Another lecture at Penn

I am happy to post events and lectures outside the University of Pennsylvania as well...



Spinoza in the Library of an Early Modern Dutch Sephardic Rabbi
>>>
>>> Yosef Kaplan, Hebrew University
>>>
>>> Wednesday, February 20, 5:00PM, Logan Hall 402
>>>
>>> Rabbi David Nunes Torres had been the rabbi of one of the Sephardic
>>> congregations in The Hague at the beginning of the eighteenth
>>> century.
>>> About three months after his death in 1728, his impressive library,
>>> which contained more than 2,000 volumes in eight languages, was put
>>> up for sale. Some of the large blocs that comprise this library
>>> reflect in the clearest fashion the intellectual ferment of Nunes
>>> Torres'
>>> generation and his purposeful and sophisticated collection of books
>>> made him, willy-nilly, a secret agent of the early enlightenment in
>>> the Sephardic Diaspora of Western Europe, and even in Dutch society
>>> at large.
>>>
>>> Yosef Kaplan is the Bernard Cherrick Professor of Jewish History at
>>> the Hebrew University. His books include: An Alternative Path to
>>> Modernity; Judios Nuevos en Amsterdam; The Western Sephardi
>>> Diaspora; From Christianity to Judaism: The Story of Isaac Orobio de
>>> Castro; and a translation (with introduction and notes) of Isaac
>>> Cardoso's, Las Excelencias de los Hebreos. He has edited and
>>> co-edited 14 books, among
>>> them: The Dutch Intersection: The Jews and the Netherlands in Modern
>>> History; Fins de Siecle -- End of Ages; Dutch Jews as Perceived by
>>> Themselves and by Others; Menasseh ben Israel and His World, and
>>> Jews and Conversos. Studies in Society and the Inquisition.
>>>
>>> Kaplan is the former Director of the School of History at the Hebrew
>>> University and former editor of Tarbiz and Zion. He was awarded the
>>> A.
>>> Wiznitzer Prize and the Ben Zvi Prize, and in 2004 he was elected
>>> fellow of the Israel Academy for Sciences and Humanities. He is
>>> currently a fellow at Princeton University's Institute for Advanced
>>> Study.
>>>
>>> Part of the Jewish Studies Kutchin Faculty Seminar Series, and
>>> co-sponsored by the Department of History. Event is free and open to
>>> the public. No RSVP necessary. Questions? 215-898-6654 or
>>> jsp-info@ccat.sas.upenn.edu --Beth S. Wenger Katz Family Term Chair
>>> in American Jewish History Associate Professor of History Director,
>>> Jewish Studies Program
>>>
>>> Department of History
>>> University of Pennsylvania
>>> 208 College Hall
>>> Philadelphia, PA 19104-6379
>>>
>>> Phone: 215-898-5702
>>> Fax: 215-573-2089
>>> E-mail: bwenger@sas.upenn.edu
>>>
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