Simon Dubnow Lectures

The Simon Dubnow Lecture has taken place annually every November since the year 2000. It is hosted in a festive format at a central location in the city, for example in the Alte Handelsbörse or the Bibliotheca Albertina. The institute invites prominent scholars to Leipzig to illuminate the history of Jews in the context of general history before both a scholarly and general audience.

The speakers have to date included Saul Friedländer addressing current developments in Holocaust research, Atina Grossmann addressing Jews in postwar Europe, Jan Tomasz Gross addressing the Kielce Pogrom of 1946, and Renée Poznanski addressing Eastern European Jews in the Résistance. The annual lectures are generously supported by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Still Lives: Jewish Photography and Experiences in Nazi Germany

with Prof. Dr. Ofer Ashkenazi (Jerusalem)

12 November 2024, 6 p.m.
Leipzig University, Paulinum

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Juden, Dissidenten, Sowjetmenschen: Die Entzauberung des Sozialismus

with Benjamin Nathans

7. Dezember 2023, 18 Uhr
Bibliotheca Albertina, Lecture Hall

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Kontingenz. Das Jüdische Palästina und der Zweite Weltkrieg

with Dr. Dr. h. c. Dan Diner (Jerusalem)

12 May 2022, 6 p.m.
Bibliotheca Albertina, Lecture Hall

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Jewish, French or Transnational? East European Jews in the Résistance

with Prof. Dr. Renée Poznanski (Beer-Sheva)

14th November 2019
Old Exchange in Leipzig

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Grenzland-Erfahrungen. Die ukrainische Nationsbildung und die Juden

with Prof. Dr. Frank Golczewski (Hamburg)

15th November 2018
Old Exchange in Leipzig

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Judentum, Christentum, Islam Nachbarschaften in der Longue Durée

with David Nirenberg (Chicago, Ill.)

30th November 2017
Lecture hall Bibliotheca Albertina

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Lifting the Veil of Silence: The Kielce Pogrom 1946 and Its Aftermath

with Jan Tomasz Gross (Princeton, N. J.)

17th November 2016
Old Exchange in Leipzig

Simon Dubnow Lecture

After the Catastrophe. Jews in Europe, 1945–1949

with Atina Grossmann (New York)

26th November 2015
Old Exchange in Leipzig

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Eine Enklave in Jerusalem: Der Skopusberg 1948–1967

with Yfaat Weiss (Jerusalem)

4th December 2014
Old Exchange in Leipzig

Simon Dubnow Lecture

The Great War and Jewish Memory

with Jay Winter (New Haven)

21st November 2013
Old Exchange in Leipzig

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Orientations and Explanations. Trends and Modes in Holocaust Historiography

with Saul Friedländer (Los Angeles)

29th November 2012
Old Exchange in Leipzig

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Aneignung und Abwehr. Jüdische Tradition im neuen Denken

with Vivian Liska (Antwerpen)

1st December 2011
Old Exchange in Leipzig

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Zwischen Mao und Mose: Der Mai '68 und die Frage jüdisch-französischer Zugehörigkeit

with Richard Wolin (New York)

25th November 2010
Old Exchange in Leipzig

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Juden in der muslimischen Welt. Geschichte und Kultur im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert

with Aron Rodrigue (Stanford)

3rd December 2009
Old Exchange in Leipzig

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Von Dubnow zu Rawidowicz. Über eine jüdische Nation jenseits des Nationalstaates

with David N. Myers (Los Angeles)

27th November 2008
Old Exchange in Leipzig

Simon Dubnow Lecture

»Das Recht, Rechte zu haben« - Arendt und Kant zu kosmopolitischem Recht und Staatsbürgerschaft

with Seyla Benhabib (New Haven)

29th November 2007
Old Exchange in Leipzig

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Deutsch-jüdische Sportgeschichte – Zwischen Inklusion und Exklusion

with Moshe Zimmermann (Jerusalem)

30th November 2006
Old Exchange in Leipzig

Simon Dubnow Lecture

In the Face of What is Different: Gershom Scholem, Hannah Arendt, Victor Klemperer and National Socialism

with Steven Aschheim (Jerusalem)

1st December 2005
Old Exchange in Leipzig

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Historical Experience and the Culture of Knowledge: Karl W. Deutsch, from Prague to the United States

with Andrei S. Markovits (Michigan)

18th November 2004
Old Exchange in Leipzig

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Raphael Lemkin und der Begriff vom »Genozid«

with Anson Rabinbach (Princeton)

18th December 2003
Old Exchange in Leipzig

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Born in Germany: Portrait of a Generation

with Walter Laqueur (Washington, D.C.)

5th December 2002
Old Exchange in Leipzig

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Jewish History in a Universal-Comparative Context

with Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt (Jerusalem)

23rd January 2002
Old Exchange in Leipzig

Simon Dubnow Lecture

Einheit und Differenz: Zum Verhältnis von deutscher und jüdischer Geschichte

with Peter Pulzer (Oxford)

21st November 2000
Old Exchange in Leipzig