Rosenzweig for the Contemporary Moment: A (Zoom) Roundtable Celebration of Star of Redemption’s 100th Anniversary

in partnership with the Week of Jewish Philosophy co-sponsored by University of Colorado Boulder’s Program in Jewish Studies & University of Denver’s Center for Judaic Studies

In honor of the 100th anniversary of Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig’s classic text, the Star of Redemption, join Political Theology Network for a special roundtable on this text’s relation to the current political moment. June 1, 4-5:30 EDT (2pm-3:30 MDT) Register for Zoom link at bit.ly/rosenzweig-star100 Questions? Email [email protected]

Co-facilitators: Elias Sacks (University of Colorado Boulder, Jewish Studies & Religious Studies) Elias Sacks is professor of Religious Studies and the director of the Program in Jewish Studies at University of Colorado Boulder. His research focuses on the modern period, with particular areas of interest including Jewish thought, Jewish-Christian relations, philosophy of religion, religion and politics, hermeneutics, and religious ethics. He is the author of Moses Mendelssohn’s Living Script: Philosophy, Practice, History, Judaism (Indiana University Press, 2017) and is currently working on a second book, Nachman Krochmal and the Struggle for Modern Jewish Politics.

Sarah Pessin (University of Denver, Judaic Studies & Philosophy) Sarah Pessin is Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Thought at the University of Denver where she holds an Interfaith Chair. She works in areas of phenomenology and ethics, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of race. She is the author of Ibn Gabirol’s Theology of Desire: Matter and Method in Jewish Medieval Neoplatonism (Cambridge University Press, 2013), and a co-editor of Medieval Philosophy: A Multicultural Reader (Bloomsbury 2019). She is currently working on a book on “pardon and pause” in early Levinas, as well as a Levinas-inspired study of “uncomfortable virtues” towards healthier political futures.

Panelists: “Rosenzweig, Race, and Supersessionism” Leora Batnitzky (Princeton University, Religion) explores implications of the blood community in Star 3:1 in the context of recent discussions of race and supersessionism. Leora Batnitzky is Ronald O. Perelman Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of Religion at Princeton; she works in areas of philosophy of religion, modern Jewish thought, hermeneutics, and contemporary legal and political theory. She is the author of Idolatry and Representation: The Philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig Reconsidered (Princeton, 2000), Leo Strauss and Emmanuel Levinas (Cambridge, 2006), and How Judaism Became a Religion (Princeton, 2011).

“Can Political Action Be Redemptive?” Martin Kavka (Florida State University, Religion) considers redemption in the Star and apocalypse in Aimé Césaire's “Notebook of a Return to the Native Land”, arguing that Césaire does better than Rosenzweig on questions of possibility, politics, and minority identities. Martin Kavka is Professor of Religion at Florida State University, where he also directs the Program in Interdisciplinary Humanities. He is the author of Jewish Messianism and the History of Philosophy, which won the Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in Philosophy and Jewish Thought in 2008 from the Association for Jewish Studies, and the editor of four volumes on Jewish philosophy. On July 1, he and his colleague Aline Kalbian will step down from a decade of editing the Journal of Religious Ethics.

“Prophetic Politics and Political Resistance in the Star of Redemption” Randi Raskhover (College of William and Mary, Religious Studies) investigates whether or not (and on what grounds) there's an account of deliberative political reflection in the Star that can suffice to support political resistance against tyranny or totalitarianism as defined by Arendt. Randi Rashkover holds the Nathan and Sofia Gumenick Chair in Judaic Studies at William & Mary. She is the author of Revelation and Theopolitics: Barth, Rosenzweig and the Politics of Praise (T&T Clark 2005), Freedom and Law: A Jewish-Christian Apologetics (Fordhman 2011) and most recently Nature and Norm: Judaism, Christianity and the Theopolitical Problem (Academic Studies Press 2020). She has edited and co-edited a number of volumes including, Judaism, Liberalism and Political Theology (Indiana University Press 2014) with Martin Kavka.

“ ‘Both Lawful and Coercive’: Reading Western Political Rationality Like an Abolitionist Would” Larisa Reznik (Pomona College, Religious Studies) explores whether Rosenzweig’s discussion of legal violence in the Star can in any meaningful way engage with current abolitionist work on policing and state violence. Larisa Reznik is the Stauffacher Visiting Scholar in Religious Studies at Pomona College. Her research and teaching focus on religious thought in the modern west, religion and politics, Jewish studies, and gender and sexuality studies in religion. She is currently working on two book projects, tentatively titled Modern Jewish Thought and the Politics of Political Theology and Theological Realism and the Jargon of Authenticity.