Library Events
Join us for one of our upcoming library events.
All in-person events will be held at the Klau Library in Cincinnati.
The Moral Dilemma Created by a Religious Canon: Reflections on How to Read, How to Teach, How to Live (Hybrid Event)
with David Aaron
Tuesday, April 29, 12:30 pm ET
Klau Library and Online
With the intensification of approaches in cultural studies that call into question the morality of social developments–everything from feminism to colonialism to contemporary takes on Marxist theory—engagement with a religious canon raises all sorts of questions that challenge a person’s and a community’s ethical values. How should we read misogynistic or racist passages? How should we teach texts that assume a class system most today would find undesirable? How can we base our lives on texts whose ethical sensibilities regarding fairness and justice are radically at odds with out own? By limiting a community’s modes of self-expression to a canon, religious authorities sought to sustain the power interests of those already in control. Canons, whose fundamental purpose is exclusionary, are designed to influence the formation of values with a religious community. We who inherit a canon can only alter those values through interpretation. But is this enough? Doesn’t the very existence of a canon limit the degree to which a community’s values can be updated? Every time we insist on starting with a document of the canon, are we not handing a posthumous victory to the previous generations who did everything in their power to control the varieties of discourse possible within the religious community? Or, is canon always surmountable and nothing more than a formalism incapable of exerting significant control over the evolution of a religious community?
Were the Ancient Israelites Monotheistic? (Hybrid Event)
with Bill Arnold
Wednesday, May 7, 12:00 pm ET
Klau Library and Online
The Ancient Israelites worshiped God within the broader context of religious expression in the ancient Near East, and yet the Israelites are generally perceived as devoted to the biblical God, YHVH, exclusively. In this talk, we will explore the conceptualization of deity in antiquity, and particularly how ideas about divinity are reflected in the presentation of God in the Hebrew Bible. Join us as we evaluate what it meant to follow the one biblical God, and gain a deeper understanding of the landscape of practice in the ancient world.
This program is funded by the Pines School of Graduate Studies in partnership with the Klau Library.
To join us for the (free!) catered lunch, please make sure you have registered for this event.
Bill T. Arnold (PhD, Hebrew Union College) is Paul S. Amos Professor of Old Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. He is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, including Ancient Israel’s History, Who Were the Babylonians?, Encountering the Old Testament, Encountering the Book of Genesis, Dictionary of the Old Testament: Historical Books, A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, and a commentary on 1 and 2 Samuel.
Register
Feld Lecture: The Wild Within: Exploring Landscape and Memory in Yiddish Literature (Hybrid Event)
with Robert Adler Peckerar
Monday, June 9th
Reception at 5 pm ET, Lecture at 5:30 pm ET
Klau Library and Online
Before the Second World War, Yiddish literature painted vivid, intricate maps of Jewish life in Eastern Europe—charting not just the physical terrain, but the imagination itself. Robert Adler Peckerar’s recent translations unearth powerful stories rooted in this terrain, and this talk delves into how the region’s history and geography shaped the works of three very different writers. Moyshe Kulbak’s modernist poetry, Itzik Manger’s novel with its seemingly naive takes on religious themes, and the captivating Hasidic tales of Nachman of Bratzlav, all share a common thread: a deep connection to place. Join us as we explore these literary landscapes, uncovering the silent echoes and haunting memories that linger in these places.
Robert Adler Peckerar is a cultural historian and translator dedicated to sharing the complex richness of Yiddish literature and East European Jewish culture. He holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley and was professor of Jewish literature and culture at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His acclaimed translations and cultural programs delve into the historical and personal landscapes of pre-Holocaust Jewish life. He is currently the CEO of Topa Institute, an intercultural arts center based in Ojai and Los Angeles, California.
This event is brought to you by a partnership of the Klau Library and the Mayerson JCC of Cincinnati.
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