“Dialogue is a risk,” said Professor Paul Mendes-Flohr during Monday’s installment of the Jewish Studies Ring Family mini-course sponsored by Hillel, “Dialogue and Politics of Reconciliation: Israelis and Palestinians.”

“You can so easily trip and fall into the abyss,” he continued. “Dialogical politics is a risk. You could get hurt. But personhood is only acknowledged and confirmed by another.”

Mendes-Flohr is a writer, editor, scholar and current professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Chicago. A book he edited of Martin Buber’s writings on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, titled A Land of Two Peoples, was re-released in February 2005. Martin Buber was a German philosopher and Jewish activist who lived at the turn of the century.

“[Mende-Flohr] is one of the world’s foremost authorities on modern Jewish thought,” said Shulamit Magnus, chair of the Jewish studies department. “He’s also a citizen of Israel and lives there. He’s very involved in peace and dialogue. He puts his body where his mouth is and is coming at this from both a scholarly and an engaged place.”

Specifically, the mini-course approaches this conflict through the teachings of Buber. He was preoccupied with how we live our lives in relation to each other — the world of the “I” versus that of the “You.”

“The subject is singularly appropriate to this campus,” said Magnus. “Mendes-Flohr is a top-notch scholar, there are top-notch students. We’ll get a lot out of engaging with someone of his intellectual power. Also, it comes up.”

“I didn’t realize until [after agreeing to do the lecture] that it was supposed to focus on the political,” said Mendes-Flohr. “I hope I fulfill both the philosophical and political sides.”

“I think the great failing between Israelis and Palestinians is that we don’t really listen to each other,” he said. “Dialogue works. It builds bridges between individuals and communities.”

Building community forms the heart of Mendes-Flohr’s message.

“True community does not just come into being,” he said. He then introduced the concept of a “single living center.”

“This has befuddled numerous scholars, including myself. I guess I’m a scholar. I don’t like the word,” he said. “It can mean ‘God’ if that’s the word that makes you comfortable. It’s something transcendental, something larger than your concerns or even the larger concerns of the community. It’s something that you serve but it’s a mutual relationship. If you don’t ‘believe,’ don’t worry about it. It’s not a question of faith but of how you encounter the world.”

He then quoted Buber,“We all have to stand in a living, reciprocal relationship with each other.”

According to Mendes-Flohr, this kind of interaction is exactly what isn’t happening in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Both peoples see the land as their home,” he said. “We clearly have to learn how to live with each other. Not next to each other, but with each other. We need to learn to be really be aware of and with each other on all levels — personal, cultural, etc.”

This is what the course is ultimately about: the philosophy of how to engage in dialogue, and within interpersonal relationships, and how that relates to the conflict. It manages to avoid being just a postulation of a specific political view.

“He’s about the last person to engage in polemics,” said Magnus. “That’s not who he is. He definitely has a point of view but it isn’t about taking sides. It’s part of the appeal of bringing someone like him to campus. It’s very easy to get into slugfests and that kind of dialogue isn’t productive to anyone. I certainly don’t want to get into it.”

Mendes-Flohr confirmed this.

“I have some personal vision,” he said. “I have a political vision of what the solution should be. There are directions [available]. But as Buber said, there’s something fundamental about forming a solution or choosing a direction that has to be addressed. I just organized a conference in Europe where Israeli and Palestinian intellectuals met and spoke with this philosophy in mind.”

The lectures take place in Hallock Auditorium and are open to the public. The remaining dates are Nov. 13, 3-5 p.m. and 7-9 p.m., and Nov. 14, 7:30-9:45 p.m.