The open exchange of opinions is the foundation of political and intellectual freedom and includes criticism of religious content and institutions.
During the numerous conflicts over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad, a controversy arose in Western Europe about the relationship between religion and satire and the boundaries between legitimate criticism and hate speech. Historically, Judaism and Islam have had a culture of debate that has promoted a diversity of opinion.
recording available
Where
W. M. Blumenthal Academy,
Klaus Mangold Auditorium
Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz 1, 10969 Berlin
(Opposite the Museum)
Video recording of the lecture How Much Criticism Do Judaism and Islam Tolerate?; 12 April 2018; Jewish Museum Berlin 2018.
How much internal and external criticism of their religions do Judaism and Islam tolerate today? A discussion with Suzanne Last Stone and Anshuman Mondal. The event is moderated by Dr. Nahed Samour, from the Lichtenberg-Kolleg, the Göttingen Institute for Advanced Study.
Suzanne Last Stone
Suzanne Last Stone is University Professor of Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization, Professor of Law, and Director of the Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University. Her research specialties include the sometimes fraught relationship between Jewish and secular law.
Anshuman Mondal and Suzanne Last Stone; photos: Brunel University Photographer and private
Anshuman Mondal
Anshuman Mondal is Professor of Modern Literature at the University of East Anglia, specializing in post-colonial studies. He writes about discourses on Islam in Europe. His best-known book is Islam and Controversy: The Politics of Free Speech after Rushdie.
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Lecture Series: Jewish and Islamic Perspectives on Human Rights (6)
Jewish and Islamic Perspectives on Human Rights
Our lecture series addresses controversial human rights topics arising in various walks of life and examines them from Jewish and Islamic perspectives. For every lecture, we invite two scholars who present their own positions and then engage in a dialogue.
My God, Your God, No God
With Leora Batnitzky (Princeton University) and Anver Emon (University of Toronto)
Lecture Series
14 Jun 2018 (with video recording)
Equal before God and Humans?
With Susannah Heschel (Dartmouth College) and Katajun Amirpur (University of Hamburg)
Lecture Series
3 May 2018 (with video recording)
How Much Criticism Do Judaism and Islam Tolerate?
With Suzanne Last Stone (Yeshiva University) and Anshuman Mondal (University of East Anglia), in English and German
Lecture Series
12 Apr 2018 (with video recording)
The Right to Life
With David Novak (University of Toronto) and Jonathan Brown (Georgetown University)
Lecture Series
8 Mar 2018 (with video recording)
Human Rights Treaties and How They are Received
With Michael Galchinsky (Georgia State University) and Mashood Baderin (University of London)
Lecture Series
25 Jan 2018 (with video recording)
Human Rights and Religions – A Contradiction?
With Shaheen Sardar Ali (University of Warwick) and Jill Jacobs (Rabbi and the Managing Director of T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights)
Lecture Series
23 Nov 2017 (with video recording)
Academy Programs: Past Events for You to Listen To and Watch (57)
Past Events for You to Listen To and Watch
We have recorded some of our conferences, lectures, readings, and panel discussions for you as audio or video files.
On the Path to Enlightenment: Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism
With Jerome Gellman (Ben-Gurion University) und Johan Elverskog (Southern Methodist University)
Lecture Series
24 Sep 2020
Tying the Knot versus Bonds with God: Jews and Muslims in Interfaith Marriages
With Madeleine Dreyfus (psychoanalyst with a doctorate in cultural anthropology) und Imen Gallala-Arndt (lawyer and a lecturer at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
Video: in German
Lecture Series
18 Jun 2020
Non-Transcendental Morality: Judaism, Islam, and Atheism
With Jacques Berlinerblau (Georgetown University) and Ufuk Topkara (Johns Hopkins University)
Video: in German and English
Lecture Series
20 Apr 2020
What Do You Think about Jesus? Judaism, Islam, and Christianity
With Israel Yuval (Hebrew University in Jerusalem) and Maha El Kaisy-Friemuth (Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)
Video: in German and English
Lecture Series
18 Feb 2020
Mono or Poly? Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism
With Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein (Elijah Interfaith Institute) and Reza Shah-Kazemi (Institute of Ismaili Studies in London)
Lecture Series
4 Feb 2020
About a Tea Bowl
Discussion with brief presentations about interwoven experiences of post-Soviet Jewish migration
Video: in German
Lecture/Discussion
27 Nov 2019
Judaism and Islam – The History of Theological Relations
Prelude to the new lecture series The Others’ Faith. With Lukas Mühlethaler (Free University Berlin) and Imam Abdullah Antepli (Duke University, USA)
Video: in German and English
Lecture Series
21 Nov 2019
Ruth Wodak: Swing to the right?!
Ruth Wodak traces how a new “normality to the right” is establishing itself in many European countries
Video: in German
Lecture/Discussion
17 Oct 2019
“To Know One Religion Is to Know None”
W. Michael Blumenthal Fellow Walid Abdelgawad talks about reflections on Islam and Judaism in the writings of German-speaking Jewish orientalists between 1833 and 1955
Video: in German
Lecture/Discussion
28 Aug 2019
Do You Believe in Miracles?
With James A. Diamond (Professor in Jewish Studies at the University of Waterloo, Canada) and Umeyye Isra Yazicioglu (Professor in Religious Studies at St. Joseph’s University in Philidelphia, United States)
Video: in English
Lecture Series
13 Jun 2019
Museums, Religion and the Work of Reconciliation and Remembrance
with the curators Jisgang Nika Collision (Haida Gwaii Museum, Haida Nation & Canada) and Léontine Meijer-van Mensch (Saxonian State Ethnographic Collections)
Lecture/Discussion
9 May 2019
Humanity: Between Destiny and Free Will
With Alan Mittleman (Jewish Theological Seminary of America) and Martin Mahmud Kellner (Institute of Islamic Theology, Osnabrück)
Video: in English
Lecture Series
30 Apr 2019
Access Barriers. Critical Perspectives on Racism in Schools and Curatorial Practices
Keynote by Bonita Bennett (District Six Museum, Cape Town) at the conference Access Barriers on museums as places of social change.
Video:in English
Lecture/Discussion
20 Mar 2019
How Much God Is in the Holy Scriptures?
With Benjamin Sommer (expert in modern Jewish theology) and Ghassan el Masri (researcher on the Koran in the context of the Arabic literature of his time)
Video: in German and English
Lecture Series
5 Mar 2019
God, Darwin, and Evolution
Natan Slifkin (Biblical Museum of Natural History, Israel) and Fatimah Jackson (Howard University, USA) discuss how Jewish and Islamic theologians treat evolutionary biology.
Video: in English
Lecture Series
31 Jan 2019
Happy Birthday, Academy Programs!
Introducing the Academy Programs as well as Panel Discussions: Jewish Fathers – Jewish Children? and A Pre-fascist Era?
Lecture/Discussion
2 Dec 2018
Science in the Light of Faith
Geoffrey A. Mitelman and Ahmad S. Dallal discuss how Jewish and Islamic theologians have reflected for centuries on the conflicting powers of God and his revelation and human reason.
Video: in English
Lecture Series
20 Nov 2018
Living with Islamophobia
The international conference “Living with Islamophobia” considered how cultural and religious affiliations are constructed and invited experts to enter into discussion.
Video: in English
Conference
11–12 Oct 2018
Imported Antisemitism?
We discuss with political, academic, and practical experts which manifestations of antisemitism among Arab migrants and Muslims in Germany exist.
Video: in German
Lecture/Discussion
30 Aug 2018
My God, Your God, No God
Part of our lecture Series Jewish and Islamic Perspectives on Human Rights
Video: in English
Lecture Series
14 Jun 2018
Ongoing Struggles. Anti-Discrimination Work during the Rise of the Far Right
with Imani Perry: »What Lies Underneath: Difficult Histories and the Resurgence of The Far Right«
Video: in English
Conference
7 Jun 2018
Equal before God and Humans?
Part of our lecture series Jewish and Islamic Perspectives on Human Rights
Video: in English
Lecture Series
3 May 2018
How Much Criticism Do Judaism and Islam Tolerate?
Part of our lecture series Jewish and Islamic Perspectives on Human Rights
Video: in English and German
Lecture Series
12 Apr 2018
What is the Relationship Between Antisemitism and Islamophobia?
Lectures by David Feldman and Stefanie Schüler-Springorum
Video: in English and German
20 Mar 2018
The Right to Life
Part of our lecture series Jewish and Islamic Perspectives on Human Rights
Video: in English
Lecture Series
8 Mar 2018
Human Rights Treaties and How They are Received
Part of our lecture series Jewish and Islamic Perspectives on Human Rights
Video: in English
Lecture Series
25 Jan 2018
Human Rights and Religions – A Contradiction?
Part of our lecture series Jewish and Islamic Perspectives on Human Rights
Video: in English
Lecture Series
23 Nov 2017
New Judaism – Alliances in Postmigrant Society
On concepts of being Jewish within the third generation of Jews in Germany
video: german and english
Discussion
16 Nov 2017
Germanija. How I Became an Adult and a Jew in Germany
on Dmitrij Belkin's narrative that also throws light on immigration today.
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)
Discussion
12 Oct 2017
People, National Community, AfD
Book presentation and discussion with the author Michael Wildt and Alexander Häusler (in German)
Audio: in German
Lecture/Discussion
10 Oct 2017
Future Memories
Discussion on the Importance of Minority Perspectives for European Societies’ Commemorative Cultures
Discussion
26 Sep 2017
Man as Lord or Guardian of Creation?
Nawal Ammar and Hava Tirosh-Samuelson
Video: German and English, no subtitles
Reading/Discussion
13 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.
Audio: in English
Lecture/Discussion
6 Jul 2017
Religion. Fashion. Empowerment.
Discussion with Reina Lewis and Meriem Lebdiri (in German and English)
Lecture/Discussion
29 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.
Audio: in German
Lecture/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.
Audio: in English
Lecture/Discussion
11 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.
Audio: 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.
Audio: in German and English
Reading/Discussion
23 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.
Audio: in German
Reading/Discussion
23 Mar 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.
Audio: in German
Reading/Discussion
16 Feb 2017
Jews in North Africa During the Second World War
Theme day with lectures by Michel Abitbol, Eric Salerno, Patrick Bernhard, Haim Saadoun, and panel discussion
Language: German, English, and French
Lecture/Discussion
26 Jan 2017
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.
Audio: in German
Reading/Discussion
19 Oct 2016
Sites of Memory: Lost and Entangled Narratives
with Dr. Rosa Fava, Juliane Jurewicz, Prof. Dr. Iman Attia, Olga Gerstenberger, Ozan Keskinkiliç, Anita Awosusi, Ilona Lagrene, Prof. Dr. Michael Rothberg, and Serpil Polat
Video: in German and English, no subtitles
Conference
16 Sep 2016
TIME OF CRISIS
with Dan Diner, Adam Michnik, Dietmar Herz, Étienne François, and Hans Kundnani
Video: in German, no subtitles
Discussion
7 Sep 2016
Antisemitism in the Arabic World – Facts and Myths
with Michael Kiefer and Omar Kamil
Video: in German, no subtitles
Discussion
26 Apr 2016
“Angst ums Abendland” (Fears For the West) Book Presentation
Talk with Daniel Bax and Gideon Botsch on Right-wing populist parties, anti-Muslim sentiments, flight and asylum.
Audio: in German
Reading/Discussion
6 Apr 2016
Post-migrant Society?!
International conference, recording of the opening event
Video: in German and English, no subtitles
Conference
12–14 Nov 2015
Kill Me a Son!
Recording of the opening event
With: Prof. Dr. Peter Schäfer and Prof. Dr. Angelika Neuwirth
Video: in German, no subtitles
Conference
3–4 Sep 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
Audio recording: in German
Reading/Discussion
27 Jan 2015
A Shared View of Europe – Jewish and Muslim Experiences as Reflected in Public Controversies
Panel discussion with Prof. Nilüfer Göle, Shai Lavi and Gökçe Yurdakul
Video: in German, no subtitles
Discussion
19 Jan 2015
Contemporary Jewish Life in a Global Modernity
Recording of the presentation "Future of European Jewry"
With: Dr. Karen Körber and Dr. Diana Pinto
Video: in English, no subtitles
Conference
11–12 Dec 2014
Snip it?!
Presentation of a study on the circumcision debate followed by a discussion as part of the Judeo-Islamic Forum.
Video: in German, no subtitles
Lecture/Discussion
4 Dec 2014
Concepts of Citizenship and Participation in European Comparison
Recording of the keynote by Prof. Dr. Rainer Bauböck and the followed panel discussion
With: Prof. Dr. Rainer Bauböck, Dr. Manuela Bojadžijev, Josip Juratovic and Dr. Monika Lüke
Video: in German, no subtitles
Conference
7–8 Apr 2014
Is Higher Education a Safeguard Against Racism and Antisemitism?
Presentation of a study followed by panel discussion with Wassilis Kassis, Charlotte Schallié, Iman Attia, Stefanie Schüler-Springorum and Andreas Zick
Video: in German, no subtitles
Lecture/Discussion
20 February 2014
Modernized, then Tolerated?
Micha Brumlik, Petra Bahr, Kadir Sanci, and Thomas Bauer about religion and navigating between tradition and adaptation
Audio: in German
Discussion
10 Oct 2013
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.
Audio: in German
Lecture/Discussion
31 Jan 2011
Dialogical Lecture Series
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