The Jewish Cultural Studies program presents a panel discussion about the role of secular Jewish scholars at The
New School from 1919 until the 1970s. James Livingston, author of Pragmatism, Feminism, and Democracy,
describes the intellectual legacy of Horace Kallen, a founder of The New School, who first proposed the term
“cultural pluralism.” Judith Friedlander, former dean of The New School for Social Research, author of Vilna on the Seine: Jewish Intellectuals in France since 1968, discusses President Alvin Johnson’s creation of the University in Exile at The New School for Social Research in 1933.
Richard J. Bernstein, Vera List Professor of Philosophy and
author of Hannah Arendt and the Jewish Question, discusses the career of Hans Jonas, a founder of the field of bioethics who repudiated his mentor Heidegger, fought against Hitler and in Israel’s war of independence, and then
taught at The New School from the 1950s until the 1970s. Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, a graduate of
The New School, author of Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World, considers Arendt’s encounters with the Jewish
scholars already at The New School when she arrived.
Moderated by Noah Isenberg, author of Between
Redemption and Doom: The Strains of German-Jewish Modernism.
New York City, NY; NYC