Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Fourteenth Annual Gruss Colloquium in Judaic Studies
Jewish and Other Imperial Cultures in Late Antiquity
April 29 – May 1, 2008
Click HERE For a Full Color Copy of the Program
Tuesday, April 29
Amado Recital Room, Irvine Auditorium
3401 Spruce Street
9:30 am Coffee and Light Breakfast
10:00 am GREETINGS
David Ruderman, Ella Darivoff Director, CAJS
Rebecca Bushnell Dean, School of Arts and Sciences
10:15am STATE AND PROVINCIALS
Chair: Natalie B. Dohrmann, University of Pennsylvania/CAJS
Adiel Schremer, Bar Ilan University/CAJS
Imperial Power and its Religious Meaning: A Rabbinic Perspective
Lee Levine, Hebrew University/CAJS
The Emergence of Jewish Art in Late Antiquity – A Late Roman or Byzantine-Christian Phenomenon?
Hannah Cotton, Hebrew University/CAJS
Change and Continuity in Late Legal Papyri from Palaestina Tertia
Yaakov Elman, Yeshiva University/CAJS
Interactions between Sasanian and Rabbinic Law
Respondent: Hayim Lapin, University of Maryland/CAJS
12:45 Lunch Break
2:00 pm CHRISTIANIZATION AND ITS LIMITS
Chair: Ross Kraemer, Brown University/CAJS
Oded Irshai, Hebrew University/CAJS
Fourth-Century Christian Appropriation of the Holy Land: The Polemical Context (A close reading of the Bordeaux Pilgrim's account, 333 CE)
Hagith Sivan, University of Kansas/CAJS
Between Minorca and Gaza: The Un-Making of Minorities in Late Antiquity
Paula Fredriksen, Boston University/CAJS
Augustine's 'Witness' Doctrine and the Status of Jews in the Post-Roman West: A Comparison of Isidore of Seville and Gregory the Great
Respondent: Claudia Rapp, University of California, Los Angeles
4:00 pm Coffee Break
4:15 pm NOTE ROOM CHANGE: Room G7/Irvine Auditorium
READING AT THE BOUNDARIES
Chair: Naomi Koltun-Fromm, Haverford College
Beth Berkowitz, Jewish Theological Seminary/CAJS
Allegorizing Ethnicity: Philo and Clement on Leviticus 18:1–5
Shlomo Naeh, Hebrew University
Did Rabbi Akiva Interpret the Crowns of the Letters? The Rabbis and the Holy Script
Marc Hirshman, Hebrew University/CAJS
Umot Ha-‘Olam: Political Characterization and Stereotyping of the Other
Charlotte Fonrobert, Stanford University
Rabbinic Diaspora Territoriality in Late Antiquity: Marking Boundaries
Respondent: Azzan Yadin, Rutgers University
6:45 pm Dinner (by invitation)
Center for Advanced Judaic Studies/420 Walnut Street
Wednesday, April 30
Amado Recital Room, Irvine Auditorium
3401 Spruce Street
9:00 am CULT, LITURGY, AND PERFORMANCE
Chair: Peter T. Struck, University of Pennsylvania
Michael Swartz, Ohio State University
Chains of Tradition in the Avodah Piyyutim
Ophir Münz-Manor, Open University of Israel/CAJS
Isaac Redivivus: Towards a Cultic Understanding of Late Antique Poetry
Ruth Langer, Boston College
The Presence of God in Rabbinic Liturgy
Respondent: Derek Krueger, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
11:00 am Coffee Break
11:30 am THE CITY OF GOD: ROME, CONSTANTINOPLE, JERUSALEM
Chair: David Stern, University of Pennsylvania/CAJS
Michele Salzman, University of California, Riverside
The Sack of Rome in 410: Religious Responses
Ra‘anan Boustan, University of California, Los Angeles/CAJS
Out of Place: Procopius on the Temple Vessels at Constantinople and Jerusalem
Joshua Levinson, Hebrew University/CAJS
Rabbis in Rome: A Journey to the Center of the Earth
Respondent: Robert G. Ousterhout, University of Pennsylvania
1:30 pm Lunch Break
3:00 pm NATIVES AND EXPERTS
Chair: John Gager, Princeton University/CAJS
William Adler, North Carolina State University/CAJS
Abgar the Great and Edessene Christianity during the Severan Dynasty
John Reeves, University of North Carolina, Charlotte/CAJS
Fomenting a 'Discursive Hegemony' in Late Antiquity? Reconsidering Ka'b al-Ahbar
Adam Becker, New York University
The Limits of the Fear of God: Expertise and Knowledge of Mazdaism in the Persian Martyr Acts
Respondent: Tom Sizgorich, University of New Mexico
5:30 pm Dinner and Evening Program (by invitation)
Class of ’49 Auditorium, Houston Hall
3417 Spruce Street
Thursday, May 1
Amado Recital Room, Irvine Auditorium
3401 Spruce Street
9:00 am COSMIC ARCHITECTURE
Chair: Maxine Grossman, University of Maryland/CAJS
Hindy Najman, University of Toronto/CAJS
Soul Formation and Emulation: Recovering Primordial Perfection
Yuval Harari, Ben-Gurion University/CAJS
Narrating Identities—the Case of the Ascension of Moses
Rina Talgam, Hebrew University/CAJS
Christian Cosmological Allegories in the Art of Late Antiquity: Between Judaism and Neo-Platonism
Respondent: Robert Kraft, University of Pennsylvania/CAJS
11:00 am Coffee Break
11:30 am CONCLUDING SESSION
Chair: David Ruderman, University of Pennsylvania/CAJS
Seth Schwartz, Jewish Theological Seminary/CAJS
Annette Reed, University of Pennsylvania/CAJS
Daniel Boyarin, University of California, Berkeley
Martin Goodman, Oxford University
1:00 pm Concluding Luncheon (by invitation)
Hall of Flags, Houston Hall
3417 Spruce Street