Jewish Text(s) and the College Humanities: A Symposium

The Bible has a firm place in the western canon and college humanities. But is the Bible a Jewish text? What other Jewish texts may help us challenge our students to open their minds and confront the complexities of the human condition? Must a moral ideal, such as prophetic messianism or the prohibition of idolatry, shed its particularity in order to become a universal maxim? What is the relation between Jewish literary traditions and western civilization? Join us for a discussion and text- study symposium with leading scholars from BU and other distinguished institutions to explore these questions and more. For the Alumni weekend Jewish Studies Symposium we will be joined by colleagues from nearby and afar, BU faculty, alumni, and guests. Our special guests include alumnae Lesleigh Stahlberg Cushing (DRTS PhD 2002; Colgate) and Leah Hochman (DRTS PhD 1999; HUC/JIR and USC) who will be joining Robert Gibbs (University of Toronto), Naomi Seidman (GTU), and Susannah Heschel (Dartmouth College). BU Jewish studies faculty who have kindly agreed to offer a text study and/or participate in one or both of the plenary sessions are Alicia Borinsky (Romance Studies), Stephen Esposito (Classics/Core), Abigail Gillman (MLCL), Diana Lobel (Religion), David Frankfurter (Chair, Religion) and Stephanie Nelson (Classics/Core). The program is as follows: 1pm Plenary session on college humanities and Jewish studies: Borinsky, Gibbs, Heschel, Hochman, Seidman 2pm Coffee break 2:15pm Break out/text study sessions: Frankfurter, Gibbs, Lobel, (Gillman), Seidman, Hochman, Cushing 3:45pm Serious coffee break 4:15pm Plenary session on what have we learned: Esposito, Nelson, Gibbs, Cushing, Seidman