BUJS Forum with Jeffrey Bernstein

Title: "Beyond Sartre and Adorno: Jean Améry's Radical Questioning of Jewish Identity and Philosophy in the Aftermath of the Shoah" 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of Jean Améry's "At the Mind's Limits." In this collection of essays about his experience in Auschwitz, he questions the value and possibility of Jewish identity and philosophy after Auschwitz. While Améry's views draw from the negative philosophizing of both Sartre and Adorno, he goes considerably farther than either. With particular emphasis on the final essay of the collection (translated as "On the Necessity and Impossibility of Being a Jew"), Bernstein explores Améry's critique, in order to raise the question of what it may mean for Jewish identity and philosophy today. Dr. Jeffrey A. Bernstein is an associate professor in the Philosophy Department at the College of the Holy Cross. He works in areas of Spinoza, German philosophy, and Jewish thought. His book, "Leo Strauss on the Borders of Judaism, Philosophy, and History", was published by SUNY Press in 2015. He is currently at work on a study of Giorgio Agamben's treatment of Jewish thought and psychoanalytic theory.