Baruch Spinoza

I've spent a lot of time critiquing an event at Yivo Institute last week, well I must praise the all-day conference Yivo put on Sunday, to mark the 350th anniversary of the excommunication of Baruch Spinoza by Jewish religious authorities in Amsterdam. A wonderful event.

I almost didn't get in. The conference was sold out, there were scores of people waiting for an extra ticket on 16th St. I of course played the press card, but happily for all of us, Yivo lowered the screen in its main hall, allowing the overflow to watch the event on simulcast.  read more »

In 1656, when he was excommunicated—"By the decrees of the Angels and the proclamation of the Saints, we hereby excommunicate, ban, and anathematize Baruch d'Espinoza"!—Spinoza was just 23 years old. He had formed many heretical thoughts; and there's evidence that the Amsterdam rabbis sent some informers to draw him out on these ideas. One of the speakers, Steven Nadler of UWisconsin, said that religious authorities regularly excommunicated Jews at the time, for say, theft; but the thief could get back into the community by paying a fine. (And Yivo's executive director noted that Jews in Spain were excommunicated for having relations with non-Jewish women. Ouch).

Artists of notable achievement who die young are bound to make a special claim on the attention of p  read more »