich (Haifa University)

Questioning Authority.

Kabbalah between Dialectical Disputes, Religious Dissent, and Proto-Academic Scholarship in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

18 - 19 June, 2024.

In his autobiography, Ani ha-Mekhunneh, the erstwhile converso and later Sabbatian Kabbalist Avraham Miguel Cardozo (1626–1706) records the terms of a Jewish-Christian dispute on the nature of the Shekhinah. He relates that his beliefs were shattered to the core when a certain monk challenged the rabbis of Venice by asking whether the Shekhinah was eternal or created. Their inability to answer this question engulfed the young Cardozo in serious doubts: he became aware that behind the dilemma, which questioned the very notion of divine unity, lay the problem of the human ability to know God. From its emergence in the late Middle Ages and throughout the early modern period, kabbalistic literature was harnessed for controversy not only between Judaism and Christianity, but also within Judaism itself. Moreover, kabbalistic literature was often itself a matter of dispute, with its opponents frequently doubting the primordial antiquity of its texts and hence questioning their authority. As exemplified by the heterodox sceptic Cardozo, who was torn between kabbalistic Judaism, Sabbatian messianism, and Christianity, this workshop explores the role of controversies and religious dissent in the history of Kabbalah, both within Judaism and beyond.

Convenors

• Níels Eggerz (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main)
• Margherita Mantovani (Alma Mater - Università di Bologna)

Participants

• Emma Abate (Alma Mater - Università di Bologna)
• Saverio Campanini (Alma Mater - Università di Bologna)
• Matt Goldish (Ohio State University)
• Mark Gondelman (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main)
• Moshe Idel (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
• Efrat Lederfein-Gilboa (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
• Agata Paluch (Freie Universität Berlin)
• Leor Sachs-Shmueli (Bar Ilan University)
• Tzahi Weiss (The Open University) 

 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SCEPTICISM IN PHILOSOPHY, JUDAISM, AND CULTURE

16 - 19 July 2024

The value of scepticism in philosophy has been judged in different ways throughout history. To name but a few examples: Pyrrhonists conceived of scepticism as a means of reaching happiness, while later philosophers, especially in early modern times, came to equate a sceptical attitude with an incurable malady.

Despite their differences, however, all thinkers agreed on seeing scepticism as something deeply bound up with the human condition; that is, with the fundamental contradiction of both being finite and also having to come to terms with an infinitely complex world.

As MCAS’s research from the last years has shown, however, scepticism is also relevant beyond philosophy, in other domains of human thought and practice that are characterised by a finite nature and are therefore far from certain. In Judaism, for instance, scepticism has been considered a threat to religion because of its tendency to undermine religious beliefs, but also as a useful set of dialectical strategies to prove opponents wrong or to lead them back to (relatively) certain matters, such as the halakha. Cultural scepticism, moreover, plays an important role in questioning authoritative norms, thereby paving the way for change and renewal.

The fourth summer school convened by the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies—Jewish Scepticism will explore the varied significance of scepticism from a novel, interdisciplinary point of view, paying particular attention to Jewish thought and culture. More precisely, it will bring together philosophers, experts in religious and Jewish studies, art historians, and literary scholars, in order to investigate the multifaceted phenomenon of early modern scepticism from three perspectives:

1. The Significance of Scepticism in Philosophy: What makes scepticism such a pervasive and persistent topic in philosophy? Why did it matter to philosophy, and is it still important to it?

2. The Significance of Scepticism in Judaism: To what extent is scepticism an element of Jewish life, thought, and culture? And is there a form of scepticism that is distinctively Jewish?

3. The Significance of Scepticism in the Fine Arts: To what extent do some works of art reflect a sceptical attitude on the part of the artist and to what extent do they seek to elicit such an attitude from their audience? And what is the precise significance of the scepticism involved in the fine arts?

The aim of this summer school is to explore the various ways in which scepticism can be significant in different domains. It is intended for students and scholars from different backgrounds (ranging from history of philosophy to Jewish studies, religious studies, theatre and literary studies, and art history). MA and PhD students as well as early postdocs are invited to consider the multifaceted significance of scepticism and to share their unique views on it.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SCEPTICISM IN PHILOSOPHY, JUDAISM, AND CULTURE

21 - 24 July 2024

The value of scepticism in philosophy has been judged differently: while Pyrrhonist sceptics conceived of scepticism as a way to happiness, later philosophers – especially in the early modern period – conceived of it as a malady from which we cannot be cured. Yet, for all this disagreement these philosophers agreed that scepticism is deeply bound up with our human condition: our predicament of being finite and yet having to come to terms with an infinite complex world. As research at MCAS over the previous years has shown, scepticism is also relevant for other domains of human thought and practice, which are equally affected by our finite nature, which prevents us from attaining certainty.

Keynote Speaker

• Giuseppe Veltri (Universität Hamburg)

Participants

• Richard Bett (John Hopkins University)
• Daniel Boyarin (University of California, Berkeley)
• Michael Della Rocca (Yale University)
• Yehuda Halper (Bar Ilan University)
• Zev Harvey (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
• Ehud Krinis (Ben Gurion University of the Negev)
• Adi Louria Hayon (Tel Aviv University)
• Diego Lucci (American University in Bulgaria)
• Diego Machuca (CONICET, Argentina)
• Yitzhak Melamed (John Hopkins University)
• Chiara Rover (Universität Hamburg)
• Stephan Schmid (Universität Hamburg)
• Johanna Schmitt (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)
• Andreas Speer (Universität zu Köln)
• Joseph Stern (The University of Chicago)

The German Research Foundation (DFG) has selected Prof. Dr. Ze'ev Strauss from the Department of Religions at the University of Hamburg as one of the ten winners of the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize. 

The award is regarded as the most important prize for the promotion of young academics in Germany.