Since 2008, LearningFest has been a signature annual event, providing the Dallas Jewish community an opportunity to sample an educational menu that offers varied personalities, teaching styles, and content comprised of the rich educational resources that are available in Dallas.
The cost for the entire day of learning is $18 (no cost for teachers in Federation affiliated schools) and students with a valid ID). For more information, contact Karen Schlosberg, kschlosberg@jfgd.org or 214-239-7131.
In 1656, Amsterdam’s rabbis excommunicated Baruch Spinoza for his “horrible heresies . . . .” He did not return to Jewish life but published a radical critique of all religious and political authority—his Theologico-Political Treatise (1670), the philosophical founding document of modern biblical criticism and modern liberal democracy and, indirectly, of political Zionism. Recent Jewish intellectuals have proposed lifting Spinoza’s excommunication. I show what were the theological and political issues at stake then and there, and whether or how they are the same here and now.
