Two conferences to explore role of Judaism

In the middle of the 17th century, Baruch Spinoza was expelled his from his Amsterdam synagogue, apparently for heresy. How that experience, and Judaism itself, shaped his life and work — and how he himself shaped modern Judaism — will be the subject of a conference at the university Oct. 7-10.

According to conference organizer Steven Nadler, UW–Madison professor of philosophy, Spinoza made his mark as a philosopher by his unswerving belief that God is nature, that the roots of organized religion are in the passions and superstition, and the Bible is just a work of literature.

Scholars from Yale, Stanford, Vanderbilt, the University of Chicago, University College London, Tel Aviv University and elsewhere will consider the role Spinoza’s Jewish background played in the formation and evolution of his philosophical principles, and Jewish reception of them.

“Spinoza and Judaism” opens at 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 7. The conference, sponsored by the UW–Madison Center for Jewish Studies and the Department of Philosophy, will be in 6191 Helen C. White Hall.

A century or so after Spinoza, Johann Wolfgang Goethe came to prominence as a champion of the Sturm und Drang movement in which young writers revolted against prevailing literary standards of the day. His work, greatly influenced by Spinoza’s, led to the importance of characters’ psychological development in later German novels. Equally accomplished as a scientist as well as a literary figure, Goethe’s discovery of the itermaxillary bone in 1784 played a role in Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Klaus L. Berghahn, professor of German and coordinator of the symposium, says the question of whether Goethe was anti-Semitic has been debated endlessly; the Jewish reaction to Goethe, a newer direction of inquiry, will be explored at Oct. 28-30 in “Goethe in German-Jewish Culture.”

“We want to show the complexity of the German-Jewish symbiosis on which the reception of Goethe’s works by a Jewish audience played an important role,” Berghahn says.

Organized by the Center for European Studies in cooperation with the Department of German and the Center for Jewish Studies, the symposium will bring together faculty from across the country and around the world. Opening the event Thursday, Oct. 28, at 7:30 p.m. will be Michael Engelhard, consul general of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Sessions will be held in the Lakeshore Room of the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St.

Both events are free and open to the public. For complete information about “Spinoza and Judaism,” contact Steven Nadler, (608) 263-3741. For more information about “Goethe in German-Jewish Culture,” contact Joan Leffler, (608) 262-2193.