University of Potsdam
History of Forgetfulness: Theopolitics and Hasidism in Martin Buber´s Writings
Yemima Hadad’s study concentrates on Buber’s specific sense of historicism and the narrative of forgetfulness in Jewish history. Her thesis, forgetfulness of dialogue, explains Buber’s stance with regard to Hasidism, Zionism, Shoah, political activism, Jewish nationalism, and will reveal his theopolitics to be a religious answer to secular political theology.
Yemima Hadad is an assistant professor for Jewish Studies the Theological Faculty at the University of Leipzig. Her research interests focus on Modern Jewish Thought, German-Jewish Philosophy, Continental Philosophy, Political Theology and Jewish Feminism.
She received her PhD from the School of Jewish Theology at the University of Potsdam (2021) and she is a research fellow at the Bucerius Institute for Research of German Contemporary History and Society at the University of Haifa. Her dissertation: Hasidism and Theopolitics in the Writings of Martin Buber, demonstrates the significance of Hasidism in explaining the political tenets of Martin Buber’s thought.
She held several fellowships including the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes scholarship (2019/2020) and the Leo Baeck Institute fellowship (2018/2019) and the Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center fellowship at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (2017/2018).
Her research has appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as the Hebrew Union College Annual, The Jewish Quarterly Review, Jewish Studies Quarterly, Religions, etc.
She is currently working on a monograph Thinking with Care: Feminine Interventions into the Ethics of Dialogue. The book traces the meaning of feminine thought (Frauendenken) in the 20th century and discusses its relevance for contemporary gender discourses. She is co-editor of the edited volume Women Write Buber: Engendering Martin Buber’s Thought (2026) and of the special issue “Traditions and the Present of Antisemitism” in the journal Zeitschrift für Religion, Gesellschaft und Politik (Springer, 2026).