Joshua Cohen:
You want a golem?

Golem talks – Program Accompanying the Exhibition GOLEM (audio recording available)

Joshua Cohen reads from his highly-praised Book of Numbers and discusses with the literary theorist Caspar Battegay the digital-metaphoric aspects of the golem creation in this day and age – the relationship between incantation and code, “master” vs. “slave machine,” automation in art and industry, and Konrad Zuse’s theory of computation.

recording available

Map with all buildings that belong to the Jewish Museum Berlin. The Old Building is marked in green

Where

Old Building, level 2, Great Hall
Lindenstraße 9–14, 10969 Berlin

Where, when, what?

In his works, the bestseller author describes “Being human in the age of binary code” (New York Times). In the attic of Prague’s Old-New Synagog, all he found was dust.

In cooperation with Schöffling & Co. Verlagsbuchhandlung GmbH

Porträt Joshua Cohen — Audio recording of the reading; Jewish Museum Berlin 2016 Photo: Joshua Cohen; Adam Gong

Where, when, what?

When17 Nov 2016
Where Old Building, level 2, Great Hall
Lindenstraße 9–14, 10969 Berlin
See location on map

Audio Recordings: Listen to Past Museum Events (69)

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Listen to Past Museum Events

Lectures, book presentations, theatrical readings, panel discussions, and award ceremonies
“German Jews Today”: A Discussion from the 1960s

Panel discussion as part of the exhibition German Jews Today. Leonard Freed (in German, with English translation)

Audio Recording
18 Mar 2025
Opportunities and Limits of the Tolerance of Ambiguity

Part of the Lecture Series Where Does the Truth Lie? On the Tolerance of Ambiguity (in German)

Audio Recording
23 Oct 2024
Halle and Hanau as a Watershed

Consequences and perspectives five years after the attacks (in German)

Audio Recording
1 Oct 2024
Tolerance of Ambiguity and the Muslim Perspective

Part of the Lecture Series Where Does the Truth Lie? On the Tolerance of Ambiguity (in German)

Audio Recording
25 Sep 2024
Tolerance of Ambiguity and Art

Part of the Lecture Series Where Does the Truth Lie? On the Tolerance of Ambiguity (in German)

Audio Recording
13 Jun 2024
World History in Berlin

The Humboldt Brothers and the Jewish Enlightenment, with Uta Lohmann, Sebastian Panwitz, and Conrad Wiedemann, Humboldt researchers, in German

Lecture/Discussion
30 Oct 2019
Antisemitism Today – A Challenge for School and Society

Talk by Juliane Wetzel as part of the symposium Actively Countering Antisemitism and Exclusion, in German

Lecture/Discussion
21 Feb 2019
Katharina Galor: The Temple Mount

Archaeologist Katharina Galor talks about the historical and archaeological heritage of Jerusalem’s most controversial site – the Temple Mount (Har haBait)

Lecture/Discussion
9 Jan 2019
Stolen Judaica
Provenance Research in Israel and Germany

In this symposium, research that explores the origins of Jewish ceremonial objects exclusively in Israel and Germany, took center stage for the first time, in German and English

Conference
18/19 Jun 2018
Rechavia – Grunewald in the Orient

Reading with Thomas Sparr on German-Jewish Jerusalem, in German

Reading/Discussion
28 Feb 2018
A Canon of Jewish Renaissance

Bernhard Jensen, author of the first monograph about the Soncino Society in conversation with publisher Thedel von Wallmoden, in German

Discussion
22 Feb 2018
Jerusalem for Cowards

Discussion with filmmakers Dalia Castel and Orit Nahmias following the screening of Jerusalem for Cowards

Discussion
19 Feb 2018
Who is carrying the Menorah?

Talk by Steven Fine on Jewish Counter-Histories of the Arch of Titus Spoils Panel

Lecture/Discussion
8 Feb 2018
The Many Deaths of Jew Süss

Reading with Yair Mintzker on Joseph Süß Oppenheimer – Jew Süss

Reading/Discussion
22 Jan 2018
Germanija. How I Became an Adult and a Jew in Germany

Reading and discussion on Dmitrij Belkin’s narrative that also throws light on immigration today, in German

Reading/Discussion
19 Oct 2017
IN-/EXCLUSIONS and Self-Empowerment in the Cultural Business

With Max Czollek, Dan Thy Nguyen, Sandrine Micossé-Aikins, and Mutlu Ergün-Hamaz, in German

Panel Discussion
12 Oct 2017
Volk, Volksgemeinschaft, AfD (People, National Community, AfD)

Book presentation and discussion with Alexander Häusler and the author Michael Wildt, in German

Reading/Discussion
10 Oct 2017
Incredibly Clever

Iris Berben reads Paula Buber, in German and English

Reading/Discussion
5 Aug 2017
Before the After Party

Reading and talk with the author Molly Antopol, translator Patricia Klobusiczky and actor Katharina Marie Schubert, in German and English

Reading/Discussion
15 Jul 2017
Life Pictures. Classical Archaeologists and National Socialism

Gunnar Brands and Martin Maischberger discuss the spectrum of possible behaviors of scientists under the auspices of totalitarian regimes, in German

Discussion
10 Jul 2017
Yousef Abad

Eliz Sanasarian and Elham Rokni on video art by Elham Rokni and the situation of Jews in Iran from the 1979 revolution to today

Discussion
6 Jul 2017
The New Völkerwanderung. Book Presentation by Asfa Wossen Asserate

Asfa-Wossen Asserate presents his latest book Die neue Völkerwanderung (The New Völkerwanderung) on the grievances of the EU’s Africa policy, in German

Reading/Discussion
3 Jul 2017
Peter Schäfer – “Two Gods in Heaven. Concepts of God in the Ancient Jewish World”

Peter Schäfer and Michael Wolffsohn on monotheism in Judaism and Christianity and concepts of a second god, in German

Discussion
12 Jun 2017
With Karamba to the Bundestag – My Journey from Senegal to the German Parliament

Karamba Diaby tells of his birth country Senegal, of life in the GDR, his work in the Bundestag, and of his vision of an open and future-oriented society, in German

Reading/Discussion
1 Jun 2017
Ariel Sabar: My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq

Reading and talk with the writer Ariel Sabar on the story of his father Yona Sabar, professor of the Neo-Aramaic language, and the Kurdish-Jewish history

Lecture/Discussion
11 May 2017
The Dress of the Unfaithful Wife
Artist Talk and Discussion on Women and Sexuality in Judaism

Talk with Andi LaVine Arnovitz, Amy K. Milligan, Professor for Jewish Studies and Women's Studies, and Emily D. Bilski, art historian, on the role of women in religious Judaism

Discussion
9 May 2017
Israelis in Germany
Ideological Debates and Changing Identities

Talk and Slideshow with Dr. Dani Kranz and Katja Harbi from the University of Wuppertal on Israeli Jews in today’s Germany, in German

Lecture/Discussion
4 May 2017
Im/Possibilities – Perspectives on Refugee Participation

Conference on the situation for refugees in Europe and Germany. Recording of the opening event with a talk by Gurminder K Bhambra, Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick, UK, followed by a panel discussion, in German and English

Symposium
29 Mar 2017
Our Father: A Sinti Family Recounts

Conversation and reading with the German-Sinti civil rights activist and author Anita Awosusi and her daughter Tayo Onutor about their family’s history, in German

Reading/Concert
23 Mar 2017
Europe Against the Jews. 1880-1945

Historian Götz Aly and Daniel Cohn-Bendit discuss antisemitism in Eastern and Western Europe from 1880 to the present, in German

Discussion
22 Feb 2017
The Acid Test. How Fear of Foreigners is Threatening our Democracy

The Islamic studies and education scholar Lamya Kaddor reads from her book and discusses integration with Minister of State Aydan Özoğuz and Andreas Zick, in German

Reading/Discussion
16 Feb 2017
Gottes Körper (God's Body)

Christoph Markschies in conversation with Peter Schäfer about Christian conceptions of God and their roots in other ancient religions, in German

Discussion
13 Feb 2017
All Sorts of Stories

The actor Johanna Wokalek reads from Bertha Pappenheim’s German translation of the Maase book, a collection of Yiddish stories, fairy tales, and legends, in German

Reading/Discussion
21 Nov 2016
Joshua Cohen: You want a golem?

Reading and conversation with Joshua Cohen and Caspar Battegay about the golem myth in the age of automation

Reading/Discussion
17 Nov 2016
A Jew in Neukölln – My Path to Coexistence of Religions

The theology student and writer Ármin Langer reads from his book and talks about Jewish life in Neukölln, in German

Reading/Discussion
19 Oct 2016
The Clay Giant's Alive!

Held on 8 and 9 October. A musical reading with the author Anke Kuhl, plus a visit to the golem workshop, for children aged 5 and older, in German

Reading/Concert
8 Oct 2016
Reading with Christian Berkel: Tevye the Dairyman

To mark the 100th anniversary of Sholem Alejchem’s death, the actor Christian Berkel will read from the new translation of the book Tevye the Dairyman

Reading/Discussion
9 Jul 2016
Herzl reloaded – It’s No Fairytale

Staged reading. Doron Rabinovici, writer and historian, and Natan Sznaider, sociologist, have a fictional email correspondence with Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, in German

Reading/Discussion
7 Jul 2016
Ludwig Haas – A Left-liberal Campaigner for Peace and Democracy

Symposium with Evening Lecture by Gerhart Baum on the liberal Campaigner Ludwig Haas (1875–1930) and Perspectives of Left-wing Liberalism Today

Symposium
9 Jun 2016
The Holocaust and the Problem of Visual Representation

Talk with artist and exhibition curator Peter Weibel about Boris Lurie and visual representation of the Holocaust, in German

Lecture/Discussion
30 May 2016
Helga Krohn: Bruno Asch

Reading and talk with Helga Krohn on the local politician and socialist Bruno Asch

Reading/Discussion
19 May 2016
Angst ums Abendland (Fears For the West)
Book Presentation with Daniel Bax

Talk with Daniel Bax and Gideon Botsch on Right-wing populist parties, anti-Muslim sentiments, flight and asylum, in German

Discussion
6 Apr 2016
Béla Guttmann - The World History of Football in one Person

The writer Detlev Claussen presents his book about the Hungarian-Jewish soccer coach Béla Guttmann, in German

Reading/Discussion
4 Aug 2015
Attempts to Describe Anti-Semitism

Book presentation and discussion on the history of antisemitism research before 1944 with Hans-Joachim Hahn, Olaf Kistenmacher, Dr. Werner Treß, and Franziska Krah, in German

Reading/Discussion
22 Apr 2015
From a Berlin Farce to a Story of Success

The writer Daniel Bussenius talks with Inka Bertz and Heinrich Wefing, reporter from Die Zeit, about the museum’s development from 1971 to 2001, in German

Reading/Discussion
2 Mar 2015
The Realignment of “Education after Auschwitz” in Immigration Society

Book presentation and panel discussion with the author Rosa Fava, Angela Kühner (University of Frankfurt), Selman Erkovan, history teacher in training, and Marco Kühnert, a guide at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, Hamburg, in German

Reading/Discussion
27 Jan 2015
The Book of Job. Aesthetics, Ethics, Hermeneutics

The editors of a volume of essays about the Book of Job, Leora Batnitzky (Princeton) and Ilana Pardes (Jerusalem), in conversation with Vivian Liska, in German and English

Reading/Discussion
21 Jan 2015
What’s your "Heimat"?

W. Michael Blumenthal, Founding Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin, and Monika Grütters, Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, talk about culture, religion, and being at home in a foreign place, in German

Discussion
14 Nov 2014
Zimzum. God and the creation of the world

Author Christoph Schulte talks with Micha Brumlik and Vivian Liska about his book on the notion of zimzum (tzimtzum) in Jewish mysticism, in German

Reading/Discussion
30 Oct 2014
Hebrew Worlds – On the Presence of Ancient Texts in Modern Ivrith

Anne Birkenhauer, a translator and the August Wilhelm Schlegel Guest Professor of the German Translation Fund and the FU Berlin, gives her inaugural lecture, in German

Lecture/Discussion
27 Oct 2014
Forgotten Soldiers?

Historian Tim Grady presents his research on the commemoration of German-Jewish soldiers from the First World War

Lecture/Discussion
3 Sep 2014
Modernized, then Tolerated?

Micha Brumlik, Petra Bahr, Kadir Sanci, and Thomas Bauer about religion and navigating between tradition and adaptation, in German

Discussion
10 Oct 2013
1933: Denial, Opposition, and Protest

Wolf Gruner about his research into German Jews’ responses to Nazi persecution, in German

Lecture/Discussion
8 Aug 2013
Peter Schäfer: The Origins of Jewish Mysticism

Panel discussion between the author Peter Schäfer, Christoph Markschies, and Micha Brumlik about Schäfer’s book on the history of early Jewish mysticism, in German

Reading/Discussion
25 Jun 2012
The History of Jews and Dönme in Turkey

The Turkish studies scholar Corry Guttstadt and the historian Marc Baer discuss the history of Jews and Dönme (converts) in Turkey, in German

Lecture/Discussion
31 Jan 2011
Perrine Simon-Nahum: Jews in France Today

Talk by Perrine Simon-Nahum about her book on the circumstances of Jews in France, both past and present

Lecture/Discussion
29 Nov 2010
W. Michael Blumenthal: Around the World in Eighty Years. My Life

W. Michael Blumenthal, Founding Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin, presents his memoir, in German

Reading/Discussion
30 Sept 2010
Jewish Youth Movement in Germany

Talk by Ulrike Pilarczyk and panel discussion with Micha Brumlik, Hans Jakob Ginsburg, Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, and Moshe Zuckermann about the history of the Zionist youth movement in Germany, in German

Lecture/Discussion
22 May 2010
Dialogues on Jewish Present: On the Question of Redemption – Messianism and the End of Days

with Moshe Idel, Elliot R. Wolfson, and Micha Brumlik about the Messianic promise of redemption and its relevance in the twenty-first century, in English

Reading/Discussion
10 Dec 2009
Walther Rathenau’s Life: Text and Context

Talk by Shulamit Volkov about the life of the writer, politician, and industrialist Walther Rathenau, in German

Lecture/Discussion
15 Oct 2009
Migrants Moving History

Saskia Sassen about immigration, diversity, and future prospects for dealing with history and citizenship in multiethnic societies

Lecture/Discussion
25 Oct 2008
Self Displaced Person. Peter Szondi’s Problematic Judaism

Talk by Andreas Isenschchmid about the life and work of the literary scholar Peter Szondi, in German

Lecture/Discussion
3 Dec 2007
Painted in words. The portrait of a lost time

Reading and conversation with the artist Samuel Bak about his family’s story and his survival as a child in German-occupied Vilnius, in German

Reading/Discussion
10 Oct 2007
A synagogue curtain at the Brandenburg Cathedral Chapter

Talk by Vera Bendt about a synagogue curtain that was discovered at the Brandenburg Cathedral Chapter, where it had been listed in records as an altar curtain, in German

Lecture/Discussion
23 Nov 2006
Exile in Shanghai

Conversation between W. Michael Blumenthal and Horst Eisfelder about the time they both spent in Shanghai, where 18,000 Jews from Germany had taken refuge, in German

Discussion
14 Nov 2006
The place of psychoanalysis in the history of the Jews

Talk by Eli Zaretsky about the influence of psychoanalysis on Judaism and the place of psychoanalysis in Jewish history

Lecture/Discussion
30 May 2005
Breaking Ground: Adventures in Life and Architecture

In conversation with Susanne Weingarten, Daniel Libeskind presents his autobiography

Reading/Discussion
25 Jan 2005
The Fragile Foundation: The Quest for German-Jewish “Normalcy”

Salomon Korn reads essays from his book about Jewish life in Germany, Jewish culture and remembrance, architecture, and politics, in German

Reading/Discussion
30 Sep 2003
Times of Commemoration: On Jewish Histories and Others

Book presentation by the historian Dan Diner about remembering the twentieth century as an era of violence, forced displacement, and genocide, in German

Reading/Discussion
24 Jun 2003

Joshua Cohen: From the Golem-Talmud

From the exhibition catalog of the GOLEM-exhibition

Publication
2016
GOLEM

Exhibition
23 Sep 2016 to 29 Jan 2017
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