Prof. Gershon Greenberg
Following doctoral studies in comparative religious thought at Columbia University, his research interests developed in the areas of religious responses during the Holocaust; Jewish thought in Europe and America in the nineteenth century; and America-Holy Land studies
CV
Prof. Gershon Greenberg is Visiting Professor of Jewish thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Professor of Philosophy and Religion in Washington, D. C. at American University .He has taught courses at Bar Ilan University on Jewish religious thought during the Holocaust and on 19th century Jewish thought
Following doctoral studies in comparative religious thought at Columbia University, his research interests developed in the areas of religious responses during the Holocaust; Jewish thought in Europe and America in the nineteenth century; and America-Holy Land studies.
Courses
Gershon Greenberg, Hasidic and Musar Thought in the Era of the Holocaust
Lecture format. Second semester 2017. Course will began immediately after Pessah, and take place Wednesdays, 16:00—20:00.
Goal of course: Comparative and thematic study of wartime-era (1938-1947) theological texts by Hasidic and Musar thinkers in response to persecution and Holocaust. The textual sources will be available in a reader prepared and distributed by the instructor.
Hasidic thinkers will include Yehiel Meir Morgenshtern (London); Areleh Roth (Jerusalem); Kalonymous Kalman Shapira (Warsaw ghetto); Yosef Yitshak Schneersohn (New York); and Aharon Rokeah of Belz (Budapest); and Ya'akov Fridman Mihusiatyn, Tel Aviv..
Musar thinkers will include Avraham Grodzensky (Kovno); Yitshak Ayzik Sher (Jerusalem, Benei Berak); Efraim Sokolover (Ra’anana); Yehezkel Sarna (Jerusalem); Efrayim Zaytchik (New York, Haifa); Hillel Vitkind (Tel Aviv); Eliyahu Dessler (Gateshead), Benei Berak) and Yitshak Stollman (Detroit).
Secondary sources:
Eliezer Schweid, Bein hurban liyeshua: Teguvot shel hagut hareidit lashoah bizemanah (Tel Aviv 1994)
Tamir Granot, Emunah ve’adam lenokhah hashoah (Alon shvut 2013)
Esher Farbstein, Beseter ra’am: Halakhah, hagut vemanhigut bi’yemei hashoah (Jerusalem 2002)
Gershon Greenberg and Asaf Yedidyah, Mishpatekhah tehom rabbah: Teguvot hagutiot ortodoksiot lashoah (Jerusalem 2016)
Pre-requuisites: None
Requirements:
Minimum 80% attendance
Avodah: Contextual analysis of a Hasidic or Musar text, or comparative analysis of any two texts.
Publications
Publications in the area of religious thought during the Holocaust include, with
אספ ידידיה, משפתיך תהום רבה: תגובות הגותיות אורתודוקסיות לשואה (ירושלים 2016)
-a three volume bibliographical work entitled
הציבור הדתי ביישוב בארץ ישראל בתקופת השואה: רשימת פרסומים (מאמרים וספרים) על השקפות בענייני האמונה היהודית והשואה 1938-1948 (רמת גן 1947), שארית הפליטה והשואה: רשימת מאמרים וספרים על השקפות בענייני האמונה היהודית לאחר שואת יהודי אירופה (1944-1949) (רמת גן 1994), האמונה היהודית והשואה במחשבה היהודית הדתית בארצות הברית בשנים (1938-1948) (רמת גן (1999)
and his Wrestling with God: Jewish Theological Responses During the Holocaust, with Steven T. Katz (2011)
The numerous articles and chapters probe reflections within the steams of Hasidism, e.g., "R. Areleh Roth: Pristine Faith Through Holocaust to Redemption, " Journal of Modern Jewish Studies (2015); Musar ., e.g. "A Musar Response to the Holocaust: Yehezkel Sarna's Liteshuvah velitekumah of 4 December 1944, " Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy (1997)
and Da’at torah , e.g.
"דעת תורה נגד עמלק: רב אלחנן וסרמן" בתוך הגדולים: ספר היובל למנחם פרידמן (ירושלים (2017)
and " Elhanan Wasserman's Response to the Growing Catastrophe in Europe: The Role of Ha'gra and the Hofets Hayim Upon His Thought, "Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy (2000); Mizrahi (E.g. "Jerusalem, Vilna and Chicago: Gedaliah Bublick's Wartime Dilemma, " in America and Zion: Essays and Papers in Memory of Moshe Davis (2002); and Kabbalah (E.G., Mordechai Yehoshua Atiyah's Kabbalistic Response to the Holocaust," Iggud: Selected Essays in Jewish Studies (2008). In this field he also published
"עמלק בתקופת השואה: מחשבה יהודית אורתודוקסית," סתוך דרך הרוח: ספר היובל לאליער שביד. עורך יהוידע עמיר (ירושלים 2005), "שלמה זלמן אונסדורפר: עם אלוהים בשואה," יד ושם: קובץ מחקרים (ירושלים 2003), and"על מטה-היסטוריה והשואה," זהויות: כתב עת לתרבות ולזהות יהודית (ירושלים 2015)
His work in the area of nineteenth century Jewish thought in Europe and America has appeared as Modern Jewish Thinkers from Mendelssohn to Rosenzweig (2011) and in chapter form (E.g., " History as Centralization: Samuel Hirsch's Luxembourg Writings, " Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook (1975) for Europe; and " Mendelssohn in America: David Einhorn's Radical Reform Judaism, " Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook (1982)
That in the area of America- Holy Land Studies, The Holy Land in American Religious Thought, 1620-1948. (1994); in chapter form as "American Indians, Ten Lost Tribes and Christian Eschatology, " in Religion in the Age of Exploration (1992
Book
Last Updated Date : 22/12/2022
