Ancient Judaism between Christian Memory and Jewish Forgetting
Royce Hall, Rm 314Drawing on her in-progress book project on Forgetting, this seminar will explore the place of memory and forgetting in the reception of Second Temple Judaism, revisiting the supposed Rabbinic retreat from "history" after the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70 CE and exploring Christian and Jewish contestation over pre-70 Jewish pasts, from antiquity...
Lost Books: The Forgetfulness of Writing and the Forgetting of Jewish Pasts
314 Royce HallIt is often noted how the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls transformed our understanding of ancient Judaism, radically expanding our evidence for Jews and Judaism prior to the rise of Christianity. Yet this material also stands as a striking reminder of how much of the literary heritage of Jewish antiquity has been lost...
The Mothers, the Mamzers, and the Rabbis: Reconstructing Family and Community in Post-Holocaust Jewish Law
Haines 39/ZoomThis talk centers on the little-known story of the children of illicit unions that resulted from a highly unusual situation in post-Holocaust Munkacz, a SubCarpathian town that had been a major Jewish center before World War II. A number of women who returned to Munkacz in 1945 believed their husbands had perished in the...
Mark of Contradictions: The Creation of Judah’s History and the Case of Samson
236 Royce HallIn biblical texts, we find preserved the “mark of contradictions, fragmentations, and adjunctions,” as intellectual historian Michel de Certeau once wrote (The Writing of History 1988: 313). This talk...
Ethics in Paul and Paul in Ethics
ZoomThis talk looks at a few examples of Paul's ethical reasoning and then discusses how his ethical discourse compares with those of several types current today. RSVP required for...
Different Roads, One Goal: Gandhi and Jainism
314 Royce HallThe nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi, one of the last century's most revered figures, has exerted enormous influence across the world. Gandhi was himself greatly influenced by Jainism, an...
From Enchanted to Re-enchanted: Trajectories of Vietnamese Buddhism in a Post-modern World
Royce 243Sponsored by the UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies. It is co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Religion and the UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies. Buddhist modernity has...
Welcome Reception – Fall 2023
Royce 306Please join us to welcome in the new academic year, see old friends and meet new people. Click here to let us know that you will be coming by October...
Diary of a Black Jewish Messiah: David Reubeni’s How-To Manual of Messianic Redemption
ZoomIn the 16th century, a Hebrew-speaking, battle-scarred, Black-skinned Jew named David Reubeni appeared suddenly in Venice with a desperate plan to restore Jewish pride and political independence. Why did kings,...
Righting the American Dream
Kaplan 365Zoom or In-Person event Click here to register In this book talk, author Diane Winston explores how after two years in the White House, an aging and increasingly unpopular Ronald...