Conference 2004

Colloquium on Political Hebraism, August 23-26
Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem

Opening Evening (Monday, August 23)

2:00 pm
Registration at Mishkenot Sha’ananim and check into rooms at Mishkenot Sha’ananim Guesthouse and Mt. Zion Hotel
4:30 pm
Reception
5:30 pm
Welcome: Daniel Polisar, President, The Shalem CenterIntroductory Remarks: Yoram Hazony, Conference Co-Chairman,
Senior Fellow, The Shalem CenterKeynote Address: Fania Oz-Salzberger, Professor of Law and
History, University of Haifa
Topic: “The Political Thought of John Locke and the Significance of Political Hebraism: Then and Now”

Respondent:
Gordon Schochet, Conference Co-Chairman, Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University

7:30 pm
Leave for Dinner at La Guta Restaurant

Day 1 (Tuesday, August 24): Reading the Bible as Politics

9:30 am
Gathering and Refreshments
10:00 am
Session 1: Political Lessons of the Hebrew Bible and Early ApplicationsModerator: Daniel Doneson, Associate Fellow, The Shalem Center.

Yoram Hazony, Conference Co-Chairman, Senior Fellow,
The Shalem Center
Topic: “Does the Hebrew Bible Have a Political Teaching?”

Steven Grosby, Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Clemson University
Topic: “The Nation as a Problem for Philosophy”

Richard Landes, Professor of Political Science, Boston University
Topic: “Isonomia, Manual Labor and the Biblical Contribution to Democracy in the Modern World”

Discussion

12:00 pm
Lunch and Break
2:00 pm
Session 2: Judaic Sources in Sixteenth Century Italian Thought:
Machiavelli’s Bible to Postel’s KabbalaModerator: Hillay Zmora, Professor of History, Ben-Gurion UniversityChristopher Lynch, Professor of Political Science, Carthage
College
Topic: “Machiavelli on Reading the Bible Judiciously”

Abraham Melamed, Professor of Jewish Philosophy,
University of Haifa
Topic: “Machiavelli on the Founders of the Hebrew Nation: A Prototype for Political Leadership”

Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann, Professor, Institute for
Philosophy, Free University, Berlin
Topic: “Political Theology in Early Christian Kabbala:
Galatinus and Postel”

Discussion

4:00 pm
Coffee Break
4:30 pm
Session 3: Biblical Traditions in French Political Thought: From Bodin to BossuetModerator: Gary Remer, Professor of History and Political Thought, Tulane University

Rodrigo Sanchez, PhD Candidate, Committee on Social
Thought, University of Chicago
Topic: “From Religionskreig to Religiongesprach: The Path of Bodin’s Colloquium Heptaplomeres”

Jeremy Rabkin, Professor of Government, Cornell University
Topic: “At the Dawn of Political Hebraism: Hebraic Subtexts in Jean Bodin’s Republique”

Emile Perreau-Saussine, Professor of Political Thought, Cambridge University Topic: “Why Draw a Politics from Scripture? Bossuet and the Divine Right of Kings”

Discussion

Day 2 (Wednesday, August 25): The Hebrew Republic in Early Modern Europe

8:30 am
Gathering and Refreshments
9:00 am
Session 4: Ancient Israel as a Model for Contemporary PoliticsModerator: Michael Heyd, Professor of History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Kalman Neuman, Post-Doctoral Fellow, The Mandel School
Topic: “The Literature of the Respublica Judaica: Reconstructing the Israelite Polity”

Noah Dauber, PhD Candidate, Department of Government, Harvard University
Topic: “Geneva, Rome, and Jerusalem: The analysis of the קהל in two early studies of the Respublica Hebraeorum.”

Discussion

10:30 pm
Coffee Break
11:00 pm
Session 5: Judaic Sources in Dutch Political DiscourseModerator: Aaron Katchen, Executive Director Emeritus, Association for Jewish Studies

Arthur Eyffinger, Constantijn Huygens Instituut, The Hague
Topic: “Hugo Grotius’ De Republica Emendanda in the Context of
the Dutch Revolt”

Miriam Bodian, Professor of Jewish History, Graduate School
for Jewish Studies, Touro College, New York City
Topic: “The Biblical “Jewish Republic” and the Dutch “New
Israel” in Seventeenth Century Dutch Thought”

Theodor Dunkelgrün, PhD Student, Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago
Topic: “The Maimonidean Irenicism of Hugo Grotius”

Discussion

1:00 pm
Lunch and Break
3:00 pm
Session 6: The Bible in British Political Thought and ActionModerator: Ofir Haivry, Associate Fellow, The Shalem Center

Matt Goldish, Professor of History, Ohio State University
Topic: “The Erastian Hebraism of John Lightfoot and John \
Selden”

Jason Rosenblatt, Professor of English Literature, Georgetown
University
Topic: “Rabbinic Ideas in the Political Thought of John Selden”

Gary Remer, Professor of History and Political Thought, Tulane
University
Topic: “James Harrington’s Commonwealth of Israel”

Discussion

5:30 pm
Leave for optional walk through the Western Wall tunnel and short bus tour around Old City walls.

Day 3 (Thursday, August 26): Alternative Readings and the Legacy of Hebraism

8:30 am
Check out of hotel rooms for people leaving hotels on this day
9:30 am
Gathering and Refreshments
10:00 am
Session 7: The Role of the Jews in Political Hebraism: De’Rossi to SpinozaModerator: Eric Schleisser, Post-Doctoral Fellow in Philosophy and Social Thought, Washington University

Sharon Green, Professor of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto
Topic: “Azariah de’Rossi and the Politics of Biblical
Humanism”

Kenneth Green, Professor of Jewish Thought, University of Toronto
Topic: “Spinoza’s Defense of the Bible in the Theologico-Political Treatise”

Menachem Lorberbaum, Professor of Jewish Thought, Tel Aviv University and The Hartman Institute.
Topic: “Spinoza’s Political Theology”

Discussion

12:00 pm
Lunch and Break
1:30 pm
Session 8: The Legacy of Hebraism in Modern Political ThoughtModerator: Fania Oz-Salzberger, Professor of Law and History, University of Haifa

Alan Mittleman, Professor of Modern Jewish Thought, Jewish
Theological Seminary
Topic: “Some Thoughts on the Covenantal Politics of Johannes Althusius”

Jonathan Jacobs, Professor of Philosophy and Religion,
Colgate University
Topic: “Return to the Sources: Political Hebraism and the Making of Modern Politics”

Discussion

3:00 pm
Coffee Break
3:30 pm
Session 9: Closing Address and Plenary DiscussionKeynote Address:
Gordon Schochet, Conference Co-Chairman, Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University
Topic: “The Judeo-Christian Tradition as Imposition: Present at the Creation?”Plenary Moderator: Daniel Polisar, President, The Shalem Center
6:00 pm
Closing Dinner at Mishkenot Sha’ananim