CONFERENCE PROGRAM
One Biography, Multiple Places: The Life and Work of Shmuel Hugo Bergmann Between Prague and Jerusalem (1883–1975)
November 3-4, 2021
Download the complete conference program here.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2021
Venue: Faculty of Arts (Filozofická fakulta), Prague 1, Jan Palach Square 1/2, room 201
8:30-9:00 Registration
9.00-11:00 First Panel: Bergmann in Prague
Chair: Zbyněk Tarant
Jan Fingerland
Czech Radio in Prague
Bergmann’s Prague Years 1883-1919: A Man beyond Categories of his Era
Julius H. Schoeps
Moses Mendelssohn Centre for European-Jewish Studies, Potsdam, Germany
Hugo Bergmann, Theodor Lessing and the “Prague Circle”
Štěpán Balík, Marie Brunová, Jiří Holý, Hana Nichtburgerová, Olga Zitová
The Centre for the Study of the Holocaust and Jewish Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague
Hugo Bergmann about the Yiddish, and Yiddish Research in the Czech Republic
Anna-Dorothea Ludewig
Moses Mendelssohn Centre for European-Jewish Studies, University of Potsdam, Germany
“The lifeline”: Max Brod and Hugo Bergmann
11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
11.30-12.30 Second Panel: Bergmann and Czech Lands
Chair: Marie Brunová
Blanka Soukupová
Faculty of Humanities, Charles University
The Jewish National Movement in the Czech Lands, the National Jewish Council, and Hugo Bergmann
Zbyněk Tarant
University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czech Republic
From Lanškroun to the World Stage – Life and Work of Leo Hermann
12.30-14.00 Lunch Break
14.00-15.30 Third Panel: Philosophy and Theology
Chair: Enrico Lucca
Daniel M. Herskowitz
University of Oxford, Wolfson College, UK
Bergmann as a Conduit of European Philosophy: The Case of Martin Heidegger
Guy Paz
Adam Waldorf High School in Jerusalem, Israel
Embracing an Anthroposophical Vision of Judaism: Shmuel Hugo Bergmann reads Ernst Müller
Nicham Ross
Department of Jewish Thought, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
An Existential Reading of the Bible and A Leap of Faith: Between Buber and Bergmann
15.30-16.00 Coffee Break
17:00 Ceremonial Opening – Dean of Faculty of Arts, Charles University, doc. PhDr. Michal Pullmann, Ph.D.
Venue: Patriots Hall (Vlastenecký sál), Carolinum, Ovocný trh 3 – 5, Prague 1
Partner institutions’ greetings
- Centre for the Study of the Holocaust and Jewish Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles University (Prof. Jiří Holý, Dr. Marcela Menachem Zoufalá)
- Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Prof. Boaz Huss)
- Leibniz-Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow (Dr. Enrico Lucca)
- H. Bergmann Center for Philosophical Studies at the Hebrew University (Dr. Michael Roubach)
- The Masaryk Institute and Archive of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Dr. Martin Klečacký)
- The Moses Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish Studies, University of Potsdam (Dr. Olaf Glöckner)
- The European Association of Israel Studies (Prof. Joanna Dyduch)
17:30 Keynote – Shmuel Hugo Bergmann from Prague to Jerusalem: Continuities and Ruptures
Chair: Joanna Dyduch
Hillel J. Kieval, Washington University in St. Louis, U.S.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2021
Venue: Faculty of Arts (Filozofická fakulta), Prague 1, Jan Palach Square 1/2, room 201
Fourth Panel: 9.00-10.30 Bergmann in Palestine and Israel
Chair: Shimon Lev
Boaz Huss
Department of Jewish Thought, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
Shmuel Hugo Bergmann and the Formation of Israeli Esoteric and Alternative Spiritual Culture
Olaf Glöckner, Moses Mendelssohn Centre for European-Jewish Studies, Potsdam, Germany,
Marcela Menachem Zoufalá, Centre for the Study of the Holocaust and Jewish Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Czechia
Hugo Bergmann between Philosophy, the Zionist Dream and the Search for Justice
Zvi Leshem
The National Library of Israel, the Gershom Scholem Collection for Kabbalah and Hasidism, Jerusalem, Israel
“Shmuel Hugo Bergmann: To be a librarian in 1920 – What did that mean?!”
10.30-11.00 Coffee Break
Fifth Panel: 11.00-13.00: Bergmann in the World
Chair: Boaz Huss
Arie M. Dubnov
Department of History, George Washington University, U.S.
A Part of Asia or Apart from Asia? S. H. Bergmann, the Asian Relations Conference in Delhi, and the boundaries of Zionist Asianism, 1947-56
Shimon Lev
Independent researcher, Tel Hai Academic college & curator, Israel
“I Read Sri Aurobindo to Find Some Light in our Difficult Days”: Hugo Bergmann’s Encounter with India, Aurobindo, and the Mother
Samuel Glauber-Zimra
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
“I Frequently Hold a Telepathic Dialogue with You”: The Correspondence of Shmuel Hugo Bergmann and R. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
Enrico Lucca
Leibniz-Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow, Leipzig, Germany
Fighting for the Future of European Jewry: Hugo Bergmann in Sweden (1947–1948)
The conference will be held under the kind auspices of the dean of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, doc. PhDr. Michal Pullmann, Ph.d.
To attend the event, please register by sending an email to: shbergmann.prague@gmail.com.
We are grateful for the support of our sponsors and partners:
- Centre for the Study of the Holocaust and Jewish Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles University
- The European Association of Jewish Studies (EAJS)
- Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
- Leibniz-Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow
- H. Bergmann Center for Philosophical Studies at the Hebrew University
- The Masaryk Institute and Archive of the Czech Academy of Sciences
- The Moses Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish Studies, University of Potsdam
- The European Association of Israel Studies
The event was supported by the grant UDISEJ – Erasmus+ 2018-1-CZ01-KA203-048165 – ‘United in Diversity’ – An Interdisciplinary Study of Contemporary European Jewry and Its Reflection.
COVID RULES
Please don’t forget to bring:
- FFP2 respirator
- vaccination certificate OR negative PCR test result not older than 72 hours OR negative antigen test result not older than 24 hours
