Why Spinoza Matters Now: Truth and Freedom in America Today

Presented by the American Sephardi Federation and Jewish Lives at Yale University Press:

Join us for a lively and timely discussion celebrating the launch of Ian Buruma’s new book, Spinoza: Freedom’s Messiah. Buruma will be joined on the panel by Steven Nadler, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, & Clémence Boulouque

Sunday, 31 March at 3:00PM EST

In-Person @ the ASF – Center for Jewish History

Tickets: $15-$500

350 years after his death, the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza remains vitally relevant — especially in this period of deep political division and with the threat to liberal democracy not only in Europe and elsewhere, but right here at home. Spinoza was the most open and important proponent of democracy, toleration, politics free from religious sectarian interference, and freedom of expression in the early modern period. He was also “cancelled” (Herem) by Amsterdam’s Jewish community.

See this New Yorker review, “Baruch Spinoza and the Art of Thinking in Dangerous Times,” as well as Buruma’s latest, “The 17th-Century Heretic We Could Really Use Now,” in The New York Times

Bard College Professor Ian Buruma, author of Spinoza: Freedom’s Messiah (Jewish Lives – Yale University Press)

Moderator, Columbia University Professor Clémence Boulouque, author of Another Modernity: Elia Benamozegh’s Jewish Universalism (Stanford University Press)

University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Steven Nadler, author of Spinoza: A Life (Cambridge University Press) and Menasseh ben Israel: Rabbi of Amsterdam (Jewish Lives – Yale University Press)

Dr. Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity (Jewish Encounters Series)