Kabbalah in America Conference organized by Professor Brian Ogren was fascinating. Here is the schedule of the talks, including mine on 9 1/2 Mystics.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28
5:00-6:00 PM Opening Keynote: The Qabbalah of the Hebrews and the Ancient Wisdom Religion of Asia: Isaac Myer and the Kabbalah in America 6:00-7:00PM TEXTUAL TRANSMISSION IN THE AMERICAN CONTEXT Brian Ogren Zoharic Reception in Early America Ronit Meroz The Many Faces of Sefer Yetzirah in the Past and in America 7:00 PM Light dinner at venue
MONDAY, OCTOBER 29
9:00-9:30 Continental Breakfast
9:30-10:30 COLONIAL BEGINNINGS Michael Hoberman “They have with faithfulnesse and care transmitted the Oracles of God unto us Gentiles”: Jewish scholarship in the Puritan imagination Laura Leibman The Traveling Kabbalah. The ‘Lost’ Carigal Manuscript in Early America
10:45-12:15 THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY AND ITS INFLUENCES Julie Chajes Seth Pancoast and Kabbalah Vadim Putzu Kabbalah in the Ozarks: Thomas Moore Johnson, The Platonist, and the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor Marcia Brennan Hyman Bloom’s Mystical Brides
12:15-1:00 Lunch
1:00-2:30 NINETEENTH CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS Jonathan Sarna A Jewish Kabbalistic text from 19th century America: Isidor Kalisch’s Sefer Yetzirah Peter Lanchidi The Masonic Career of A Kabbalistic Lithograph – Max Wolff, The Origin of the Rites and Worship of the Hebrews, New York, 1859 Clemence Boulouque The Oversoul and its Kabbalistic Overtones: Schelling, Emerson and the Pre-Freudian Unconscious in America
2:45-3:45 Shaul Magid
Plenary Address:
An Inverted Sabbatean in America: Dovid Din and Jewish Monasticism
4:00-5:00 HASIDISM, NEO-HASIDISM AND ASHLAGIAN KABBALAH Ariel Mayse Liberty for All: American Neo-Hasidism and Halakhah Ron Margolin Identity or Spirituality: What is behind Buberian Neo Hasidism and Ashlagian Kabbalah in America? 6:00 Leaving for Banquet Dinner
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30
9:00-9:30 Continental Breakfast
9:30-11:00 COUNTERCULTURE Yaakov Ariel Religious Fluidity, Connecting with Ancestral Heritage and Kabbalah: Allen Ginsberg and Gershom Scholem’s Teachings Pinchas Giller Shlomo Carlebach and the Counterculture Alan Brill Aryeh Kaplan's Quest for the Lost Jewish Traditions of Science, Psychology and Prophecy
11:15-12:15 BODILY EXPERIENCE AND THE PARANORMAL Jeff Kripal Changed in a Flash: Kabbalistic Motifs in a Modern Jewish Near-Death Experience Marla Segol Kabbalah and Sex Magic in Contemporary Self-Help
12:15-1:00 Lunch
1:00-2:30 AMERICAN DENOMINATIONALISM Dana Evan Kaplan American Reform Judaism's Increasing Acceptance of Kabbalah : The Contribution of Rabbi Herbert Weiner's 9 ½ Mystics Danny Horowitz American Conservative Judaism and Kabbalah Jody Myers Kabbalah as a Tool of Orthodox Outreach
2:45-3:45 TEXT SCHOLARS AND HISTORIOGRAPHY Moshe Idel Solomon Schechter, Abraham Y. Heschel, Alexander Altmann Eliyahu Stern Pragmatic Kabbalah: Mordecai Kaplan, Joseph L. Sossnitz and the Mystical Origins of Jewish Peoplehood
