Throughout Jewish history, Jews have struggled with the question of what ties them to all other human beings and what sets them apart. This question has taken on particular relevance in the contemporary world, where Jews in the United States and Israel must determine how their Judaism relates to their duties as citizens—in a country founded on the principle that all men are created equal, on the one hand, and in a Jewish state, on the other. This course will investigate the interplay of Jewish, civic, and cosmopolitan identity through a study of sections from four classic texts from the ancient world: Herodotus’s History, Aristotle’s Politics, the Book of Exodus, and the Book of Esther. As Jews, we will ask: what does it mean to be a human being and a citizen? As human beings and citizens, we will ask: what does it mean to be a Jew?
Dr. Aaron Tugendhaft
Aaron Tugendhaft studied history and philosophy at the University of Chicago, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Sorbonne. Since receiving his doctorate in ancient Near Eastern Studies from New York University in 2012, he has taught broadly within the humanities on four continents and has become a staunch advocate of traditional liberal education as a corrective to premature professionalization, academic hyperspecialization, and political polarization. His most recent book, The Idols of ISIS: From Assyria to the Internet (University of Chicago Press, 2020), is a philosophical meditation on an Islamic State video of iconoclasm that explores the political power of images and the significance of their destruction. In fall 2021, he joined the history department and became a director of interdisciplinary programs at the Ramaz School in New York City.