Special Lectures and Events
Sponsored by
THE HAROLD SCHNITZER FAMILY PROGRAM IN JUDAIC STUDIES
at the University of Oregon
2013 EVENTS
2013 Singer Family Lecture
"Anxieties in Conflict: The Diary of Anna del Monte"
Kenneth Stow
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Knight Library Browsing Room
7:30pm
In 1749, Anna del Monte was taken, literally at gunpoint, to the Roman House of Converts. She emerged thirteen days later still a Jew. Her story, as told in a diary reworked by her brother and made public only in 1793, encapsulates the trials--and tribulations--both Roman Jews and the Roman Church were facing in a world undergoing revolution and, in its wake, radical political and legal change. It is the fears of both sides that lie at the heart of Stow's talk.
Kenneth Stow is Professor Emeritus of Jewish History at the University of Haifa and the founder of the journal Jewish History, which he edited for twenty-five years. He is author of Jewish Dogs. An Image and Its Interpreters (2006), Theater of Acculturation: The Roman Ghetto in the Sixteen Century (2001), The Jews in Rome, Volumes I and II (1995, 1997), and Alienated Minority: The Jews in Medieval Latin Europe (1992), among others.
"On the Other Hand: The Dialectic in Judaism"
Gary Rendsburg
Monday, March 4, 2013
Knight Library Browsing Room
7:30pm
The Bible begins with two creation stories, with major discrepancies between them. Different parts of the Torah, especially Leviticus and Deuteronomy, have different views regarding the ritual worship system. The books of Judges and Samuel present contradictory viewpoints, sometimes pro-monarchic, sometimes anti-monarchic. Different biblical authors had diverse theological explanations for the disaster that befell Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. In the post-biblical period, we have Pharisees and Sadducees with dissimilar approaches. The presentation of contrary views continues in the Mishna, with majority and minority positions presented side-by-side. And on it goes, into the middle ages, until the present. Yet through it all, Judaism has prospered, with a renewed energy each time. This talk will present this major issue within the broad sweep of Jewish society in historical and ideological perspective.
2nd Annual Rabbi Marcus Simmons Lecture
"Praised are You God [...] Who has made me a woman and not a man:" Jewish Female Voices from Renaissance Italy
Federica Francesconi
Sunday, January 27, 2013
4:00pm
Temple Beth Israel
1175 East 29th & University
Federica Francesconi specializes in the cultural and social history of Jews in early modern Europe, paying special attention to Italian Jewish culture. She is currently developing her dissertation into a book, The Wealth of Silver: The Journey of the Modenese Jews from the Renaissance to Emancipation (1598-1814). Francesconi has held fellowships at the University of Pennyslvania, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Oxfod. She is currently a visiting professor at the UO Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies. She has just co-edited a special issue of the Journal Jewish History, entitled Tradition and Transformation in Eighteenth-Century Europe: Jewish Integration in Comparative Perspective.
2012 EVENTS
“The Language of Belief: A 15th-Century Iberian account of the origins of language and culture”
Prof. Michelle M. Hamilton
Thursday, October 18, 2012
117 Fenton Hall
6:00 pm
Reception to follow
In this talk Dr. Hamilton will explore how Alfonso de la Torre, a fifteenth-century Jewish orconverso intellectual and author of one of the most popular works of fifteenth-century Iberia, the Visión deleytable (‘Delightful Vision’), develops a theory of the evolution of language and a nascent theory of culture to explain religious and national differences. De la Torre’s theories anticipate our own modern conceptions of culture and language, but serve a particular purpose in mid-fifteenth-century Iberia, and, not only give us a glimpse of an emerging sense of individual subjectivity and modernity, but are also a response to contemporary discourses surrounding Jewish-Christian relations.
Michelle M. Hamilton is Associate Professor of Spanish at University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She is author of Representing Others in Medieval Iberia (Palgrave, 2007) and co-editor of Wine, Women, and Song: Hebrew and Arabic Literature in Medieval Iberia (Juan de la Cuesta, 2004). Her articles have appeared in Speculum, Sefarad, Journal of Arabic Literature, Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, and other publications.
Prof. Hamilton’s talk will be of interest to those interested in medieval philosophy, the history of religion, Spanish literature and history, Judaic studies, and other fields. This event was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Departments of Romance Languages, The Program in Medieval Studies, the Department of Religious Studies, the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies, and the Department of Classics.