Instructor: Prof. Edward Breuer
Bio: Edward Breuer is a native of Montreal, Canada, and received his MA and Phd from Harvard in the field of Jewish intellectual history. He taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Loyola University, and then made aliyah to Jerusalem in 2001, where he currently teaches in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University. Breuer's research has focused on the writings of Moses Mendelssohn. He is currently writing a volume with Marc Z. Brettler on the Jewish reception of biblical criticism.
Course description: Moses Mendelssohn was one of the most formidable Jewish intellectuals of the eighteenth century, and Jerusalem remains one of his most important works. This course will begin with an overview of Mendelssohn's life and Jewish writings, after which we will turn to the events that lead to the publication of Jerusalem in 1783. Most of the course will be dedicated to a careful reading and analysis of this text, with an eye to Mendelssohn's bold attempt at imagining a modern liberal state in distinctly Jewish terms.
Dates: December 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10
Time: 18:00-21:00
Registration: info@ashkenazium.eu
