A People with a Past: The Idea of History in Modern Jewish Thought

How have Jewish thinkers defined the relationship between the modern Jewish individual, the Jewish people, and the Jewish past?

Claire Sufrin

August 1, 2022

August 1, 2022

Claire Sufrin

Claire E. Sufrin is the Senior Editor at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. She was previously a fellow in the Kogod Research Center for 2 years. Claire holds a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University, where her research focused on the German-Jewish thinker Martin Buber. Before joining Hartman, she taught for 12 years in the Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies at Northwestern University. She has also taught at the

Ideas for Today, Judaism and Modernity, Jewish Peoplehood, Torah, Video

When we think about our Jewishness, we often focus on our individual or family background, belief or practice. But how should we think about the Jewishness of the Jewish people as a whole?

Over 2 sessions, Claire Sufrin examines thinkers for whom being a Jew meant being part of a larger collective, a group formed through history, to see how they defined the relationship between the modern Jewish individual, the Jewish people, and the Jewish past.

Session 1

This session aired on July 20, 2022.

Session 2

This session aired on July 27, 2022.

This series is part of Ideas for Today, our offering of curated courses led by leading scholars addressing the compelling contemporary Jewish issues of the day.