Spotlight on CLAL
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CLAL
To Join Symposium On
By Judy Epstein, Director of Public Affairs
A symposium on Jews and the American Public Square will be held at
Boston College on March 12, 2002. Co-sponsored
by the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, the Jewish Community Relations
Council of Greater Boston, and the Center for Jewish Community Studies/Jerusalem Center
for Public Affairs, it will bring together leading thinkers on issues of religion and
public life.
Participating
from CLAL will be Dr. Michael Gottsegen, a political scientist and Senior Fellow at CLAL. He is also the Editor of eCLAL, CLAL’s online magazine. Dr. Gottsegen will be joined by Prof. Michael
Broyde, Director of the Program on Law and Religion at Emory University Law School; Prof.
David Novak, the J. Richard and Dorothy Schiff Chair of Jewish Studies at the University
of Toronto; and Kevin Hasson, Esq., President of the Becker Fund for Religious Liberty in
Washington, D.C.
The
program will address the role of religion in the public square, particularly since 9/11.
Panelists will discuss the Jewish value of civic engagement and will look at how it has
been expressed historically. They will also consider public fears of religious
“excess” in the democratic process. Topics will include Jewish law and public
policy, Jewish conceptions of church-state relations, and religion as a public good.
“In
American Jewish life, there is, and has always been, a commitment to civic participation. It is a reflection of a Jewish ideal and of a
deeply felt sense of personal responsibility,” said Dr. Gottsegen, who earned his
Ph.D. in political theory from Columbia University and is the author of The Political Thought of Hannah Arendt (SUNY
Press).
“But today, with Jews more affluent and
influential than ever before,” Dr. Gottsegen continued, “Jewish social action in the form of the
hands-on provision of social services is not enough.
Rolling up one’s sleeves to staff a synagogue-based homeless shelter or
soup kitchen is meritorious, but it does not leverage our collective political power to
promote the common good. The Jewish
obligation of tzedakah -- the obligation to
provide for the widow, the orphan and the stranger – must take a different form in
every epoch, depending upon the means that happen to be at our individual and collective
disposal.”
Dr.
Gottsegen went on to describe how, in an earlier era, when Jews lacked political rights
and political power, they met their social obligations to the less fortunate in a manner
that presupposed these limitations. “But
as Jews climbed up the socio-economic ladder, and gained economic and political power, the
capacity to meet their obligations in more comprehensive and more effective ways also
grew,” he noted. “Having greater
power for good, we are obliged to make commensurately greater and more effective use of it
and to accomplish more good thereby.”
The
symposium will also consider the impact of Senator Joseph Lieberman’s Vice
Presidential campaign, and how his use of religious language affected public perceptions. In addition, such controversial issues as
the public funding of faith-based organizations and tuition vouchers for parochial schools
will be discussed.
The
seminar is free and open to the public. For
more information, contact Susan Richard at the Boisi Center at 617-552-1860.
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