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Adam S. Ferziger, S.R. Hirsch Chair for Research of the Torah and Derekh Erez Movement in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar-Ilan University, speaks with Shlomo Zuckier about Rav Aharon Lichtenstein’s “fragmentary Judaism” and his ideas about how observant Jews should relate to non-observant Jews. Ferziger describes Lichtenstein’s approach as being “distinctive among major Orthodox figures, in that he demonstrates far greater appreciation and effort to acknowledge positive elements in the positions of other Jews than his predecessors.” 

Stu Halpern, senior adviser to the provost, speaks with Dr. Michel Rosenfeld, University Professor of Law and Comparative Democracy; Justice Sydney L. Robins Professor of Human Rights; and Director of the Program on Global and Comparative Constitutional Theory at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. 

They discuss “The Conscience Wars: Rethinking the Balance Between Religion, Identity and Equality,” a book co-edited by Rosenfeld and Susanna Mancini, the Chair of Comparative Constitutional Law at the University of Bologna School of Law. The book comes out of their observation about the “profound change over time in how conscience claims are used to claim exemptions from the law.”

Dr. Daniel Rynhold, professor in modern Jewish philosophy at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, director of the Revel doctoral program and director of the Schottenstein Honors Program at Yeshiva College, discusses Nietzsche, Soloveitchik, and Contemporary Jewish Philosophy, co-written with Michael J. Harris, with Rabb Dr. Stu Halpern, senior adviser to the provost. In their discussion, Dr. Rynhold touches upon how Rabbi Jospeh Soloveitchik's effort to find the meaning of faith in the world was sharpened by having to confront Friedrich Nietzsche's savage critique of Christian theology. Though coming from opposed points of view, both men were committed to finding out how to craft a life that had meaning and value.

 Dr. Jeffrey Gurock, Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History, talks with Rabbi Dr. Stu Halpern, senior adviser to the provost, about his book, Conversations with Colleagues: On Becoming an American Jewish Historian, where Dr. Gurock edited contributions by 16 historians of American Jewish life speaking about their intellectual journeys. In their discussion, they range over many subjects, from the migrations of the first cohort of Jews to the United States to the necessity for knowing about baseball in order to be an effective rabbi.