Professor Joanna Weinberg will discuss the manifold ways in which Jewish literature became a focus of study in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Often initiated into the study of Hebrew (and Aramaic) by Jewish teachers, Christians of all denominations were both attracted and repulsed by the traditions encoded in Jewish books. Presenting some case studies, Joanna will explain how the Hebrew books got their place on the Christian bookshelf.
When: Following services on Shabbat 15 December
Where: The Leonard Sainer Centre (our usual home)
A bagel lunch will be provided.
Joanna Weinberg is Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies and James Mew lecturer in rabbinic Hebrew at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. Her research interests include Jewish historiography, Jews in the Renaissance, Midrash, and the history of scholarship. Her current projects include "Johannes Buxtorf the elder and his copybook: An analysis of a Christian Hebraist’s reading practices" and "The Maharal of Prague’s approach to the gentile world".