Date: Tuesday, January 27, 2026, from 12:30-2:00PM  

Location: The Interchurch Center, 61 Claremont Avenue (Entrance between 119th & 120th Street)

Series: Devotion and Distraction

Speaker: Lital Levy (Princeton University) 

Respondent: Seth Kimmel (Columbia University)

In a simple story that we now tell ourselves about secularization, the European Enlightenment plays a key role: It’s the period when scientific inquiry and rational thought became ascendent, while religious practice receded to a more limited private sphere, a shift that coincided with new paradigms of toleration and liberty. The truth is of course more complicated, as theologians from various religious communities reimagined both religious practice and belief in dialogue with the philosophical and political trends of the moment. Along with their neighbors from other religious communities, how did participants in the Jewish Enlightenment, or Haskalah, come to view the new distractions, technological transformations, and dream of universal knowledge that characterized modern life before the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?

Free and open to the public

Registration is required—Please register in advance to reserve your spot

All prospective attendees must register by 11:59PM on Monday, January 26. Registration will close at that time.

Columbia University makes every effort to accommodate individuals with disabilities. If you require disability accommodations to attend an event at Columbia University, please contact Disability Services (disability@columbia.edu or 212-854-2388) at least 10 days in advance of the event. Requests for CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) or sign language interpretation require two weeks' notice.