Déjà-vu? A New Search for Old Answers
Online Lecture and Discussion with Ofer Waldman and Yael Kupferberg (in German)
In the third lecture of the series Déjà-vu? A New Search for Old Answers, Ofer Waldman talks to Yael Kupferberg about Max Horkheimer and Critical Theory as Jewish Philosophy. The important philosopher and founder of the Frankfurt School Max Horkheimer not only reflected on human existence, but also continued to write Jewish philosophy after ‘Auschwitz:’ his aim was to save Judaism philosophically without universalizing it and to defend diasporic Judaism without renouncing the affirmation of the state of Israel. The tension between philosophical-Jewish universalism and pragmatic-existential particularity still characterizes Jewish existence today and Horkheimer’s thoughts, not least on anti-Semitism, seem more relevant than ever.
The digital lecture series examines Jewish intellectuals of the nineteenth and early twentieth century and asks what long-overlooked answers their work might offer to the current challenges of Jewish life in Germany.
We invite four intellectuals from the social sciences and literature to answer the question: Which historic texts do they return to for answers to pressing present-day questions? And how do they read these texts?
Yael Kupferberg
Dr. Yael Kupferberg is a habilitated literary scholar and works on German-Jewish relations and literary history, Jewish philosophy of modernity, critical theory and anti-Semitism theory. Yael Kupferberg is currently once again holding the Martin Buber Professorship for Jewish Philosophy of Religion at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. From October 2018 to September 2024, she researched and taught at the Center for Research on Antisemitism/ TU Berlin. Her monograph Zum Bilderverbot. Studien zum Judentum im späten Werk Max Horkheimer was published by Wallstein Verlag in 2022.
Yael Kupferberg, photo: private
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Ofer Waldman
Since summer 2025 Ofer Waldman is head of the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s office in Tel Aviv. Born in Jerusalem, he moved to Berlin in 1999 as a member of Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and played among others in the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the Nuremberg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Waldman received his doctorate from the Free University of Berlin (German Studies) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Jewish History). He is a freelance author and journalist. In 2021, he and Noam Brusilovsky won the ARD German Radio Play Award for the radio play Adolf Eichmann: Ein Hörprozess (roughly: Adolf Eichmann: An Audio Trial) (RBB/DLF). His literary debut, Singularkollektiv. Erzählungen (Singular Collective: Stories), was published by Wallstein Verlag in 2023, and in 2024 Suhrkamp published his correspondence with Sasha Marianna Salzmann about the world after 7 October under the title Gleichzeit (roughly: Sametime). His new book Verkämpftes Land. Beobachtungen (roughly: A country torn apart. Observations) was just published with Wallstein.
Ofer Waldman; photo: Bernd Brundert
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Updated on 14 April 2025
Digital Lecture Series
Déjà-vu? A New Search for Old Answers
- Landing Page
- Digital Lecture Series Déjà-vu? A New Search for Old Answers: The event series at a glance
- Events
- Current page: Online Lecture and Discussion with Ofer Waldman and Yael Kupferberg: Rescheduled for 25 Sep 2025, in German
- Online Lecture and Discussion with Ofer Waldman and Eva Illouz: 16 Oct 2025
- Online Lecture and Discussion with Ofer Waldman and Liliane Weissberg – 11 Nov 2025
- Digital Content
- Online Lecture and Discussion with Ofer Waldman and Delphine Horvilleur: Video recording from 22 May 2025
- Online Lecture and Discussion with Ofer Waldman and Moshe Sakal: Video recording from 12 Jun 2025
- See also
- The W. Michael Blumenthal Academy of the Jewish Museum Berlin: A Platform and Laboratory for Diverse Perspectives
We would like to thank the Berthold Leibinger Stiftung for supporting the Digital Lecture Series.
