Leading Jewish Academic, Rabbi Professor Dan Cohn-Sherbok will deliver the third Open Lecture to be held at the Al-Maktoum Institute.
Currently visiting Professor at St Mary’s University College in London and Honorary Professor at the University of Aberystwyth, the theme of his talk will be “Jews and Muslims in the Middle East.”
Professor Cohn-Sherbok’s lecture – on Tuesday, May 31 at 6 p.m. – will outline the fact that for thousands of years Jews have longed to return to their ancient homeland and that their bloodstained history has increased their desperation and determination to return from exile.
Such an aspiration was linked to the belief that a messianic redeemer would lead his people back to the Holy Land. At the end of the 19th century, however, secular Zionists argued that the only way to solve the problem of anti-Semitism was for Jews to create a state of their own in Palestine.
Today, he will argue, the vast majority of Jews regard the State of Israel as essential for Jewish survival. Yet in their quest for a homeland, he believes the Jewish people have largely ignored the aspirations of Palestinians.
As a consequence, the Middle East conflict has cast a dark shadow over modern Jewish life, and poses a fundamental challenge to world security.
Dan Cohn-Sherbok was born in Denver, Colorado, and educated at Williams College.
Ordained a Reform rabbi at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion where he gained a doctorate in divinity, he has served congregations in Jasper, Alabama; Galesburg, Illinois, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Denver, Colorado.
Subsequently he was a rabbi in Melbourne, Australia; London, England; and Johannesburg, South Africa.
He received a doctorate in philosophy from Cambridge University, England and from 1975 taught Jewish theology at the University of Kent, Canterbury.
“Professor Cohn-Sherbok’s lecture promises to be stimulating, informative and insightful,” said Institute Principal, Professor Malory Nye.
“We are very pleased that he has agreed to come to Dundee for the third in the series of Open Lectures organised by the Institute. He is extremely well-respected and I am sure his lecture will be hugely interesting and thought-provoking.”
The lecture is free and open to the public but registration is required: to register please email: openlectures@almi.abdn.ac.uk
