Contents I-XIII introduction 1-17 Division A: The Bible and Its World 18-56 Division B: History of the Jewish People 57-79 Division C: Rabbinic Literature and Jewish Law 80-93 Division C: Jewish Thought 94-154 Division D: Literatures

Towards a Study of Popular Jewish Culture in Eretz Yisrael of the Roman

Period

Shmuel Feiner (H)

The Current Study of Haskalah: An Historical Perspective on the Jewish

Enlightenment

Jonathan D. Sarna (E)

New Trends in American Jewish History

PROGRAM

20

204 Changes in Settlement and Culture in the Persian Period – Session

Chairperson: Aaron Demsky

The Southern Frontier of Yehud and the Creation of Idumea

Idumea During the Persian Period

Hellenism in the Land of Israel from the 5th Century BCE to the 2nd

Century BCE in Light of Semitic Epigraphy

Lisbeth S. Fried (E)

From Optimism to Doubt in Jewish Encounters with the Other

Land Tenure Systems in Persian Yehud

Chairperson: Cynthia Edenburg

Demographic Processes in Judea from the End of the Iron Age to the

Hellenistic Period

Oded Lipschits (H)

The Importance of the Yehud Stamp Impressions for Understanding the

History of Judea During the Persian Period

Einat Ambar-Armon (H)

Relations Between the Greek World and the Land of Israel During the

Persian Period

Adi Erlich

The Persian Terracotta Figurines from Maresha: Local and Regional

Aspects

PROGRAM

Chairperson: Shalom Pawall

In Anticipation of a New Edition of the Yeho'ash Royal Building

Inscription: Philological Aspects

Amnon Rosenfeld and Shimon Ilani (H)

In Anticipation of a New Edition of the Yeho'ash Royal Building

Inscription: Philological and Geological Aspects

104 The Bible and the Ancient East – Session A

Chairperson: Dalit Rom-Shiloni

(Porten Bezalel) The Storehouse and Makkedah in the Idumean Ostraca

(yardeni Ada)The Storehouse and Makkedah in the Idumean Ostraca

The Notion of Fate in Ugaritic Literature

Symbolism of Hair in the Bible and Ancient Egyptian Culture

The Rise and Fall of Two Regional Empires

Chairperson: Gershon Galil

The Quarrel Between Ishboshet and Abner in Samuel 3:7-11

Interpretation in Mesopotamian Legal, Belles-Lettristic and Omen

Literature

Sharon Keller (E)

Egypt Though Israel's Eyes

PROGRAM

22

106 Ancient East – Session C

The Cult of Snakes in Ancient Canaan / Israel

The Brazen Serpent, a Perplexing Remedy: An Analysis of Num 21:4-9 in

Light of Archeology, Near Eastern Serpent Emblems, and Inner-Biblical

Exegesis

Rabbinic Parallels in Cuneiform Literature

Chairperson: Yaron Z. Eliav

The Development of the Custom of Providing “Provisions for the Way”

(Drinking Apparatus and Planting Saplings) for Travelers in the Land of

Israel

Trade with the Far East in the Talmudic Period

Food in the Babylonian Talmud: Memories of Sumer, Foretastes of

Baghdad

Yoel Fixler (H)

Gitin After the Bar-Kochva Revolt

PROGRAM

23

208 Jews and Judaism in the Greek World

On Parallels, 3 Maccabees and the Book of Esther

The Figure of God in the Zodiac and Jacob's Image

The concepts of Hellenismos and Ioudaismos in the II Maccabees and

Modern Historiography

Edward Dabrowa (E)

The Hasmonean Kingship in the Hellenistic Context

Chairperson: Doron Mendels

"A People of Philosophers": Jews, Greeks, and Self-Identity

The Names of the Land During the Second Temple and the Roman-

Byzantine Periods

Pieter Van der Horst (E)

“The Most God-Fearing and the Most Abominable of All Nations:" A

Greek Philosopher on the Jews

Dorit Gordon (H)

Agatharchides, Mendele, Aristobulos2 and the Question of the Jewish

Sources of Josephus

PROGRAM

Chairperson: Lee I. Levine

Once Again on the Title "Nasi"

The Identity of "Rabbi" in Rabbinic Literature and Epigraphy, and Its

Implications for the History and Status of the Sages in Byzantine

Palestine

'Remembered for Good': Synagogue Inscriptions of Roman Palestine

Loca Sancta – Traditions and Roman Sarcophagi

Chairperson: Zeev Weiss

The Wall Street, the Eastern Stoa, the Location of the "Tetrapylon", and

the Halakhic Status of Caesarea (Commentary on Tosefta Ahilot

XVIII:13)

Herod and Augustus

Herod's Jewish-Roman Ideology: Rhetoric and Evidence

PROGRAM

25

212 Josephus and His Age

The Generalship of Josephus

“Mithridates he captured alive and brought home mounted naked upon an

ass”: Persian Motifs in the Tragedy of Anilaeus and Asinaeus (Josephus,

Antiquities XVIII, 314-370)

The Torah in Josephus' Antiquities: Three Classifications of Alleged

Additions to Bereshit in Antiquities 1-2

Louis H. Feldman (E)

The Levites in Josephus

Chairperson: Noah Hacham

The Halakhic Attitude Towards the Samaritans

Sages vs Priests: The Constitution of a New Social Order or a Mimicry of

Existing Hegemonic Representation?

Sacha Stern (E)

Rabbinic Court, City Councils and Control of the Calendar in Late

Antique Palestine

PROGRAM

Chairperson: Ilia Rodov

"Sitra-Achra in Creation: Dragon, Serpent and Eve in Jewish and

Christian Art

Pawel Szkolut (E)

The Prophet Daniel in the Lion’s Den and Its Iconography in Ancient

Jewish Art

Lihi Habas (E)

The Origin and Significance of the Children in the Depiction of the

“Crossing of the Red Sea” on Early Christian Sarcophagi

Daphna Ass (E)

Some Unexpected Sources in Decoding the Mystery of the Genesis Cycle

on the Hildesheim Bronze Doors

214 Jewish Art and the Jewish-Christian Polemic

Chairperson: Oded Irshai

Biblical Iconography and Yearnings for the Temple Cult in Ancient

Synagogue Art

Talgam Rina (H)

The Bible and the Sanctuary in Church Ornamentation on Both Banks of

the Jordan

Lee I. Levine (H)

Jewish Art in Late Antiquity and Its Historical Contexts

PROGRAM

27

215 Minority Culture Versus Majority Culture: The Case of Byzantine

Chairperson: Oded Irshai

The Transmission of Knowledge from Byzanteum to the West in the

Jewish Middle Ages

Roni Amir (H)

When Were the "Galilean" Synagogues Built: the Stylistic Perspective

Patriarch Photios and Byzantine Jews

Byzantine Jewry: A View from the East

Chairperson: Robert Brody

Booklists from the Cairo Geniza As Indicators of Canonization

Booklists from the Cairo Genizah and Jewish Historical Literature from

the Geonic Period: Historiography within the Literary Canon and Canon

within Historiography

The Canon that Disappeared: The Case of Rav Shmuel B. Hofni's

Canonical Status Revealed Exclusively in the Geniza

Moshe Lavee (H)

A Catalog of Books from the Canonical Literature: Aggadic Midrash in

the Catalog of Rabbi Joseph Rosh HaSeder

PROGRAM

Chairperson: Miriam Frenkel

A Geniza Digest of Torah Commentaries

Hidden Messages within Biblical Verses in Geniza Letters

Between Ashkenaz and the East in the 16th Century – Ashkenazic Jews

and Their Status in Eretz-Israel and Egypt As Reflected in the Cairo

Geniza

Chairperson: Alfred Haverkamp

Introduction

The Convert – Is He Truly Your Brother?: The Converts in Ashkenaz and

France in the Middle ages

Jorg Muller (E)

Sexual Relationships Between Jews and Christians During the Middle

Ages According to Christian Sources

Rainer Barzen (E)

The Meaning of "Zedakah" for Jewish Self-Organization within a Non-

Jewish Environment

Gerd Mentgen (E)

Christian-Jewish Relations in the Middle Ages: The Field of Science,

Especially Astrology, Astronomy and Alchemy

PROGRAM

Chairperson: Helmut Castritius

The Expulsion of Jews in the Roman Empire – a Project?

The Problem of Continuity and the Expulsions of Jews in Early Medieval

Europe (500-1000)

Markus J. Wenninger (E)

The Legal Basis for Expelling the Jews in the Reign of Friedrich III and

the Emperor Maximilian

220 Persecution, Expulsion and Discrimination: Jews in the Premodern

Holy Roman Empire

Chairperson: Friedrich Battenberg

Death in Frankfurt

The Fulda Turmoil: The Policies of the Imperial Administration against

the Jews in the Late 16th Century

Peter Rauscher (E)

New Approaches to the Expulsion of the Jews from Vienna and Lower

Austria in 1670

Barbara Staudinger (E)

Cases Concerning Ritual Murder in Early Modern Ashkenaz

PROGRAM

30

221 Communal Life in Medieval Europe

The Emergence of the Professional Rabbinate in Ashkenazic Jewry in the

Aftermath of the Black Death and Its Impact on Communal Life in

Germany in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries

The Courts of Berurim in the Provencal Jewish Community of the 13th-

14th Centuries

Shlomo Spitzer (H)

Torah Study in Hungary in the Middle Ages

Chairperson: Yosef Hakker

The Sambatyon and Beyond: A Medieval Mirabilia

Asher Halevi and the Foundation of Jewish Worms: Family and

Historiography in Medieval Ashkenaz

Rella Kushelevsky (H)

"The Crown of Thorns" in Mahzor Vitry: A Medieval Reading of a

Rabbinic Story

Michael Brocke (E)

The Concept of Eden As Reflected in the Headstones of the Holy

Community of Worms from the 11th-15th Centuries

PROGRAM

Chairperson: Yaacov Guggenheim

Agobard of Lyons and the Problem of the Forced Conversion of the Jews

An Examination of the Cultural and Social History of the Jews in Late

Sixteenth Century Florence through the Case of the Convert Vitale

Medici

French Anti-Judaism and the Avignon Problem on the Eve of Saint

Barthelemy

224 Historical Images in the Middle Ages

Chairperson: Avraham David

One Hundred and Twenty Seven Provinces: The Habsburg Empire As

Reflected in Maharal's Commentary on the Book of Esther

Galina Zelenina (E)

Male and Female Royal Images in the Chronicles of the Generation of the

Spanish Exiles

Jurgita Verbickiene (E)

Knowledge about the Jews in the Great Duchy of Lithuania and the

Transmission of Stereotypes

225 The Sephardic Jews in the Middle Ages

Chairperson: Yosef Kaplan

The Re-shaping of Maimonides' Image in 16th-17th Century Jewish

Historiography

Asuncion Blasco-Martinez (E)

Los Alazar De Zaragoza

Economic Activities of the Jews in the Kingdom of Navarre before the

Expulsion

PROGRAM

Chairperson: Judith Hauptman

Does God Love Barren Women?

Women and Knowledge in the Talmudic period

The Song of Songs As Feminine Folk Poetry

Learning Traditions about Sacred Oral Poetry Among the Women of

Jerba

227 Learning and Creativity Among the Women of Italy (in

Cooperation with the Feminist and Gender Studies Sector of the Israel

Historical Society)

Chairperson: Sandra Stow

The Atititude of Rabbi Gedalia ibn Yahia Towards Women

Halakhic Aspects of Women’s Torah Study in Italy of the Middle Ages

Space, Gender and Knowledge: Women Teachers in the "Talmudey

Torah" [Religious Schools] of Italy

Marina Arbib (H)

Flora Randegger (1824-1910): A Woman of Letters, Vision, and Action

PROGRAM

33

228 Biography and Autobiography (in Cooperation with the Feminist

Chairperson: Billie Melman

Rachel Katzenelson-Shazar and Motherhood: Private Experience and

Public Expression

Ruth Kark (E)

"Not a Suffragist"? Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi on Women and Gender

Rescue Operations: American Jewish Women, 1933-1945

Women's Gender Perception and the Affinity to the Land of Israel As

Seen through Their Autobiographies

229 The Representation of Women in the Early Modern Age and the

“Wisdom of Women” (in Cooperation with the Feminist and Gender

Chairperson: Penina Morag-Talmon

Daily Life of Jewish Women in Ottoman Jerusalem During the 19th

Century

Renee Levine Melammed (H)

The Partisan from Salonika: Creativity and Destruction in the 20th

Century

Michal Held (H)

Expressions of Gender in the Personal Narratives of Judeo-Spanish

(Ladino) Speaking Women Storytellers

PROGRAM

Chairperson: Iris Parush

The "Tsenah Urenah" and the "Melits Yosher": Their Respective

Readerships and the Differences Between Them

Moshe Rosman (H)

Early Hasidism on Women

"Something for the Female Sex": A Frankist Call for the Liberation of

Women, Prague c. 1800

Tova Hartmen and Brenda Socachevsky Bacon (H)

From Epstein's "Wisdom of Women" to Agnon's "Wisdom of Women":

Reality and Representation of Two Learned Women in Traditional

Eastern European Jewish Society

Chairperson: Deborah Bernstein

A Preference for Speaking Over Writing and the Advantage of Women’s

Marginality in Nineteenth Century East European Jewish Society

Michal Ben Ya'akov (H)

Teacher Training for Religious Zionist Women: the Path of Dr Judith

Berlin Lieberman and Prof. Nechama Leibowitz at the Mizrach Women's

Teachers College in Mandatory Jerusalem

Acculturation and Ethnicity: The Yiddish Reading Clubs of Eastern

European Jewish Women in the USA 1916-1939

Lilach Rosenberg (H)

Female Emissaries: A Feminine Creation?

PROGRAM

35

232 Enlightened Women of the Haskalah (in Cooperation with the

Chairperson: Shmuel Feiner

Esther Gad, A Forgotten Writer from the Late Enlightenment

Enlightened and Learned Women: 19th Century Hebrew Maskilot

From Rachel (Morpurgo) to Rachel (Bluvstein): the Absence of Hebrew

Women's Poetry from The 1860s to the 1920s

233 Women Creators (in Cooperation with the Feminist and Gender

Studies Sector of the Israel Historical Society)

Chairperson: Yaffah Berlovitz

Inside/Outside Her Four Walls: Abigail Lindo, an Anglo-Jewish

Authoress of the Mid-Nineteenth Century

Yael Ohad-Karny (H)

A Room of One's Own – A Woman's Private Space: Anzia Yezierska's

Novels and Their Cinematic Representation

Nitza Keren (H)

The Torah Curtain Weaver Who Stands at the Podium: A New Feminist

Discourse As Presented by Michal Govrin