Prof. George-Yaakov Kohler

Education

Doctoral thesis:

"The Rediscovery of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed by the Wissenschaft des Judentums",Advisors: Prof. Haim Kreisel, Prof. Gideon Freudenthal

M.A thesis:

"Infinity in Gersonides",Advisor: Prof. Haim Kreisel

Professional Experience

List of publications

Books

Reading Maimonides' Philosophy in Nineteenth Century Germany – The Guide to Religious Reform (Springer Science, Dordrecht 2012 / vol. 15 of Amsterdam Studies in Jewish Philosophy).

Kabbalah Research in the Wissenschaft des Judentums (1820–1880) - The Foundation of an Academic Discipline, Series: Europäisch-jüdische Studien, De Gruyter 2019.

Edited volumes

Der jüdische Messianismus im Zeitalter der Emanzipation - Reinterpretationen zwischen davidischem Königtum und endzeitlichem Sozialismus (introduced edition, deGruyter, 2013).

Horchet, ihr Söhne, der Moral des Vaters" - Väter und Vaterfiguren in jüdischer Geschichte, Religion und Kultur, Dölling und Galitz, München Hamburg, 2016, 204 pages (coeditor).

The Tragedy of Optimism - Steven Schwarzschild’s Writings on Hermann Cohen, State University NY Press, New York 2018 (introduced edition).

Introduced and annotated translation of Max Joseph’s Judentum am Scheidewege (1908).

The Roads Not Taken – The Neglected Role of Kabbalah in 19^th and early 20^th Century Scholarship, Cherub Press, Los Angeles, 2018 (with Christian Wiese).

Nationalismus und Religion – Zu Hermann Cohens 100. Todestag, Heidelberg 2019 (with Eveline Goodman-Thau).

Judaism and the Science of Judaism – 200 Years of Academic Thought on the Jewish Religion, special editon of Daat - A Journal of Jewish Philosophy & Kabbalah, 2019 (with Thomas Meyer and Andreas Braemer).

Reviewed articles in journals

“Medieval Infinities in Mathematics and the Contribution of Gersonides”, in: History of Philosophy Quarterly, 23-2 (2006), pp. 95-116

“Manuel Joel in Defense of the Talmud – Liberal Responses to Religious Antisemitism in Nineteen-Century Germany”, Hebrew Union College Annual 79, (2008/2010), p. 141-163.

“German Spirit and Holy Ghost - Treitschke’s Call for Conversion of German Jewry: The Debate Revisited”, in: Modern Judaism 30:2 (2010), p. 172-195.

“Finding God’s Purpose - Hermann Cohen’s Use of Maimonides to Establish the Authority of Mosaic Law”, in: Journal for Jewish Thought and Philosophy 18:1 (2010), p. 85-115.

„Die Idealisierung des Diesseits“ – Maimonides’ Einfluss auf das Konzept des Messianismus in Hermann Cohens Essay Charakteristik der Ethik Maimunis, in: Judaica, 3/2011 p. 241-262.

"Is there a God an sich? Isaac Breuer on Kant’s Noumena", in: AJS Review 36:1 (2012), p. 121-139.

Platzmachen für Gott - Else Lasker-Schüler, Rabbiner Kurt Wilhelm und der religiöse Liberalismus in Palästina“, in: Aschkenas. 2013; 21(1–2): p. 179–199.

“Moses as a Superhuman – Criticism of Maimonides’ Theory of Prophecy by Wissenschaft des Judentums Scholars in Early 20th-Century Germany”, in Jewish Studies Quarterly, No. 1, 2015, p. 87-107.

"Rabbi Max Joseph – Between Reform and Zionism", in: Review of Rabbinic Judaism 19 (2016) 96–117

“The Captivating Beauty of the Divine Spark – Breslau and the Reception of Yehuda Halevi’s Sefer Kuzari (1877–1911), in: Transversal – Journal for Jewish Studies, 2016; 14 (1), p. 26-34.

“Scholasticism is a Daughter of Judaism” - The Discovery of Jewish Influence on Medieval Christian Thought, in: Journal of the History of Ideas, 2017 No. 3, 319-340.

“Renewed Messianic Thought in Nineteenth Century Germany: A Dispute between Moses Hess and Leopold Loew”, in: DAAT: A Journal of Jewish Philosophy & Kabbalah 84 (2017), p. V-XXIII.

“Heinrich Graetz and the Kabbalah”, in: Kabbalah - Journal for the Study of Jewish Mystical Texts, vol. 40, 2018, p. 107-130.

“Against the Heteronomy of Halacha – Hermann Cohen’s Implicit Rejection of Kant’s Critique of Judaism”, in: Dinei Israel Yearbook, vol 32, 2018, p. 189-209.

“Is there Room for Belief in Judaism? Two German-Jewish Thinkers Debate Dogma in 1834”, in: Jewish Thought - Journal of the Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought volume 1:1 (2019), p. 89-114.

“Yehuda Halevi's Kuzari and the Wissenschaft des Judentums (1840–1865)”, Jewish Quarterly Review, Volume 109, Number 3, Summer 2019, p. 335-359.

“Theology as a Discipline of the Wissenschaft des Judentums (1830-1910) – An Overview”, in DAAT: A Journal of Jewish Philosophy & Kabbalah 88 (2019), p. 65-88.

“The Pattern for Jewish Reformation” – The Impact of Lessing’s Dynamic Theology on Nineteenth-Century German Jewish Religious Thought, in: Harvard Theological Review 113:2 (2020), p. 263–284.

“Die Vernünftigkeit des jüdischen Dogmas - Samuel Holdheims Kritik an Mendelssohns Religionsphilosophie”, in Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte, 72,4 (2020), p. 371-389.

“The Claim to "Hidden Truths" as the Reason for the Rejection of Kabbalah by the Wissenschaft des Judentums”, in Jewish Thought - Journal of the Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought, volume 2 (2020), p. 133-155.

Reviewed chapters in books

“Maimonides and Ethical Monotheism – The Influence of the Guide of the Perplexed on German Reform Judaism”, in: James T. Robinson (ed.) The Cultures of Maimonideanism, Brill (2009), p. 309-334.

Ein notwendiger Fehler der Weltgeschichte - Ludwig Philippsons Auseinandersetzung mit dem Christentum“, in: Görge K. Hasselhoff (ed.) Die Entdeckung des Christentums in der Wissenschaft des Judentums, Berlin 2010, p. 33-62.

Judaism Buried or Revitalised? ‘Wissenschaft des Judentums’ in Nineteenth Century Germany – Impact, Actuality and Applicability Today, in: Daniel J. Lasker (ed.),  Jewish Thought and Jewish Belief, Beer Sheva 2012, p. 27-63.

Eine verpasste Gelegenheit: Abraham Geigers lebenslang spannungsvolles Verhältnis zur Religionsphilosophie des Maimonides“, in: Christian Wiese (ed.) Jüdische Existenz in der Moderne: Abraham Geiger und die Wissenschaft des Judentums, Berlin 2013, p. 249-274

Keine Brücke zwischen Begriff und Welt - Orthodoxe Kritik an der Religionsphilosophie Hermann Cohens”, in: Eveline Goodman-Thau und Hans-Georg Flickinger (ed.), Zur Aktualität des Unzeitgemäßen - Beiträge zum Jüdischen Denken, Reiner Wiehl zum Andenken, Nordhausen 2013, 111-140.

“Prayers for the Messiah in the Thought of Early Reform Judaism“, in: Uri Ehrlich (ed.) Jewish Prayer: New Perspectives, Beer Sheva 2016, 5-29.

“Ludwig Philippson on Biblical Monotheism: Jewish Religious Philosophy between Mendelssohn and Hermann Cohen “, in: Jewish Historiography between Past and Future. 200 Years of Wissenschaft des Judentums, ed. Paul Mendes-Flohr, Rachel Livneh-Freudenthal, and Guy Miron, de Gruyter, NY 2019, p. 181-196.

“Hermann Cohen und die Aufhebung der christlichen Alleinherrschaft in der Kultur“, in Nationalismus und Religion – Zu Hermann Cohens 100. Todestag, ed. E. Goodman-Thau and G. Y. Kohler, Heidelberg 2019, p. 61-73.

“The Rediscovery of Gersonides as a Religious Philosopher by the Wissenschaft des Judentums”, in Gad Freudenthal et al (ed.), Gersonides’ Afterlife - Studies on the Reception of Levi ben Gerson’s Philosophical, Halakhic and Scientific Oeuvre, Brill 2020, p. 550-568.

Forthcoming articles (reviewed and accepted)

“Humankind is Advancing – Samuel Hirsch’s Rediscovery of Messianism and its Consequences for Modern Jewish Religious Philosophy”, in: Thorsten Fuchshuber and Judith Frishman (ed.), Religionsphilosoph, Emanzipationsverfechter und radikaler Reformer der jüdischen Moderne, De Gruyter, forthcoming in 2020.

“The Birth of Modern Jewish Theology: Reactions to Bruno Bauer’s Secular Supersessionism”, In: Journal for the History of Modern Theology, 2020.

Book Reviews

Josef Albo: Jüdische Philosophie und christliche Kontroverstheologie in der frühen Neuzeit, in: Jewish Quarterly Review - Volume 95, Number 4, Fall 2005, pp. 724-727.

Am HaSefer, in: ZRGG 62, 1 (2010), p. 85f.

Maimonides interkulturell gelesen, in: ZRGG 62, 2 (2010), p. 188-190.

Moshe Halbertal: HaRambam, in: ZRGG 62, 3 (2010), p. 301-303.

Abraham Melamed: On the Jewish Origin of Philosophy and Science, in ZRGG 63, 2 (2011) p. 186-188.

Dieter Adelmann: Reinige dein Denken – über den jüdischen Hintergrund der Philosophie von Hermann Cohen, in: Modern Judaism 31, 1 (2011), p. 109-113.

Ran HaCohen: Reclaiming the Hebrew Bible, in: ZRGG 63, 4 (2011), p. 398-400.

Elliot N. Dorff and Jonathan K. Crane (eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Ethics and Morality, in: Medaon – Magazin für jüdisches Leben in Forschung und Bildung, 9 (2015), 16.

James Diamond:Maimonides and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon, in: Medaon – Magazin für jüdisches Leben in Forschung und Bildung, 9 (2015), 17.

Torsten Lattki, Benzion Kellermann, in: Medaon – Magazin für jüdisches Leben in Forschung und Bildung, 10 (2016), 19.

Ismar Schorsch, Leopold Zunz, Medaon – Magazin für jüdisches Leben in Forschung und Bildung, 11 (2017), 21.

James Diamond, Jewish Theology Unbound, in: Medaon – Magazin für jüdisches Leben in Forschung und Bildung, 13 (2019), 24

Neil Weinstock Netanel, From Maimonides to Microsoft: The Jewish Law of Copyright since the Birth of Print, in: ournal of Law and Religion, 1-3. doi:10.1017/jlr.2019.29

Frederick C. Beiser, Hermann Cohen – An Intellectual Biography, Medaon – Magazin für jüdisches Leben in Forschung und Bildung, 14 (2020), 26

Jewish religious thought in Germany in the modern age;Wissenschaft des Judentums;Jewish-Christian debates on theology in the modern age;The philosophy of Hermann Cohen