We are asking whether a penetrating understanding of Hermann Cohen's Religion of Reason could help address the perplexities Jews wrestle with today, including

• what does it mean to be "religious" ?
• where, in particular, does "reason" figure into religion in general, and Jewish tradition in particular?
• what is the relationship between Judaism and monotheism-in-general?
• does Jewish tradition acknowledge human-virtues-in-general, and are there distinctively Jewish virtues?
• why do Jews need their own covenant?

Each day will be structured around a different question:

• Is Hermann Cohen, the author of Religion of Reason, an atheistic theologian? Responding to a Perennial Worry about 'the God of the Philosophers'
• Does Cohen, in Religion of Reason, try to revive Prophecy as a genuine possibility in our time? Encountering a Source-Text for the 'Prophetic Judaism' of Martin Buber, Leo Baeck, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and at least two generations of ordinary Jews and Christians in Europe and the Americas.
• Is the "Religion of Reason" tradition alive today, and if it's on "life-support", can it – and should it – be resuscitated? From Theory to Practice

By the end of the Academy, participants will have developed a considered view regarding each question, and have the option of presenting on the question most salient to them to the larger group.

All texts that appear on the Academy itinerary will be provided in pdf form and ready for your use by May 1.

The Rosenzweig Academy will follow backwards design principles. We will do so as follows:

1. Identify a problem that is experienced broadly and worthy of investigation: in our case, we have a Jewish social world with surging interest in a better understanding of Judaism, and a desire to belong, but also real challenging questions about the nature of Jewish affiliation.  Many are 'perplexed.'

2. Study a classic text that purports to address our problem, and structure sessions – formal and informal – so that individuals, each with differing strengths and experiences, can collaborate in answering the focal questions. In the course of the week, participants will have the chance to try their ideas out on the general public as well.

3. in a final meeting, a persuasive speaking contest will give participants a chance to confront the week's questions one final time and in pointed fashion.  The week's chronology of sessions, including this final meeting, are all designed to give the group opportunities to take stock of what they've learned and what they still need to know to deal satisfactory with the hot issues.  Every prior session was engineered to contribute to thi success of this final day.

Finally, I note that a shared-form of inquiry -- a rarity and frankly challenging to choreograph, will characterize many of our sessions – it will be the ethos of the Academy, and brought to consciousness on a number of occasions, as will the backwards design, as exposure to the educational paradigms at work in our Academy are part of an Academy-education.

Everyone at the Academy will be stretching to improve their language skills, whether as relative beginners or more advanced learners.  Hebrew and German tracks will be offered.  For more detailed information, please see the itinerary.

Civilizational literacy, as an animating objective of The New Jewish Academy, begins with the capacity to engage with the Hebrew Bible, as the literary font of Jewish civilization, utilizing the interpretive methods of Critical Jewish Studies*, including an appreciation of the history of the text, its sources, its redactions, the rabbinic interest in rules of interpretation (including most famously, a four-fold taxonomy of textual meaning**), and the early modern, and more contemporary advances in understanding meaning-making with sacred texts.

*to intellectual historians, this movement is usually known as Wissenschaft des Judentums

**literal meaning, imaginative meaning-expansion often an expanded story, allegory, and theological mystery.)

“Critical” does not imply any negative point of view. “Critical” alludes to the heritage of academic Jewish studies, which uses all relevant disciplines in order to relate to the biblical text as an object of care and attention. CJS aims to give the best account of Jewish tradition currently available and to take full advantage of the perspectives afforded by the human sciences.

The “academic” provenance of CJS does not mean that the material need be presented in a dry fashion or so-called “academic” style. Learning design and pedagogy are crucial to the success of NJA and are driven by the question, how do I engage these students?

In playing a translational role in research and its dissemination, the New Jewish Academy takes responsibility for showing its members how to curate relevant academic scholarship for a non-matriculated audience, and to render it useful to themselves and their students in the adult learning classroom.

We bring the conviction that Jewish civilization is precious, but we also hold ourselves accountable to having an open stance toward it and all its worthy commentators and to seeing it whole.

The Human Sciences research section of the Academy is charged with leading the way in investigating areas of wisdom and insight and rendering its discussions and explorations accessible to our teachers-in-training.

• TIME – phenomenology of time (higher times, holiness, kairos, clock-time)
• HISTORY – philosophy of history (linear/purposive and cyclical)
• ETHICS AND MORAL THEORIES – visions of the ideal community (wisdom, compassion, justice, rebuke and forgiveness, dialogue, conflict for the sake of heaven, tenacious hope, prophecy-in-our-day, human dignity)
• LAW AND POLITICS – approaches to power and human organization  (rule of law, covenant, self-determination, individualism and community)

Yes, generous merit-based financial awards are available.

For complete details and to find applications, consult the Academy's Financial Aid page.*

*All awards are tuition waivers and do not constitute "financial aid" as defined by state and federal laws.

Across the next decade The New Jewish Academy will mentor, train, and credential 100 new teacher-scholars drawing on the exceptional pool of talent we already have in the rabbinate and academia. This will inevitably change the landscape of adult Jewish learning in North America.

It's name derives from Die Akademie für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, an institution called for by Franz Rosenzweig and Hermann Cohen at the close of WWI in Germany as an emergency measure to respond to the threat to Jewish civilization posed by adversaries from without and neglect from within.