Engage the Speaker Session for “Judaism and the Market Economy” (AU2021). Original Lecture description below.

Judaism too is often enlisted in attempts to depict free market economics as exploitative, unjust, or a wrong requiring correction. Many frequently speak of Judaism as either opposed to market forces, or as seeking a balance between “capitalism” and “socialism.” This class will closely examine an array of mainstream Jewish sources pertaining to economic life, with the aim of understanding how Jewish principles point to a much different picture, one both sympathetic to the development of free market economics and historically significant as a substantial contributor to the development of free markets in the West.