The Legends of the Jews and the Magic of Storytelling. A conversation between Andreas Kilcher and Daniel Strassberg

The Torah also became the greatest work of world literature thanks to the extra- and post-biblical Jewish narrative tradition, the so-called Aggada. Over the centuries, the aggadah has built numerous stories around the biblical events and figures, embellishing them right up to the modern age. Compared to the biblical canon, a more untamed, wilder literature emerged, in which less morality and theology than magic and Eros are expressed.

The occasion for the discussion between Andreas Kilcher and Daniel Strassberg is the first edition of the German original of the Legends of the Jews (Suhrkamp Verlag, 2022), which the great Talmud scholar Louis Ginzberg published between 1909 and 1938 in English translation as Legends of the Jews.

The book vernissage will be introduced by the two editors Andreas Kilcher and Joanna Nowotny. The ensuing conversation will refer to selected passages from the text, which will be read aloud by the actress Graziella Rossi.

Louis Ginzberg, born in Kowno in 1873, was educated both in the Jewish teaching institutions in Lithuania and in secular sciences in Berlin, Strasbourg and Heidelberg. In 1899 he emigrated to New York and continued his career at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He died in New York in 1953.

Andreas Kilcher, born in Basel in 1963, completed his doctorate on Kabbalah in 1996 and has since been conducting research with a focus on Jewish literature and philosophy. He has been a professor of literature and cultural studies at ETH Zurich since 2008. Most recently, he published Franz Kafka's drawings with the C. H. Beck publishing house.

Daniel Strassberg, born in 1954 in St. Gallen, lives as a psychoanalyst and philosopher in Zurich. He is a former yeshiva student and co-founder of the Entresol network. His latest book "Spectacular Machines" has just been published by Matthes & Seitz.

Venue: Sphères, Hardturmstrasse 66, 8005 Zurich
Registration: / 044 915 28 63
Free admission, collection

The event is organised by external page OMANUT Forum for Jewish Art and Culture.