Yitzhak Melamed

Yitzhak Yohanan Melamed (born March 7, 1968 ) is an Israeli - American philosopher and professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore .

Life

Melamed was born into a Russian-Israeli family.

After studying at Tel Aviv University from 1990 to 1996, Melamed went to Yale University . There he received his doctorate in 2005 with Michael Della Rocca on the subject of The Metaphysics of Substance and the Metaphysics of Thought in Spinoza (The Metaphysics of Substance and the Metaphysics of Thought in Spinoza ).

From 2005 to 2008 he was an assistant professor at the University of Chicago . In 2008 he moved to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In 2010 he became Associate Professor there , and in 2013 Full Professor .

Anti-Semitic attack and police violence in Germany

Melamed was attacked on July 11, 2018 in Bonn's Hofgarten with an anti-Semitic background because, as a devout Jew , he was wearing a kippah . According to the professor, the 20-year-old attacker pushed him, insulted him and knocked the kippah off his head several times. Among other things, the attacker shouted “ I fuck Jews ” and “No Jews in Germany”. The police officers who were called up held Melamed, who was chasing the attacker who was running away, for the perpetrator, fixed him, then hit him several times in the face and arrested him. There are different statements about the number of blows, some media reports of "a few dozen", Melamed himself speaks of around 50 to 70 blows in the face. According to statements by the officials and the press release by the Bonn police, Melamed is said to have fought against the police measures, which he denied. One witness reported "extremely brutal" behavior by the police officer, who was then transferred. The Bonn police President Ursula Brohl-Sowa and NRW - Interior Minister Herbert Reul apologized the next day at the professor. Investigations were started against the four police officers involved in the operation, who were between 25 and 28 years old, and they have all been transferred to other departments. In addition to the accusation of bodily harm, investigations are also being carried out in the office because of the possibility of preventing punishment, as the officers initially wanted to prevent Melamed from complaining about the operation. However, after extensive investigations by the public prosecutor's office, the investigation was discontinued. A legally incorrect behavior could not be determined. Furthermore, Melamed's statement that the police had tried to dissuade him from making a complaint could be invalidated by his own companion. "The testimony of a companion Melamed, who was present at the incident, has, according to Buß, invalidated this suspicion." Despite the incident, the professor gave his planned guest lecture at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität on the same day . An arrest warrant had previously been issued against the alleged perpetrator, a 20-year-old German of Palestinian descent, for a robbery and had been suspended again. After the attack on Melamed, the suspect was initially arrested, but then released. On July 17, he also threatened passers-by in the Hofgarten in Bonn with a knife, which is why the arrest warrant was put into effect because of the risk of repetition . On July 19, 2018, around 600 people demonstrated against anti-Semitism on the “Day of Kippah” in Bonn because of the incident. The confessed attacker was in October 2019 for incitement to a total sentence condemned by four and a half years. This also included a previous three years and nine months conviction for robbery and for insult in another case. At the end of the hearing, Melamed's lawyer stated: “The Jewish existence - and that is crazy - is becoming precarious again in Germany.” Melamed commented on the legal proceedings as follows: “My only reaction is that you are unfortunately a racist and corrupt one Police system “Furthermore, Melamed felt the condemned and deliberately aggressive anti-Semitic attack as secondary. He felt the subjectively assessed anti-Semitism of the state as much worse. In this context, he compared the officers deployed to a gang.

Works

• The Young Spinoza. A Metaphysician in the Making. Oxford University Press 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-997165-7
• Eternity. A history. Oxford University Press 2016, ISBN 978-0-19-978186-7
• Spinoza's "Ethics". A critical guide. Cambridge University Press 2017, ISBN 978-1-107-11811-9

As editor:

• Published zs. with Eckart Förster : Spinoza and German Idealism. Cambridge University Press 2012, ISBN 978-1-107-53893-1
• Associate Editor: The Autobiography of Solomon Maimon . The Complete Translation. Princeton University Press 2018, ISBN 978-1-4008-9044-6

Web links

• Website of Melamed at Johns Hopkins University

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} CV , as of December 11, 2017.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Diana Zinkler and Johanna Rüdiger: Victims of anti-Semitism criticized: "That is horrific police behavior" . In: Hamburger Abendblatt . Hamburg July 14, 2018 ( abendblatt.de [accessed July 17, 2018]).
3. ↑ DerWesten - derwesten.de: Anti-Semitic attack - police confuse victims with perpetrators . ( derwesten.de [accessed on July 17, 2018]).
4. ↑ Bonn: Israeli professor raises further allegations against the police . In: ZEIT ONLINE . ( zeit.de [accessed on July 17, 2018]).
5. ↑ Bonn reacts to anti-Semitic attack with “Day of the Kippa” , General-Anzeiger, July 17, 2018
6. ↑ Serious allegations after an anti-Semitic incident: Bonn policeman transferred to Kippah wearer after attack , rp-online.de, July 16, 2018
7. ↑ Philipp Königs: Jewish professor attacks - Bonn reacts to anti-Semitic attacks with “Day of the Kippah” . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . Bonner newspaper printer and publishing house H. Neusser GmbH, Bonn July 17, 2018 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed July 17, 2018]).
8. ↑ Philipp Königs: Anti-Semitic incident - four police officers transferred to Bonn after the Kippa attack . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . Bonner newspaper printer and publishing house H. Neusser GmbH, Bonn July 17, 2018 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed July 17, 2018]).
9. ^ Rüdiger Franz: Proceedings discontinued after attack: Jewish professor criticizes Bonn police. Retrieved May 11, 2020 . 
10. ^ Rüdiger Franz: Proceedings discontinued after attack: Jewish professor criticizes Bonn police. Retrieved May 11, 2020 . 
11. ^ Anti-Semitic act at the Hofgarten - "As a Jew in Bonn you have got used to the danger" . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . Bonner newspaper printer and publishing house H. Neusser GmbH, Bonn July 12, 2018 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed July 17, 2018]).
12. ↑ After the attack on a professor in Bonn: 20-year-old pulls out a knife and is arrested . In: Spiegel Online . July 18, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed July 18, 2018]).
13. ↑ KNA: "Day of the Kippa" in Bonn: "Anti-Semitism has arrived in Germany". In: welt.de . July 19, 2018, accessed October 7, 2018 . 
14. ↑ 21-year-old convicted of attacking a Jewish professor , Die Zeit, October 14, 2019
15. ^ Rüdiger Franz: Proceedings discontinued after attack: Jewish professor criticizes Bonn police. Retrieved May 11, 2020 . 
16. ^ Anti-Semitic incident in Bonn in court | DOMRADIO.DE. Retrieved May 11, 2020 .