Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Oct. 27, 2003 – Oded Irshai, the Croghan Bicentennial Visiting Professor in Religion at Williams College, will deliver a lecture titled “The Heirs of Peter and the Sons of Aaron: Society and Culture in the Late Antique Synagogue.” The lecture is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m. in Griffin Hall, room 7.
Irshai, professor of Jewish history at Hebrew University, is the leading Israeli scholar in patristic and rabbinic history. He is respected for combining sensitivity to literary texts with insightful historical reconstructions and is one of the few scholars who can navigate the complex literary corpora of both the Church Fathers and rabbinic literature.
His research interests include Palestine in the Second Temple period, Jews and Judaism in early Christian historiography, and social and cultural dimensions of Jewish life in Late Antiquity.
Among his many publications in Hebrew and English, he has produced groundbreaking work on Cyril of Jerusalem, and has written a seminal article titled “Constantine and the Jews: the Prohibition Against Entering Jerusalem – History and Hagiography.”
He is the editor of Zion: Journal of the Israel Historical Society.
He received his Ph.D. in 1993 from Hebrew University. He was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from Oxford University and a Starr Fellowship from Harvard University’s Center for Jewish Studies.
Irshai is currently teaching a fall semester course at Williams on Jerusalem: Myth, History and Theology (300 B.C.E-400) at Williams College.
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For building locations on the Williams campus, please consult the map outside the driveway entrance to the Security Office located in Hopkins Hall on Main Street (Rte. 2), next to the Thompson Memorial Chapel, or call the Office of Public Affairs (413) 597-4279. The map can also be found on the web at www.williams.edu/home/campusmap/
Event: Jennifer A. Linnan
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Published October 28, 2003
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