What is good character? How should virtues be cultivated and vices be avoided? The history of Jewish literature is filled with reflection on questions of character and virtue. Do these amount to a Jewish virtue tradition? What does Jewish reflection on virtue contribute to philosophical traditions of virtue ethics?

This symposium celebrates the recent publication of Jewish Virtue Ethics (SUNY Press, 2023) through explorations of Jewish approaches to virtues related to love and humility, alongside broader philosophical and disciplinary questions related to virtue ethics and the Jewish tradition. The symposium schedule is available here.

Panelists include Shira Billet (JTS), Emmanuel Bloch (NYU), Yonatan Brafman (Tufts), Geoffrey Claussen (Elon), Eitan Fishbane (JTS), Alexander Green (SUNY Buffalo), Patrick Benjamin Koch (Hamburg), Shaul Magid (Harvard), Alan Mittleman (JTS), William Plevan (RRC), Heidi Ravven (Hamilton), Don Seeman (Emory), Roslyn Weiss (Lehigh), and Shira Weiss (YU).

This symposium is free and open to the public (in person only at 3080 Broadway). Registration is required and closes on June 2, 2024.

Presented by JTS’s Hendel Center for Ethics and Justice. Co-sponsored by Elon University’s Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society and SUNY Buffalo’s Department of Jewish Thought, Gordon and Gretchen Gross Professorship in Jewish Studies.