Franz Rosenzweig Professorship goes to Rosenzweig Researcher Ynon Wygoda

"With Dr. Ynon Wygoda (born 1977), the University of Kassel has deliberately invited a lecturer from the young Israeli generation of current Franz Rosenzweig research," explained the chair of the search committee, Prof. Dr. Martina Sitt. He has established close ties with Germany since his study semester at the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology at the Albert Ludwig University in Freiburg im Breisgau in 2006. Wygoda has been well-connected in Rosenzweig research through early publication activity since his teaching position at the Paideia Institute in Stockholm in 2008 and his work as a research assistant at Yale University in 2014. His dissertation at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with Prof. Moshe Halbertal in 2018 dealt with a comparison of the world of thought of Vladimir Jankélévitch and Franz Rosenzweig.

Wygoda is a former fellowship recipient of the Martin Buber Society of Fellows and has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Rosenzweig Society since 2019. In 2018, a visiting lectureship took him to Rome to the Pontifical Gregorian University. Since 2021, he has been working at the Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center for German-Jewish Literature and Cultural History in Jerusalem and is head of the research project "The Star and its Universe: Franz Rosenzweig between Past and Future" on Rosenzweig's book "The Star of Redemption".

The newly appointed Rosenzweig Visiting Professor will give a public lecture on May 9, 2023, at the University of Kassel's Gießhaus. The topic of the lecture will be "Does the Torah Still Speak German? Nechama Leibowitz, Martin Buber and the Meaning of the Bible in the Land of Israel." Prof. Dr. Sonja Buckel, Vice President of the University, will initiate the event with a greeting. Prof. Dr. Ingrid Baumgärtner and Prof. Dr. Martina Sitt are organizing the event. The exact time of the event is yet to be announced.

Wygoda will hold two seminars this April and May that are open to students from all departments. On Fridays, there will be a seminar on "Self-Definition after Forced Definition: Jewish Existence after WW2," and on Sundays he will offer the seminar "Viewing the 20th century through the lens of its Silences: Culture, Philosophy and Politics."

With the Franz Rosenzweig Visiting Professorship, unique in Germany, the University of Kassel commemorates the work and legacy of the Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig, born in Kassel in 1886. The professorship serves to bring to mind the culture of European Jewry, which was destroyed by National Socialism, and to engage with the Jewish present. It has been awarded annually in the summer semester since 1987 and has thus already brought numerous scholars from a wide range of disciplines from Israel, Europe and North America to Kassel.

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Martina Sitt
Universität Kassel
Professur für Mittlere und Neuere Kunstgeschichte
Tel.: +49 561 804 5327
E-Mail: sitt[at]uni-kassel[dot]de