Editing Baruch Spinoza (section)

===Reconsideration of Spinoza's expulsion===
There has been a renewed debate in modern times about Spinoza's excommunication among Israeli politicians, rabbis and Jewish press, with many calling for the ''cherem'' to be reversed.<ref name="Rutledge 2020">{{cite web | last=Rutledge | first=David | title=The Jewish philosopher Spinoza was one of the great Enlightenment thinkers. So why was he 'cancelled'?  | website=ABC News|series=[[ABC Radio National]] (The Philosopher's Zone)| publisher=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] | date=3 October 2020 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-04/17th-century-jewish-philosopher-spinoza-cancel-culture-comeback/12722826 | access-date=7 October 2020}}</ref> A conference was organized at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York entitled "From Heretic to Hero: A Symposium on the Impact of Baruch Spinoza on the 350th Anniversary of His Excommunication, 1656&ndash;2006". Presenters included [[Steven Nadler]], [[Jonathan I. Israel]], Steven B. Smith, and Daniel B. Schwartz.<ref>Schwartz. ''The First Modern Jew: Spinoza and the History of an Image''. Princeton: Princeton University Press 2012, xi</ref> There have been calls for Spinoza's ''cherem'' to be rescinded, but it can only be done by the congregation that issued it, and the chief rabbi of that community,{{efn|{{lang|nl|Portugees-Israëlietische Gemeente te Amsterdam}} (Portuguese-Israelite commune of Amsterdam)}} [[Hakham|Haham]] [[Pinchas Toledano]], declined to do so, citing Spinoza's "preposterous ideas, where he was tearing apart the very fundamentals of our religion",<ref>{{cite news | first=Simon |last=Rocker | title = Why Baruch Spinoza is still excommunicated | newspaper = The Jewish Chronicle Online | date = 28 August 2014 | url = https://www.thejc.com/judaism/all/why-baruch-spinoza-is-still-excommunicated-1.56419}}</ref> the Amsterdam Jewish community organised a symposium in December 2015 to discuss lifting the ''cherem'', inviting scholars from around the world to form an advisory committee at the meeting. However, the rabbi of the congregation ruled that it should hold, on the basis that he had no greater wisdom than his predecessors, and that Spinoza's views had not become less problematic over time.<ref name="Rutledge 2020"/>