Princeton Institute for Hasidic Thought 2026 Fall Symposium

The Princeton Institute for Hasidic Thought is thrilled to convene our second annual fall symposium on November 1st at Princeton University, bringing together students and scholars from across the country to participate in a day of learning at the crossroads of the modern academy and spiritual inquiry. This year’s symposium considers how body, soul, and selfhood have been understood in Jewish thought from antiquity to modernity, and what bearing these questions have on intellectual inquiry and lived experience today. The symposium is equally open to those well versed in Hasidic thought and to those approaching it for the first time.

Confirmed speakers include Professor Leora Batnitzky (Princeton University), Professor Naphtali Meshel (Hebrew University), Professor Dhananjay Jagannathan (Hunter College), Professor Clemence Boulouque (Columbia University), Dr. Danielle Knafo (author and clinical psychologist), and Dr. Eli Rubin (Chabad.org).

Across the day’s three sessions, the symposium takes as its premise that questions of body and soul are not settled matters that can be relegated to the past, but ones that remain live and central to how we understand human experience. We welcome your participation in what promises to be a day of deep learning and shared conversation.