Director of the Bucerius Institute
Department of Jewish History
University of Haifa
Dr. Cedric Cohen-Skalli
Dr. Cedric Cohen-Skalli teaches early modern and modern Jewish Philosophyat the Dept. of Jewish History at the University of Haifa. His research focuses on the relationship of Jewish thinkers to two main philosophical shifts: the shift from Medieval philosophy to early modern thought (14th-17th century), and the shift from early modern to modern thought (18th-20th century). He published three books and many articles on diverse aspects of Jewish thought and literature in early modern and modern period. He is also translator of many works of Freud, Benjamin, Scholem, Idel and Abravanel.
Research Areas: history of Jewish philosophy, history of German philosophy, philosophy of translation in German context, modern political thought, history of art, aesthetics.
998-2004 Ph.D. in Philosophy, School of Philosophy, Tel Aviv University.
Dissertation topic: The Humanistic Rhetoric of Don Isaac Abravanel:
Rhetoric, History and Tradition in Isaac Abravanel’s Introductions and Letters
(dissertation in Hebrew)
1996-1998 D.E.A. de Philosophie, University of Lille III, topic:
A translation and commentary of Gerschom Sholem’s article
« Der Begriff der Kawwana in der alten Kabala ».
1994-1996 Prepared and passed the prestigious exam of the French Office of Education:
Agrégation de philosophie.
1990-1994 B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy, Sorbonne University Paris I. Thesis:
The Concept of Science in Aristotle’s and Hegel’s Work,
Books
- Cohen Skalli, Cedric: Isaac Abravanel: Letters, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin-New York: August 2007. (191 pages)
- Cohen Skalli, Cedric & Luzzati, Lucca, Michele: 1493: un sequestro di lettere ebraiche. Edizione e commento storico, Napoli, Archivio di Studi Ebraici, 2014 (Italian, 304 pages).
- Cohen Skalli, Cedric: Don Isaac Abravanel, (in Hebrew) in the prestigious series The great men of the Jewish people of Salman Shazar publishing house, 2017.
- Cohen Skalli, Cedric: Don Isaac Abravanel: An Intellectual Biography, Waltham MA: Brandeis University Press (Forthcoming November, 2020).
- Cohen Skalli, Cedric and Pisano, Libera: (eds.), Skepsis and Antipolitics. The Alternative of Gustav Landauer, Leiden: Brill (Forthcoming 2021).
Published Translations
- Antonia Grunenberg, Martin et Hannah, histoire d’un amour, translated by Cedric Cohen Skalli, Paris: Payot, October, 2009.
- Sigmund Freud, Dora, Fragment d’une analyse d’hystérie, translated by Cedric Cohen Skalli, Paris: Payot, 2010.
- Sigmund Freud, L’homme aux rats, translated by Cedric Cohen Skalli, Paris: Payot, 2010.
- Sigmund Freud, Du masochisme, translated by Cedric Cohen Skalli, Paris: Payot, 2011.
- Sigmund Freud, Le petit Hans, translated by Cedric Cohen Skalli, Paris: Payot, 2011.
- Walter Benjamin, Expérience et pauvreté, translated by Cedric Cohen Skalli, Paris :Payot, 2011.
- Gershom Scholem, Zeramim rahsiim bamistika hayehudit, translated by Cedric Cohen Skalli, Tel Aviv: Yediot Sefarim, 2016 (Hebrew translation of Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism).
Published Articles
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “The Dual Humanism of Don Isaac Abravanel”, Leituras, Revista da Biblioteca Nacional 13-14 (2005): 151-171
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “Une Réminiscence biblique de La Boétie dans Le Discours de la servitude volontaire”, Perspectives : Revue de l’Université
- Hébraïque de Jérusalem 13 (2006): 61-72
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “Discovering Isaac Abravanel’s Humanistic Rhetoric”, Jewish Quarterly Review 97 (2007): 67-99
- “On a Rhetorical Trend in Isaac Abravanel’s First Edition in Constantinople 1505”, Hispania Judaica Bulletin 5 (2007): 153-175
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “Authorship in the Age of Early Jewish Print: Isaac Abravanel’s Ma’ayanei Ha-Yeshu’a and the First Printed Edition in Ferrara 1551”, eds. Chanita Goodblatt and Howard Kreisel (eds.), Tradition, Heterodoxy and Religious Culture: Judaism and Christianity in the Early Modern Period, (Ben Gurion University Press, Beer Sheva: 2007), pp. 185-201.
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “Abravanel’s commentary on the former prophets: portraits, self-portraits, and models of leadership”, Jewish History 23 (2009): 255-280.
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “Retour et départ, deux paradigmes de l’intégration culturelle israélienne”, Esprit 360 (2009): 28-36.
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “Don Isaac Abravanel et la question du corps du leader”, Pardes 47-48 (2010): 111-122
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “Entre assimilation et dissimulation, Don Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508)”, Les Cahiers du Judaïsme 28 (2010): 10-20
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “Fortune and Providence” in Hebraic Aspects of the Renaissance: Sources and Encounters, Ilana Zinger, Abraham Melamed and Zur Shalev (eds.), Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2011, pp. 54-61.
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “Yizhaq Abravanel a Napoli: espulsione e memoria moderna” in Giancarlo Lacerenza (ed.), 1510-2010: Cinquecenario dell’Espulsione degli Ebrei dall’Italia Meridionale, Napoli, Archivio di Studi Ebraici, 2013, pp. 91-102.
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “Le modèle de l’exhumation et traduction chez Freud au regard de l’intuitionisme de Bergson” in Brigitte Sitbon-Peillon (ed.), Bergson et Freud, Paris: PUF, 2014, pp. 73-97.
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, Don Isaac Abravanel and Leonardo Bruni: A Literary and Philosophical Confrontation, The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms 5 (2015): 492-512.
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “Anticipation inclusive ou exclusive: Benjamin et Heidegger, 1923-1927,” La règle du Jeu 58-59 (2015): 499-527
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “Don Isaac Abravanel and the Conversos: Wealth, Politics and Messianism,” Journal of Levantine Studies 6 (2016): 43-69
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “Don Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508): a multilingual approach”, Eva del Soldato and Andrea Rizzi (eds.), Language Interactions in Early Modern Europe, London and New York: Ashgate, 2017, pp. 159-172.
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “Don Isaac Abravanel and The capture of Arzila in August 1471: Expansion, Communal leadership and Cultural networks”, Dov Stuczynski and Bruno Feitler (eds.), Portuguese Jews, New Christians, and ‘New Jews’, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2018, pp. 56-72.
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “The motif of Anticipation and the First World War: Cohen, Benjamin and Rosenzweig”, Guy Stroumsa (ed.), Comparative Studies in the Twenty-First Century, Israel Academy of Science and Humanities, Jerusalem, 2018, 55-88.
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “Don Isaac Abravanel in Portugal (1437-1483): a socio-cultural profile” Alei Sefer 28 2018 (Hebrew): 49-118.
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “Israël 2011-2018 – pages arrachées à l’espoir et au désespoir”, La règle du Jeu 68 (2019) : 313-334.
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “Between Yitzhak Baer and Leo Strauss: The Rediscovery of Isaac Abravanel’s Political Thought in the late 1930s,” DAAT 88 (2019): 161-289
- Cedric Cohen Skalli, “A la croisée des chemins: Martin Buber et le sionisme,” Commentaire 169 (2020): 97-106.
- Cedric Cohen Skalli and Oded Horezki, “A Fifteenth-Century Reader of Gersonides: Don Isaac Abravanel and the Question of Providence, Astral Influences and of Active Intellect,” in Ofer Elior, Gad Freudenthal, and David Wirmer (eds.), Gersonides’ Afterlife, Leiden and Boston: Brill, Series Studies in Jewish History and Culture, 2020, pp. 159-226.
