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THE * JEWISH * STUDIES * NEWSLETTER
positions & events in academic Jewish Studies
____________________________________________________________
Issue 6.004p2   *   July 1997   *   Readership = 6200+
for additional information: http://h-net.msu.edu/~judaic
____________________________________________________________
Table of Contents:		<best read as a print-out>

	EVENTS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, and MISCELLANEOUS:
		- New York Public Library Renovation News
		- JHS Preprints and Reprints Series
		- New Article - Journal of Hebrew Scriptures
		- Moreshet: Holocaust Study Center
		- Canadian Jewish Book Awards - 1997
		- Correction - "Report on the 4th Annual Sefer Academic Conference"
		- Second International Conference:  Jews in a Changing World
		- New Book Announcement - "True Heroes"
		- More Jewish Books on Tape Needed
		- Maimonides List Launch

------------------------------------------------------------

From: Christine Hoffman <choffman@nypl.org
Subject: New York Public Library Renovation News

     ***NYPL'S CENTRAL RESEARCH LIBRARY TO UNDERGO RENOVATIONS***
     
     Beginning in the summer of 1997, The New York Public Library will
undertake a number of major renovations in its landmark building at Fifth
Avenue and 42nd Street, completing the building's transformation to NYPL's
Center for the Humanities.  One of the largest and most comprehensive
humanities collections in the United States, the Center will make physical
improvements to several of its reading rooms, develop a new Center for
Scholars and Writers, and add enhanced computer-based access to electronic
information in the humanities and to non-print media materials. 
     The first and largest of these renovations is the complete
rehabilitation of the Main Reading Room on the third floor.  Main Reading
Room renovations are scheduled to begin in late summer 1997 and to be
completed early in 1999. Schedules for other projects will be announced as
soon as they are available.
     Continuing, detailed information on renovations and any anticipated
service changes will be available on NYPL's Website at:
     
     http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/chss.html
     
     Christine Hoffman
     CHSS Special Assistant for Planning
     choffman@nypl.org

---------

From: Jewish Heritage Society <heritage@glasnet.ru
Subject: JHS Preprints and Reprints Series

Preprints and Reprints of the JHS

     The revival of Jewish scholarship in the CIS and the Baltic states has
already produced dozens of research articles, monographs, bibliographies
and source studies.  These enthusiastic efforts of authors demanded prompt
publication. This demand was met by the Jewish Heritage Society Preprints
and Reprints series program.
     The JHS Preprints and Reprints series attracted many Judaica scholars
in Russia, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltics.  The authors are
especially excited about the fact that their research would not have to
wait years for publication in a scholarly journal.  It is also very
important for scholars to discover a certain demand for their intellectual
product and that they could expect possible feedback from colleagues
working in the field. The program also contributes to establishing
professional ties among scholars worldwide and fosters a vigorous exchange
of ideas.
     Recently published works (preprints 19 - 26 are available on the
Society's Web site):

In 1994 - 1995

1.  Almeev R. Legends and Proverbs of Bukharan Jews, in Russian
2.  Almeev R. Legends of the Ancient Bukhara: About the Construction of the
First Synagogue in Bukhara, in Russian
3.  Binevich E. The Early Years of Yiddish Theater in Russia, in Russian
4.  Granovskii B. Phenomenon of Giora Feidman, in Russian reprint
5.  Gusev V. Bund, Komfarband, Evsektsiia of the Communist Party of Ukraine:
Political History. 1917 - 1921, in Russian
6.  Mogilner M. The Jews in the "New" Russia. 1907 - 1914, in Russian
7.  Petriakova F. Maximillian Goldschtein: His Life and Work in Galitsia in
the First Half of the 20th Century, in Russian in 1996
8.  Banchik N. Between Uniqueness and Universalism:  Comparative Study of
History of Jews and Armenians, in Russian
9.  Binevich E. Yiddish Theater in St. Petersburg, in Russian
10. Glembotskaia G. Development of Jewish Art in Galitsia in the First Half
of the 20th Century, in Russian
11. Druziuk-Skop G., Skop L. An The Image of Galitsian Jews of the 14th -
18th Centuries in the Ukrainian Sacral Painting, in Russian
12. Kaufman Z. Jews in the Paintings of Non-Jewish Artists, in Russian
13. Naiman A. Contemporary Anti-Semitism in Ukraine, in Russian
14. Orlianskii S. The Dubnov's Theory of Cultural and National Autonomy and
Contemporary Problems of Ukrainian Jewry, in Russian
15. Senina  T. On the history of the "National Minorities" in Kremenets, in
Yiddish
16. Yukhneva N. Jews and Other Ethnic Minorities in Petersburg/Leningrad in
the Soviet and Post-Soviet period, in Russian reprint
17. Yukhneva  N. Jews of Petersburg in the Period of Reforms of the 1860s:
Sociological and Demographic Aspects, in Russian reprint
18. Podolskii A. Genocide of Jewish Population of the Middle Dnepr Region
in the Years of German Occupation. 1941 - 1944, in Russian
19. Mindlin A. Jewish Politics of Stolypin, in Russian
20. Nakhmanovich V. Jewish Politics of the Czarist Government in the 1870s.
Committee for the "Setting of Jewish Life", in Russian
21. Khaesh A. Genealogy Data from the Archive of the Eizenbet Jewish Men's
School in St. Petersburg, in Russian
22. Naiman A. Jewish Political Parties and Organizations in Ukraine.
1917-1925, in Ukrainian
23. Nosonovskii M. Epitaphs on the Jewish Thombstones in Ukraine, in Russian
24. Nosonovskii M. On the history of the Karaite Community in Derazhnia, in
English
25. Shternshis A. The Soviet Yiddish Folklore Songs, in Russian
26. Shkolnikova E. The Transformation of the Jewish shtetl in the Soviet
Union in the 1930s, in Russian with summary in English 

Jewish Heritage Society 
Russia 117449 Moscow, 
Novocheremushkinskaya Ul., 1/14-3-12
heritage@glasnet.ru

http://www.glasnet.ru/~heritage/

---------

From: Ehud Ben Zvi <ehud.ben.zvi@ualberta.ca>
Subject: New Article - Journal of Hebrew Scriptures

     The article of Cynthia L. Miller, Kenneth M. Craig Jr. and Raymond F.
Person Jr., "Conversation Analysis and Jonah," has just been published in
the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures (JHS)
http://www.ualberta.ca/ARTS/JHS/jhs.html.  Further articles will be
published soon (see the forthcoming articles section).
     Please notice that there is an electronic discussion group so our
readers may discuss any article published in JHS. (Substantial comments may
be added at a later stage as an addendum to the article).
     To subscribe to the discussion group, please send a message saying
"subscribe jhs-list" to majordomo@ualberta.ca.  To send comments, use the
following address jhs-list@majordomo.srv.ualberta.ca

Ehud Ben Zvi, Comparative Studies in Literature, Film and Religion, MLCS,
200 Arts Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2E6
e-mail: Ehud.Ben.Zvi@UAlberta.CA

---------

From: Arieh Lebowitz <XXMN26C@prodigy.com>
Subject: MORESHET: Holocaust Study Center

     Moreshet was established in the early 1960s as a center for collecting
the testimonies of concentration camp survivors and resistance fighters
from the ghettos who found hiding in the forests of Europe.
     Since its modest beginning, Moreshet has developed into a leading
Israeli research institute and resource center for the study of the
Holocaust.  The Center, based at the campus of the Givat Haviva Institute
near Hadera in the Western Galilee, includes the Mordecai Anielewicz
Memorial Research and Study Center, other
Holocaust archives, and a publications department.
     Moreshet's publishing arm has produced hundreds of books, research
findings and memoirs, dealing with various aspects of the Holocaust.  We
also publish a journal, "Yalkut Moreshet," a respected Hebrew-language
[with English table of contents/summaries] periodical, one of the most
cited publications in the field.
     In the early 1980s, Moreshet established a Study Center for the
Teaching of the Holocaust, located on the campus of Givat Haviva.  Each
year, thousands of students from high schools all over Israel participate
in one or two-day workshops at the Center, where they meet with survivors,
view films on related topics, and discuss the public and private ordeals
that were involved in surviving that period. The programming at the Centers
is prepared by experts on the topic, who also prepare students for visits
to Holocaust sites in Poland.
     Beyond this educational work in the Hebrew language, the Study Center
at Givat Haviva also organizes seminars for groups in other languages,
including English, French, German, Spanish and Russian. Foreign tour groups
to Israel visit Givat Haviva for a day or two, attend short seminars on the
Holocaust and its effect
on Israeli society, often combined with a visit to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
     Moreshet offers a course for educators, both in Israel and abroad,
which provides enrichment training for school teachers who include the
Holocaust in their curricula.  Our course offers teachers educational
materials and responds to feedback from teachers based on their experience
teaching the subject in the
classroom.
     In 1993, eleven Israeli Arab teachers took part in an historic
Moreshet program on the Holocaust and Racism, which included a tour of
concentration camps and major cities in Poland.  In 1994, the program was
expanded to a combined course for Arab and Jewish Israeli teachers.  The
program is now in its fourth year.
     Youth movements played a leading role in the Jewish anti-Nazi
resistance.  It was only natural, therefore, that in the late 1980s, we
began to develop plans for a "youth movement campus," also in memory of
Mordechai Anielewicz, leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, and a leading
members of the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement.  Building of this campus
complex is currently under way at Givat Haviva.  The complex will focus on
the unique phenomenon of Jewish youth movements and their special role in
the history of the Jewish people in modern times, including of
course the Holocaust era and in the establishment of the State of Israel.
The center's mission has been inspired by the philosophy of the late Aba
Kovner, outstanding leader of the resistance against the Nazis in Vilnius,
thinker, writer and poet, and past director of Moreshet.  The center will
emphasize the contribution
of Jewish youth movements during the period of the Holocaust, as their
members fought against the Nazis, while at the same time working
underground to save as many Jews as possible from being sent to the death
camps.
     Moreshet works in full cooperation with other institutions of the
Givat Haviva Institute, such as the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace, the
Research and Documentation Center called "Yad Ya'ari" in memory of Meir
Ya'ari, and with other institutes inside and outside Givat Haviva, in
Israel and abroad, in various fields of
research.
     Researchers at Moreshet are currently making use of our extensive 
archival holdings to explore such topics as: The impact of the Holocaust on
Israeli society; Jewish youth movements in Europe after World War II;
biographical information of Jewish leaders of the resistance movements
against the Nazi occupation, to name a few.
     The Moreshet Archive at Givat Haviva is internationally known, and is
used by academicians in Israel and around the world.  Aside from thousands
of testimonies and primary source materials, the archive is a depository of
unique materials obtained in recent years from archives in Eastern Europe,
including documents
from the SS and Gestapo.  Included at the Givat Haviva campus are the
archives of the Hashomer Hatzair movement, and the Kibbutz Artzi Federation.
     Inquiries from abroad - and visits while in Israel - are welcome.  For
further information, please write via paper or e-Mail.

Our address:

Meir Yakter
Moreshet
Mordecai Anielewicz Memorial Study Center
Givat Haviva
Doar Na Menashe 37-850
ISRAEL
Tel: (06) 309-275
Fax: (06) 373-335
e-Mail: meir_yk@inter.net.il

---------

From: Bernard Katz <bkatz@uoguelph.ca>
Subject: Canadian Jewish Book Awards - 1997

     The Jewish Book Awards Committee of the Koffler Centre for the Arts,
in Toronto recently announced the winners of the 1997 Canadian Jewish Book
Awards. Eleven authors will share $5,000 in prizes in nine categories of
writing.  As a highlight of the awards evening on May 27 at 8pm, at the
Leah Posluns Theatre, the celebrated Canadian actress-singer, Theresa Tova,
read selections from some of this year's winning books.
     Poet Anne Michaels wins the Martin and Beatrice Fischer Prize in
Fiction for her acclaimed first novel, *Fugitive Pieces* (McClelland and
Stewart, 1996) and the well-known Winnipeg writer Carol Matas will be
awarded the Rachel Bessin-Frisch Memorial Prize for Young Adult Fiction for
*After the War* (Scholastic, 1996).  Laurentian University professor Roger
Nash wins the Henry Fuerstenberg Poetry Prize for his recent collection,
*In the Kosher Chow Mein Restaurant* (Your Scrivener Press, 1996), while
Seymour Mayne and Glen Rotchin win the Louis Lockshin Memorial Award for
their new edition of Canadian Jewish Poetry, *Jerusalem* (Vehicule, 1996),
honouring the city's 3,000th anniversary.
     The Koffler Centre President's Prize will be awarded to Manny Drukier
for his Holocaust biography-memoir, *Carved In Stone* (University of
Toronto, 1996), while the Yad Vashem Prize for Holocaust History goes to
Felicia Carmelly, for *Shattered: 50 Years of Silence* (Abbeyfield, 1996),
her history of the little-known tragedy of Romanian Transnistria.
     The Harry and Florence Topper Foundation-Milton Shier Award for
Translation from Yiddiah was won by poet Simcha Simchovitch for *A Song
Will Remain* (Lugus), his first collected book of poems in English from
Yiddish originals.  The Betty and Morris Aaron Prize for Scholarship on a
Canadian Jewish Subject will be awarded to Concordia University professors
Mervyn Butovsky and Ira Robinson, editors of the collection of essays,
*Renewing Our Days* (Vehicule), originally given as papers at a conference
about Montreal's immigrant Jewish community.
     Rabbi Steven Saltzman, of Adath Israel Congregation in North York,
wins this year's Penina Rubinoff Memorial Award for Biblical Scholarship
with his *A Small Glimmer of Light: Reflections on the Book of Genesis*
(Ktav, 1996).  The Joseph and Fay Tanenbaum Award for Canadian Jewish
History will be shared by Quebecois historian, Yves Lavertu, for *The
Bernonville Affair* (Robert Davies, 1995), concerning the attempted hiding
of a Nazi war criminal, and Vancouverite Fraidie Martz's significant *Open
Your Hearts* (Vehicule, 1996), about the Canadian Jewish community's
absorbtion of war-era orphans.

Bernard Katz, Member, Jewish Book Awards Committee 
Head, Special Collections and Library Development
University of Guelph Library
Guelph, Ontario
bkatz@uoguelph.ca // (519) 824-4120 X2089 // FAX: (519) 824-6931

---------

From: Jonathan Porath <jporath@jdc.org.il>
Subject: Correction - "Report on the 4th Annual Sefer Academic Conference"

     The lead article in the May, 1997 Jewish Studies Newsletter "Report on
the
Fourth Annual Sefer Academic Conference, February 4-6, 1997, Moscow",
posted by Stephen Feinson, was written by Rabbi Jonathan Porath, Director
of Academic Education in the Former Soviet Union for the JDC ("Joint").
Comments and reactions should be addressed to him at: jporath@jdc.org.il

---------
 
From: Jewish Scholarship in Eastern Europe: Electronic Newsletter
Subject:  2nd Int'l Conference:  Jews in a Changing World

THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: JEWS IN A CHANGING WORLD. RELIGIOUS
AND SECULAR PERSPECTIVES: THE JEWISH VIEW
Latvia, Riga, August 25 - 27, 1997
By: R.Ferber

     The First International Conference "Jews in a Changing World" was held
in Riga on August 28 - 29, 1995.  It received considerable attention in
Latvia and beyond.  37 papers were presented at the conference by
participants from Israel, the USA, Great Britain, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus,
Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia.  They dealt  with problems of demography,
culture, philosophy, Jewish education, and Jewish  communities in the
former Soviet Union.  The proceedings of the first conference  have been
prepared for publication in English and Russian in December 1996.
     The Second International Conference "Jews in a Changing World" will be
held in Riga, on August 25 - 27, 1997. Its purpose is to give a Jewish
analysis of
contemporary problems from the modern secular and classical religious
perspectives. Special attention will be given to secular religious
philosophical dialogue.  The  conference welcomes rabbinic and humanities
scholars and scientists from the Baltic States, the CIS, Central and
Western Europe, Israel, and the USA to exchange views.
     Organizers:  M.Dubin Fund of the SHAMIR Association (Latvia), Memorial
Foundation for Jewish Culture (USA), Latvian Academy of Sciences (Latvia),
Ben Gurion University of the Negev (Israel), Yeshiva University (USA).
Honorary  President of the Conference:  N. Barkan, Chief Rabbi of Riga and
Latvia.

To contact organizers:  ferber@acad.latnet.lv - Prof. Ruvin Ferber,
                        Co-Chairman of the Conference

---------

From: Jewish Scholarship in Eastern Europe: Electronic Newsletter 
Subject:  New Book Announcement - "True Heroes"

Suslensky Ya., True Heroes. Kiev, 1996
By: T.Puchkova

     The Jewish-Ukrainian friendship society and historical and literary
society "Litopys" (Ukraine) presents a new book recently published in Kiev.
     The book, "True Heroes" by Ya.Suslensky is a touching account of the
Holocaust in Ukraine dealing with Jews saved by Ukrainians at a risk of
their life. The book
is a combination of oral history by real-life participants of the Holocaust
drama and the author's analysis of the events. "True Heroes" is a living,
breathing human   story which contains numerous photographs, letters, poems
dated from the War times
to the present day. This work is also remarkable for publishing documents
that were either kept secret or made public in a distorted way by the
Soviet government.
     The author, Yakov Suslensky, being a Ukrainian Jew himself, and having
lived through the Holocaust, in 1970 he was arrested and sentenced to 7
years of concentration camps for his strive to enforce the Declaration of
Human Rights in the USSR labeled as "anti-Soviet propaganda."

For more information, contact:
puchkovt@kirtland.cc.mi.us - Tanya Puchkova

---------

From:  Jewish Scholarship in Eastern Europe: Electronic Newsletter
Subject:  List of Recent Publications

New books on Jewish history and culture published in the CIS and Baltic states
By: A.Frenkel

Auschwitz - the tragedy of the XX century: a catalogue of the exibition.
Moscow, 1995. 20 pp. In Russian

Book of memory of Jewish soldiers perished in battles with Nazism. Vol. 1,
Moscow, 1994. 550 pp., ill.  In Russian

Book of survivors:  Memoirs of Jewish soldiers, prisoners of ghettos and
concentration camps, partisans and dwellers of besieged Leningrad.  St.
Petersburg, 1995. 416 pp. In Russian

Jews in the Great Patriotic War: the contribution to the victory:  a
catalogue of the exibition.  Moscow, 1995. 32 pp. In Russian

Lessons of Holocaust and contemporary Russia: materials of the round table
of the international symposium in Moscow, April 6 - 8, 1994. Moscow, 1995.
136 pp. In Russian

University teaching of Jewish civilization in the former Soviet Union.
Moscow: Center "Sefer," 1996. 154 pp. In Russian and English

Vilnius Ghetto: List of Prisoners. Vol. 1.  Vilnius: The  State Jewish
Museum of Lithuania, 1996. 432 pp., ill. In Lithuanian, Russian, English.

Dubnova-Erlikh S., Bread and Matza: Memoirs.  Poetry.  St.Petersburg, 1994.
300 pp. In Russian

Gazov-Ginzberg A., Starkova K., Tlizarova M., eds., Qumran Texts.  Vol. 2.
St. Petersburg:  Center for Oriental Studies, 1996. 440 pp. In Russian.

Hefter M., Echo of Holocaust and the Russian Jewish question. Moscow, 1995.
296 pp. In Russian

Honcharok M., Century of will: Russian anarchism and Jews (XIX - XX
centuries). Jerusalem, 1996. 124 pp., ill. In Russian

Kahan I., A survey of History of Jews in Orenburg province in the XIX - the
beginning of the XX centuries (Based on documents from the State Archives
of Orenburg province). Orengurg, 1996. 64 pp., ill. In Russian

Poltorak D., History of Holocaust 1933 - 1945:  A collection of documentary
materials. Moscow, 1995. In Russian

Povartsov S., The cause of the death - execution by fire:  the chronicle of
the last days of Isaac Babel. Moscow, 1996. 191 pp. In Russian

Redlich S., ed., Jewish Antifascist Committee in the USSR, 1941-1948: a
Documented History. Moscow, 1996. 424 pp., ill. In Russian

Ryvkina R., Jews in Post-Soviet Russia - who are they?  A sociologic
analysis of problems of Soviet Jewry. Moscow, 1996. 240 pp. In Russian

Simanovich D., ed., Shagalovskii sbornik:  Materials of the 1th - 4th
Seminars on Marc Chagall in Vitebsk (1991 - 1995).  Vitebsk, 1996.  304
pp., ill.  In Russian

Sverdlov F., ed., Documents blame.  Holocaust: witnesses of the Red Army: A
collection of documents. Moscow, 1996. 130 pp. In Russian

Source:
frenk@lea.spb.su - Electronic bulletin "Am ha Sefer",
                   Jewish Association of St. Petersburg

---------

From: Arieh Lebowitz <XXMN26C@prodigy.com>
Subject: More Jewish Books on Tape Needed

     Ann Abrams, Librarian of Temple Israel, Boston, wrote recently about
an "opportunity to develop new services/programs/projects for Jews with
special needs in our synagogue community, with the library as the base."
She commented that "there are a limited amount of Jewish books on tape
[adding that `the Jewish Guild for the Blind ...is a non-sectarian
organization, and focuses on best sellers') 
particularly for children.  "I'm thinking of recording Jewish books on tape
as a possible project," she concluded.
     The Jewish Guild does focus on "general" books -- but there is another
Jewish non-profit agency, the Jewish Braille Institute of America, that for
many decades, has produced books of Jewish content in Braille, on tape, and
in large type for anyone who is blind, visually impaired or learning disabled.
     By produced, I mean that for the most part, dedicated groups of
volunteers have banged out on large type typewriters and on Braillers and
in front of reel-to-reel tape recorders books of Jewish content, ranging
from Woody Allen to Sholom Aleichem to Maimonides to Olomeinu to the
Silverman Haggadah ...
     Of course, today, computers help a bit, but there is still a crying
need to a) learn about - and publicize - the services and resources of the
Jewish Braille Institute, and b) to get more people involved in the
development of new and strengthening of existing volunteer groups producing
these books.
     I should add that the books are available free-of-charge, including
postage [postage to and from blind people is free of charge in and between
countries by a fascinating agreement of the Universal Postal Union, by the
way.]  Jews and non-Jews have been making use of the resources of the JBI
across the world.
     The institution is always on the lookout for good readers, devoted
volunteer groups, etc.

Their address is:

Jewish Braille Institute
110 East 30th Street
New York NY  10016
tel: (212) 889-2525

     The Executive Vice-President is Gerald M. Kass.  If and when you
contact him, please feel free to mention me - I worked there for three and
a half years in the 1980s, as Assistant to the Library Director, then
Manager of Library Services.

Special Note:  They have Braille versions of many of the principal prayer
books and haggadahs used by Reform, Orthodox, Conservative and
Reconstructionist Congregations, as well as large-type versions of these,
and other materials of use to blind, visually-impaired and learning
disabled individuals.  

     The JBL also will, upon request, "braille," record, or enlarge Jewish
textbooks for students.  

For more details, contact the above address.

NOTE:  The JBI is especially interested in developing volunteer groups of
recordists and Braillers who are religiously knowledgeable, as they had -
at least when I worked there - been underrepresented among the ranks of
their dedicated volunteers.  

---------

From: The Free Lance Academy - Maimonides List
Subject: Maimonides List Launch

                        ANNOUNCEMENT  
             INAUGURATION OF THE MAIMONIDES LIST  
 
     I am pleased to announce the formation of the Maimonides list. This
list will be devoted to slow readings of the works of this subtle
philosophic master.
     To subscribe to the Maimonides list, send a message to:
listserv@freelance.com containing the line:

     sub maimonides

     The discussion leader for the Maimonides list is Scott Michael
Alexander [smalexa@ibm.net] and he has provided the following introduction
on Maimonides:

	                          MAIMONIDES  
	
     Moses Ben Maimon, known in the West as Maimonides, (1135-1204), the
most significant Jewish philosopher, was born in Islamic Cordoba, Spain.
Apart from being a philosopher, he was famous as a jurist; physician;
international leader of the Jews; prose stylist in Arabic and Hebrew; in
short, a man of innumerable
accomplishments. 
     In his eternal monument, the Mishneh Torah, Maimonides codified the
entire corpus Judaica. The Guide of the Perplexed was his statement of "the
science of the law in its true sense," that is, the rational examination of
the divine law in the world of divine creations. 
     Leo Strauss called him the "exemplar of medieval rationalism," and his
work became the primary subject of all other Jewish philosophers into the
15th century. In the Christian world, through Latin translations, his
writing shaped neo-Platonic scholastic thinking, including that of Albertus
Magnus, Aquinas, Meister Eckhart, and Duns Scotus. His influence in Arabic
philosophy was as powerful. In our times, Leo Strauss redirected our
attention to Maimonides to explore whether the unfinished project of
medieval rationalism could resolve our modern perplexity. Maimonides'
thought is "a key permitting one to enter places the gates of which were
locked. When those gates are opened and those places are entered, the souls
will find rest therein, the eyes will be delighted, and the bodies will be
eased of their toil and of their labor."
	
	                            ISSUES
	
     The discussion of this List should examine the Guide, as well his
other philosophical writings, including The Book of Knowledge section of
the Mishneh Torah, The Treatise on Resurrection, The Eight Chapters, and
others. Some issues that could be discussed are:  
	 
* The difference between Maimonidean rationalism and modern rationalism.  
* Prophecy--why is it central for Maimonides?  
* The concept of negative attributes.  
* Esotericism and "contradictions."  
* The relation of faith and reason.  
* The creation of the world in time verses its eternal existence.  
* The violence of "Maimonidean controversy".
* Predecessors and successors in Medieval Rationalism.
* Is there a mystical core in Maimonides' thought?  
* The struggle to establish a legal grounding for the philosophical project.  
* Free will and determinism.  
	
	                         MY OBJECTIVE 
	
     I will try to act as a sounding board for the subscribers, react to
the comments and material presented, and try to stimulate ongoing
discussions on multiple threads. For the past fifteen years I have run a
law firm in Chicago. I am not an academic. Philosophy and Judaism have been
lifelong interests, while Maimonides has been a preoccupation only for the
last few years.  From this vantage, recognizing my own limitations, I hope
I can encourage both scholars and layman to enter into a stimulating
discussion. Participants can use this forum to test out ideas that will
later be formalized by publication. The discussion should be fun,
reverently irrelevant, never dry hair-splitting. 
     I know that this List will never become an enthusiasm of masses, but
then Maimonides preferred to give "satisfaction to the single virtuous man
while displeasing ten thousand ignoramuses," saying, "I am he who prefers
to address that single man by himself, and I do not heed the claim of those
many creatures."
 
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to introduce yourself to the other subscribers and let them know your
intentions.
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