Series: LBI Forum on Free Speech and Democracy

Made possible in part by support from the Erna & Heinz Mayer Fund at the LBI

As the United States observes its sesquicentennial anniversary, one of its most cherished political values is also one of its most hotly debated. Is free speech still protected in America? If not, what poses the greater threat: state repression, a censorious culture, or a corporate media environment where free expression belongs to the highest bidder? In a world where hatred quickly metastasizes online – are the people even safe from free speech?

The ideas that found expression in the First Amendment and the constitutions of other liberal democracies were shaped and reshaped by Jewish thinkers from Spinoza to Arendt, enabled processes of Jewish emancipation and religious reform, and are still seen as undergirding religious freedom in pluralistic societies.

In this series, scholars, activists, and public intellectuals will explore these questions through the lens of German-Jewish history, starting with documents in the LBI collections and mining them for insight into the present.

Tuesday, June 9 at 6:30 PM

Never Again, When?: German Memory Culture, the Holocaust, and Free Expression with Irit Dekel and Omri Boehm

Tuesday, June 16 at 6:30 PM

Heresy, Witch Hunts, and Political Persecution: The Problem of Speech from the Enlightenment to the Present with Jason Stanley and Eliyahu Stern

Thursday, June 18 at 6:30 PM

From Pamphleteers to Podcasts: How Evolving Media Environments Can Fuel Antisemitism and Authoritarianism, and What to Do About It with David Brody and Magda Teter