Elias Sacks, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Director of Graduate Studies for the Program in Jewish Studies, recently published two articles on Moses Mendelssohn, a leading Enlightenment philosopher generallyseen as the founder of modern Jewish theology. The first article — "Anarchyand Law:Mendelssohnon Philosophy and Judaism"—appears in a new collection of essays entitled(University Press of Maryland, 2016), and explores Mendelssohn’s views on therelationship between Judaism, philosophy, and science.The second article—"CivicFreedom out of the Sources of Judaism: Mendelssohn, Maimonides, and Law’sPromise”—appearsin the most recent issue of the, and exploresMendelssohn’s engagement with medieval Judaism and relevance for contemporary democratic thought.
In February 2016, Professor Sacks also gave a talk at Indiana University Bloomington entitled"Hebrew Philosophy Between East and West:Mendelssohn, Krochmal, and Jewish Modernity,”and inJanuary 2016, heserved as the co-chair ofthe annual meeting of the Society of Jewish Ethics, heldconcurrently with the annual meetings of the Society of Christian Ethics and the Society for the Study of Muslim Ethics.