"What Can Jewish Culture of Pre-War Germany Teach Us Today?" with Professor Michael Brenner

Tuesday, October 23 @ 7:30 - 9:00 PM Adas Israel Congregation  Register Here

Seymour and Lillian Abensohn Chair in Israel Studies, American University and Professor of Jewish History and Culture, Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich, Germany

The 19th Century German Jewish community was the first to attempt to integrate Jewish traditions into a modern European society. Today, it might appear that this attempt failed as a result of the rise of Nazism, and the tragic events of World War II and the Holocaust. But from a distance of almost 80 years, perhaps this conclusion should be reconsidered, as we look at the extent to which the prewar German Jewish community served as the cultural pioneers and role models for Jewish communities generally, and in particular the American Jewish community.

This program is made possible by the generosity of the Wagner-Braunsberg Family Foundation as part of an ongoing series on German-Jewish heritage. There is no registration fee for this lecture.

Michael Brenner is the Seymour and Lillian Abensohn Chair in Israel Studies and Director of AU’s Center for Israel Studies. He received his PhD at Columbia University and taught previously at Indiana and Brandeis Universities. Since 1997 he has been Professor of Jewish History and Culture at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich. He had visiting appointments at numerous universities, including Haifa, Paris, Budapest, Stanford, Berkeley, and Johns Hopkins. Professor Brenner is an elected fellow of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, the American Academy for Jewish Research and the Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana in Mantua. He is the International President of the Leo Baeck Institute and serves on many academic boards, including the Association for Israel Studies, the Israel Institute, the DAAD Center of the University of Haifa and is board chair of the Franz Rosenzweig Research Center of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

His books have been translated into ten languages and include A Short History of the Jews; Prophets of the Past: Interpreters of Jewish History; Zionism: A Brief History; The Renaissance of Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany, and After the Holocaust: Rebuilding Jewish Lives in Postwar Germany. He is co-author of the four-volume German-Jewish History in Modern Times and editor of seventeen books, among them a study of religion and state in Israel.

Professor Brenner comes to us through the Association for Jewish Studies Distinguished Lectureship Program.

Co-sponsored by the Foundation for Jewish Studies