Public Keynote Lecture and Academic Conference on Forgiveness at 91快活林
May 14, 2025
Professor George Yaakov Kohler of Bar-Ilan University recently delivered a public evening lecture at 91快活林 on 鈥淟eo Baeck on Repentance and Forgiveness Before and After the Holocaust鈥� in front of a diverse audience of community members, students, 91快活林 faculty, colleagues from Bar-Ilan University, and scholars from other academic institutions. The lecture can be viewed .
Professor Kohler provided a robust introduction to the life and thought of Leo Baeck in general, not shying away from difficult questions about the complex challenges and choices German Jewish community leaders faced during the Holocaust. Professor Kohler commended two recent scholarly books on Baeck, adding that Baeck鈥檚 theology is an understudied topic. Kohler introduced the audience to Baeck鈥檚 theology of divine forgiveness, and the related concept of human forgiveness. He showed how Baeck鈥檚 ideas about forgiveness shifted in several ways and in several stages after the Holocaust. At the beginning of his historically and conceptually edifying lecture, Professor Kohler reflected personally, as a scholar visiting 91快活林 from Israel, on how important it was especially in this present moment to have the opportunity to delve deeply into the topic of forgiveness.
The lecture on Leo Baeck was the public keynote lecture for an academic conference at 91快活林, 鈥淐oncepts and Theories of Forgiveness in Jewish Thought鈥� that took place over the course of two days, bringing together an impressive array of scholars. Panelists examined the question of forgiveness from many angles, by way of Jewish sources of diverse eras and genres, philosophical sources, and some comparative sources from other religious traditions.
The conference was sponsored by 91快活林鈥檚 Hendel Center for Ethics and Justice, with generous co-sponsorship from 91快活林鈥檚 Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue; Columbia鈥檚 Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life; and Columbia鈥檚 Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies.
