Prof. Yemima Hadad (Leipzig University) Visits JTS to Lecture on Margarete Susman, Hannah Arendt, and Martin Buber

March 19, 2025

On March 12, 2025, JTS welcomed Prof. Yemima Hadad of Leipzig for a lunchtime lecture in Jewish thought and political philosophy, entitled “Pregnancy as a Political Metaphor: Margarete Susman and Hannah Arendt Giving Birth to Revolution in Times of War.” The lecture presented material from Prof. Hadad’s new work in feminist philosophy, a monograph in progress called Thinking with Care: Feminine Interventions into the Ethics of Dialogue. The book traces the meaning of “feminine” thought (Frauendenken, a term that arose within German Jewish thought in the 1910s) in twentieth century philosophy and discusses its relevance for contemporary thought.

Prof. Hadad’s lecture traced the use of metaphors of pregnancy and birth in the political thought of two important twentieth century Jewish intellectuals, Margarete Susman (1872–1966) and Hannah Arendt (1906–1975). Both Jewish women, who witnessed the horrors of WWI and directly experienced the horrors of WWII and the Holocaust, sought, in their respective political philosophies, new metaphors that could redirect politics away from violence as a vehicle for political change. In pregnancy, labor, birth, and the vulnerable newborn baby that emerges from that process and requires care, they found a metaphor for responsibility and care-oriented political change that could serve as an alternative to contemporary political thought. Prof. Hadad reflected critically, both in the lecture and the discussion that followed, on the ideas of Susman and Arendt, explaining them in their authors’ own historical and political contexts, and in terms of their broader oeuvres. Prof. Hadad also reflected briefly on reading these ideas within the war-torn world of the present.

The lecture, sponsored by JTS’s Hendel Center for Ethics and Justice, was attended by JTS faculty and students, as well as members of the broader JTS public, with a robust discussion following the formal presentation.

Later in the day, Prof. Hadad taught JTS students in Prof. Billet’s course on Philosophizing From the Margins (a course that considers the history of modern Jewish philosophy in the 18^th to 20^th centuries from the perspective of Jewish philosophers as outsiders to the discipline). Students appreciated the opportunity to study Martin Buber’s I and Thou with Prof. Hadad, whose doctoral dissertation was on Hasidism and Theopolitics in the Writings of Martin Buber. Several students, pictured below, continued the conversation with Prof. Hadad after class.