By Shira Hanau
More than 350 years after Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza was excommunicated from the Spanish-Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam, a Baltimore-based scholar of Spinoza’s work has been banned from visiting the community’s synagogue and library.
Dr. Yitzhak Y. Melamed, a professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, was recently informed he could not visit the Amsterdam synagogue after a film director asked for permission to film Melamed conducting research in the library’s archives.
In a letter to the professor, Rabbi Joseph Serfaty, a leader of Amsterdam’s Sephardic community, told Melamed he would not be welcomed into the building in which Spinoza himself may have studied, as he was enrolled in the school that was once housed there.
“The chachamim [wise men] and parnassim [trustees] of Kahal Kados Torah excommunicated Spinoza and his writings with the severest possible ban, a ban that remains in force and cannot be rescinded. You have devoted your life to the study of Spinoza’s banned works and the development of his ideas,” wrote Rabbi Serfaty.
He concluded the letter by barring Melamed — a native of the Israeli city of Bnei Brak who received his doctorate from Yale University — from entering the building.
“I therefore deny your request and declare you persona non grata in the Portuguese Synagogue complex,” he wrote.
Responding to a request for comment, Melamed, a Pikesville resident who is the Charlotte Bloomberg Professor of Philosophy at Hopkins, said the letter was hypocritical.
“This is primarily a public show of zealotry, nothing more than that,” Melamed, who came to Hopkins in 2008, wrote in an email.
Spinoza was born into the Spanish-Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam and became a philosopher who laid the intellectual foundations of the Enlightenment. He was excommunicated by Amsterdam’s Jews in 1656 for heresy.
In 2015, the community hosted a debate over whether the excommunication should be lifted, but ultimately did not lift the ban.
Approximately 15,000 Jews lives in Amsterdam today.
This article was provided by the JTA global Jewish news source. Jmore staff contributed to this article.
A Baltimore native and Pikesville resident, Freedman had the distinction of being the longest-serving employee in the history of the State of Maryland.
House Bill 661 is the culmination of a collaborative effort led by Del. Sarah S. Wolek (D-16th), Del. Jared S. Solomon (D-18th) and Sen. Shelly L. Hettleman (D-11th).
More than 100 Broadmead residents and team members recently gathered to celebrate the festival of Passover with a meaningful seder dinner.
Journalists bear a responsibility to go beyond the headlines and social media posts to understand the past and present, writes New York University student Lucia Alonso.