Curriculum Vitae

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YARON Z. ELIAV

University of Michigan, Department of Middle Eastern Studies
202 South Thayer Street
Ann Arbor MI 48104-1608
Tel: 734-6474638; FAX 734-9362679		 1695 Northbrook Dr.
Ann Arbor MI 48103
Tel: 734-489-5243
yzeliav@umich.edu

Present Position

University of Michigan, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Associate Professor for Rabbinic Literature and Jewish History of Late Antiquity

Education

1999 Hebrew University, Jerusalem Ph.D. (Ancient Judaism and Archaeology)
1995/6 Princeton University Fulbright student – Department of Religion
1993 Hebrew University, Jerusalem M.A. Independent Program in Humanities – Summa Cum Laude
1990 Open University of Israel B.A. Jewish Studies and History – Cum Laude

Professional Experience

2000-Present Courses taught:
1. Introduction to World Religions
2. Halakha: Jewish Law in Its Historical Context
3. The Land of Israel/Palestine through the Ages
4. Jewish Life in Late Antiquity
5. Introduction to Rabbinic Literature and Civilization
6. Reading the Rabbis
7. Sacred Space in Roman-Byzantine Palestine
8. Talmud Bavli Tractate Kiddushin
9. Jerusalem and the Three Monotheistic Religions
10. Galilee in the Graeco-Roman Period
11. Jewish History in the Roman and Byzantine World
12. Jews in Roman Bathhouses
2004-5 Institute of Advanced Studies, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Senior Fellow
1998-9 New York University Dorot Post-Doc Fellow
1995-6 Princeton University Teaching Assistant (as a Fulbright Fellow)
1992-8 Hebrew University Instructor

Fellowships, Grants, and Awards

2019 University of Michigan Honored Instructor Award
2015-18 Transforming Learning for Third Century (TLTC) Transformation Grant
2014 Transforming Learning for Third Century (TLTC) Discovery Grant
2013 Transforming Learning for Third Century (TLTC) Quick-Wins Grant
New Initiative New Infrastructure (NINI) Grant
2012 LSA IT Faculty Project Grant
2011 Rackham Summer research Grant
2007 Michigan Humanities Award
2006 Winner of the Salo Baron prize for best first book in Judaic Studies given by the
American Academy for Jewish Studies.
2005 Winner of the Theology and Religious Studies award in the Professional and
Scholarly Publishing awards given by the Association of American Publishers for
the book God’s Mountain: the Temple Mount in Time, Space, and Memory
2004-5 Senior Fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Studies, Hebrew University,
Jerusalem
2004 Faculty Enhancement Award (University of Michigan)
2003 LSA ITC Faculty Grant (University of Michigan)
Rackham Faculty Research Grant (University of Michigan)
2002 CRLT Faculty Development Award (University of Michigan)
2001 Grants from the University of Michigan office of Vice President for Research and
the Fraenkel Center for Judaic Studies for the completion of book on the Temple
Mount.
1999 Bernard M. Bloomfield Prize for Outstanding Doctorate Dissertation in the
Humanities Hebrew University
1998-2000 Dorot Post Doctorate Fellowship New York University
1995-6 Fulbright Fellowship Princeton University
1994-7 Rotenstreich Fellowship Israeli Council for Higher Education
1994-5 Research Award Jewish Memorial Foundation
1994 The Francis Günter Award for Jerusalem Studies
1993 M.A. Grant for Excellence Hebrew UniversityA. & R. Negev Award Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew U.
Kahana Award Institute of Jewish Studies, Hebrew U.
1992 Rector Award Hebrew University
Gutwirth Award Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew U.
1991 Excellence Grant Hebrew University

Publications

Books

God’s Mountain: The Temple Mount in Time, Space, and Memory (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 2005; paperback 2008).

Awards: (1) Winner of the 2005 Theology and Religious Studies award in the Professional and Scholarly Publishing awards given by the Association of American Publishers; (2) Winner of the 2006 Salo Baron prize for best first book in Judaic Studies given by the American Academy for Jewish Studies.

Reviews (selection): Library Journal (Dec. 2005); Jewish Herald Voice (Dec. 8, 2005); Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2006.02.32; Choice Magazine 43:10 (2006); The Michigan Israel Observer 2 (2006) 82-86; The Reporter (May 5, 2006) 4; Ha’arets (Sep 15, 2006; Heb); Journal of Roman Archaeology 19 (2006) 661-665; Journal for the study of Judaism 38 (2007) 104-5; Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 25.4 (2007) 201-203; Journal of Religious History 24 (2010) 241-242.

A Jew in the Roman Bathhouse: The Poetics of Cultural Interaction in the Roman Mediterranean
(in preparation).

Edited Volumes

Anita Norich and Yaron Z. Eliav, eds., Jewish Literatures and Cultures: Context and Intertext
(Brown Judaic Studies 349; Providence RI, 2008).

Reviews (selection): RBL 2009/2

With Elise Friedland and Sharon Herbert – The Sculptural Environment of the Roman Near East:
Reflections on Culture, Ideology, and Power (Interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Culture and
Religion 9; Leuven: Peeters, 2008).

Reviews (selection): JSJ 41 (2010) 387-389; JRA 23(2010) 762-773; JJS 62 (2011) 383-5

Collection of Sources

Sites, Institutions and Daily Life in Tiberias during the Talmudic Period: A Source Book (Mi’tuv
T’veria 10), Jerusalem: Ariel and Bar-Ilan University Press, 1995. (Heb.)

With Ralph Williams and Alexander Knysh, Judaism, Christianity, Islam: A Source Book
(Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 2005; revised edition 2007).

With Elise Friedland – Statues of the Roman East: An Illustrated and Annotated Collection of Sources (in preparation).

Articles/Essays/Chapters in Books

  1. “Jewish Bath-Houses in the Roman Period: A Test-case of the Confluence of Archaeological Finds and Talmudic ” Nineteenth Archaeological Conference in Israel (summaries), Jerusalem 1993, pp. 25-26. (Heb.)
  2. “Did the Jews at First Abstain from Using the Roman Bath-House?,” Cathedra, 75 (1995), 3-35. (Heb.)
  3. “Pylè – Puma – Sfat Medinah and a Halacha Concerning Bath-houses,” Sidra, 11 (1995), 5-19 (Heb.)
  4. “What Happened to Rabbi Abbahu at the Tiberian Bath-House? – The Place of Realia and Daily Life in the Talmudic Aggada,” Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Folklore, 17 (1995), 7-20. (Heb.)
  5. “Hadrian’s Actions in the Jerusalem Temple Mount According to Cassius Dio and Xiphilini Manus,” Jewish Studies Quarterly, 4 (1997), pp. 125-144.
  6. “Second Temple Period,” A bibliographical entry in Encyclopedia Judaica, an electronic revised edition, Jerusalem
  7. “Abraham Kahana (1874-1946): A Self-Trained Scholar and Publisher in Jewish Studies,” Kiryat Sefer: Collected Essays, Supplement to 68 (1998), pp. 7-19 (Heb.).
  8. “‘Interpretive Citation’ in the Epistle of Barnabas and the Early Christian Attitude towards the Temple Mount,” in: A. Evans (ed.), The Interpretation of Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity (JSPS 33; Studies in Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity 7; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000), pp. 353-362.
  9. “The Place of James’ Tomb and the Status of the Temple Mount in Judaism and Christianity after 70 CE,” in: Proceedings of the 12th International conference of Jewish Studies (Jerusalem: Magnes, 2000), 1-9. (Heb.); see also no. 16.
  10. “The Roman Bath as a Jewish Institution: Another Look at the Encounter between Judaism and the Greco-Roman Culture”, Journal for the Study of Judaism, 31 (2000), pp. 416-454.
  11. “The Temple Mount in Jerusalem as a Cultic Site and Political Center in Judaism and Christianity,” in: Reiter (ed.), Sovereignty of God and Man: Sanctity and Political Centrality on the Temple Mount (JIIS 88; Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Center for Israel Studies, 2001), pp. 25-56 (Heb.). For a revised English version see no. 22.
  12. “Realia, Daily Life, and the Transmission of Local stories During the Talmudic Period,” in: V. Rutgers (ed.), What Athens has to do with Jerusalem: Essays on Classical, Jewish and Early Christian Archaeology In Honor of Gideon Foerster (Leuven: Peeters, 2002), pp. 235-265.
  13. “Viewing the Sculptural Environment; Shaping the Second Commandment,” in: Peter Schäfer (ed.), The Talmud Yerushalmi and Graeco-Roman Culture III (Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum 93; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2002), 411- 433.
  14. “The Urban Layout of Aelia Capitolina: A New View from the Perspective of the Temple Mount,” in: Peter Schäfer (ed.), The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered (Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum 100; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003), 241- 277.
  15. “On Idolatry in the Roman Bath House – Two Comments,” Cathedra, 110 (2003), pp. 173-180 (Heb.).
  16. “The Tomb of James Brother of Jesus as Locus Memoriae,” Harvard Theological Review, 97 (2004), 32-59. See also no. 9.
  17. “The Matrix of Ancient Judaism: A Review Essay of Seth Schwartz’s Imperialism and Jewish Society 200 BCE to 640 CE,” Prooftexts, 24 (2004), 116-128.
  18. “The Temple Mount, the Rabbis, and the Poetics of Memory,” Hebrew Union College Annual, 74 (2004), 49-113
  19. “A New/Old Reading of the lithos epi lithon Prophecy and the Role of the Temple Mount in the Jesus Movement,” in: Pastor and M. Mor (eds.), The Beginnings of Christianity (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi, 2005), pp. 325-347.
  20. “Jews and Judaism 70-429 CE,” in: Potter (ed.), A Companion to the Roman World (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), pp. 565-586.
  21. “Roman Statues, Rabbis, and Graeco-Roman Culture,” in: Norich and Y.Z. Eliav (eds.), Jewish Literatures and Cultures: Context and Intertext (Brown Judaic Studies 349; Providence RI, 2008), pp. 99-115.
  22. “The Temple Mount in Jewish and Early Christian Traditions: A New Look,” in: Mayer and S.A. Mourad (eds.), Jerusalem: Idea and Reality (London and New York: Routledge, 2008), pp. 47-66. Revised English version of no. 11.
  23. “The Desolating Sacrilege: A Jewish Christian Discourse on Statuary, Space, and Power,” in: Z. Eliav et al. (eds.), The Sculptural Environment of the Roman Near East: Reflections on Culture, Ideology, and Power (Interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Culture and Religion 9; Leuven: Peeters, 2008), pp. 605-627.
  24. “Secularism, Hellenism, and Rabbis in Antiquity,” in: Gitelman (ed.), Religion or Ethnicity: Jewish Identities in Evolution (New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press; 2009), pp. 7-23.
  25. “A Scary Place: Jewish Magic in the Roman Bathhouse,” in: Di Segni et al. (eds.), Man Near a Roman Arch: Studies Presented to Prof. Yoram Tsafrir (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 2009), pp. 88-97.
  26. “Jacob Neusner and the Scholarship on Ancient Judaism: Introduction,” Henoch 31 (2009), pp. 247-248.
  27. Entry on “Jerusalem,” in: Gagarin (ed.), Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome (7 vols.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 4:112-115.
  28. Entry on “Jews and Judaism,” in: Gagarin (ed.), Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome (7 vols.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 4:123-131.
  29. “Bathhouses as Places of Social and Cultural Interactions,” in: Hezser (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Daily Life in Roman Palestine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 605-622.
  30. Entry on “Baths,” in: J. Collins and D. C. Harlow (eds.), The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans, 2010), 432-434.
  31. Entry on “Medicine and Hygiene,” in: J. Collins and D. C. Harlow (eds.), The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans, 2010), 929- 931.
  32. “Samuel Krauss and the Early Study of the Physical World of the Rabbis in Roman Palestine,” Journal of Jewish Studies, 65 (2014), 38-57.
  33. “The World of (Rabbinic) Babylonia as Seen from Roman Palestine: Some Preliminary Observations,” in: Mark Geller and Shaul Shaked (eds.), Talmudic Archaeology in Babylonia (forthcoming).
  34. “From Realia to Material Culture: The Reception of Samuel Krauss’ Talmudische Archäologie,” in Joseph Patrich, Orit Peleg-Barkay, and Erez Ben-Yosef (eds.), Arise, Walk through the Land: Studies in the Archaeology and History of the Land of Israel in Memory of Yizhar Hirschfeld (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 2016), 17-27.
  35. “Judaea, the Palestinian Coast, the Galilee, Idumaea, and Samaria,” in: Kaizer (ed.), A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman East (forthcoming in the Wiley- Blackwell Companions Series).
  36. Erwin Ramsdell Goodenough, the author of Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, and his Scholarly Work,” in: Gafni & A. Oppenheimer (eds.), Jewish and Christian Scholars of the Twentieth Century (accepted; Heb.).
  37. Entries on Herodis, Tiberias and Paneas in The New Onomasticon of Ancient Palestine (ed. I. Levine; Jerusalem: Hebrew University, in press; Heb.).
  38. “The Temple Mount in Jewish Liturgy: Re-Examination of the Historical Background,” in: Ward et al. (eds.), Avoda and Ibada: Studies in Jewish and Islamic Liturgy (accepted).

Reviews

  1. Daniel Boyarin, Dying For God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism, in: Hebrew Studies, 42 (2001), 385-389.
  2. Peter Schäfer (ed.), The Talmud Yerushalmi and Greco Roman Culture, in: Journal of the American Oriental Society, 122:1 (2002), 132-135.
  3. Galit Hasan-Rokem, Web of Life: Folklore and Midrash in Rabbinic Literature, in: Hebrew Studies, 43 (2002), pp. 314-317.
  4. Clayton Miles Lehmann and Kenneth Holum, The Greek and Latin Inscriptions of Caesarea Maritima (Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritima Excavation Reports Series 5), in: Journal of the American Oriental Society, 124:2 (2004), pp. 414-416. Yizhar Hirschfels (ed.), Ramat
  5. Hanadiv Excavations: Final Report of the 1984-1998 Seasons, in: Journal of the American Oriental Society, 124:2 (2004), pp. 414-416. –  Seth Schwartz, Imperialism and Jewish Society 200 BCE to 640 CE, in Prooftexts (see articles no. 17).
  6. Antoinette Clark Wire, Holy Lives, Holy Deaths: A Close Hearing of Early Jewish Storytellers, in: Journal of the American Oriental Society 124:3 (2004), 580-582. Paul Heger, The Pluralistic Halakhah: Legal Innovations in the Late Second Commonwealth and Rabbinic Periods, in: Journal of the American Oriental Society 124:3 (2004), pp. 580-582.
  7. Dov Gera and Miriam Ben-Zeev (eds.), The Path of Peace: Studies in Honor of Israel Friedman Ben-Shalom, in Zemanim 95 (2006), 108-111 (Heb.).
  8. Sacha Stern, Time and Process in Ancient Judaism, in Zion 72 (2007), 101-104 (Heb.).
  9. Zeev Weiss, The Sepphoris Synagogue: Deciphering an Ancient Message through Its Archaeological and Socio-Historical Contexts, in Journal of the American Oriental Society 127:3 (2007), 390-392.
  10. Stefan Alkier and Markus Witte (eds.), Die Griechen und das antike Israel: Interdisziplinäre Studien zur Religions- und Kulturgeschichte des Heiligen Landes, in Journal of the American Oriental Society 128:1 (2008), 194-195.
  11. Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Barry Walfish, and Joseph W. Goering (eds.), With Reverence for the Word: Medieval Scriptural Exegesis in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, in Journal of the American Oriental Society 128:1 (2008), p. 194.
  12. Ameling, Walter, Hannah Cotton, Werner Eck, Benjamin Isaac, Alla Kushnir- Stein, Haggai Misgav, Jonathan Price and Ada Yardeni (edd.), Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae. Volume II: Caesarea and the Middle Coast: 1121-2160, in BMCR 2012.09.17.
  13. Elisabeth Wies-Campagner, Midrasch Wasjoscha: Edition, Tradition, Interpretation, in Journal of the American Oriental Society 132:3 (2012), 521-522.
  14. Deborah Green, The Aroma of Righteousness: Scent and Seduction in Rabbinic Life and Literature, in Shofar 31:3 (2013), pp. 185-187.
  15. Catherine Hezser, Jewish Travel in Antiquity, in Journal of the American Oriental Society 133:2 (2013), 382-384.
  16. Joel Kraemer and Michael G. Wechsler, Pesher Nahum: Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature from Antiquity throught he Middle Ages Presented to Norman (Nahum) Golb, in Journal of the American Oriental Society (forthcoming).
  17. Werner Eck, Judäa – Syria Palästina: Die Auseinandersetzung Provinz mit römischer Politik und Kultur, in Journal of the American Oriental Society (forthcoming).

Conference Papers

  1. “The Transmission of Amoraic Traditions and Historical Accounts During the Talmudic Period,” delivered at the 27th AJS Annual Conference, Boston, December 1995.
  2. “The lithos epi lithon Prophecy and the Status of the Temple Mount of Jerusalem in Early Christianity,” delivered at the International Conference on “The Beginnings of Christianity,” Tel-Aviv University, January
  3. “The Place of James’ Tomb and the Status of the Temple Mount in Judaism and Christianity after 70 CE,” delivered at the 12th International conference of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, August
  4. “Bolts, Knobs and a Torn Torah Scroll: History and Transmission in Rabbinic Literature,” delivered at the Colloquium on Early Rabbinic Judaism, Oxford Center for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Yarnton Manor Oxford, September 22-26
  5. “The Temple Mount in Jewish Liturgy: Re-Examination of the Historical Background,” delivered at the international conference on Jewish and Islamic liturgy, Institute for Islamic and Judaic studies, University of Denver, March
  6. “‘Interpretive Citation’ in the Epistle of Barnabas and the Early Christian Attitude towards the Temple Mount,” delivered at the SBL annual conference, Orlando, November
  7. “A Demolished Capitol: The So-Called Prophecy of Jesus about the Destruction of the Temple Mount,” delivered at the Mid-Atlantic SBL annual conference, Arlington Virginia, February
  8. “R. Elazar of Modiim and Bar-Kokhba: Another Look at the Historicity of Rabbinic Narrative,” delivered at the SBL annual conference, Boston, November
  9. “The Presumed Synagogue on the Temple Mount in the Days of Julian,” delivered at the AJS annual conference, Chicago, December
  10. “The Temple Mount and the Rabbis’ Inadvertent Reshaping of the Jewish Past,” delivered at the SBL annual conference, Memphis, November
  11. “Pagan Shrines and Jewish Synagogues on the Temple Mount: Reality and Fiction,” delivered at the SBL annual conference, Memphis, November
  12. “‘Jewish statues’: The Encounter of Jews with Hellenism in the Daily Life of Late Roman Palestine,” delivered at the conference on Yerushalmi and the Graeco- Roman culture, Princeton, November
  13. A revised version of 12 delivered at the 12th International conference of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, August 2001.
  14. “The Urban Layout of Aelia Capitolina: A New View from the Perspective of the Temple Mount,” delivered at a conference on the Bar Kokhba Revolt, Princeton, November
  15. “Viewing the Sculptural Environment, Shaping the Second Commandment,” delivered at a Symposium on Translation and Culture, Washington University at Louis, October 2002.
  16. “Jews, Roman Sculpture, and Hellenism in Late Antique Palestine,” delivered at a conference on Jewish Literatures and Cultures – Context and Intertext, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, November
  17. “Sacred Space and Urban Realities: The Case of the Temple Mount in Aelia Capitolina,” delivered at the SBL annual conference, Atlanta, November
  18. “Josephus and the ‘Rise’ of the Temple Mount,” delivered at the AJS annual conference, Boston, December
  19. “The Temple and Temple Mount in Jewish Tradition,” delivered at an international conference on Jerusalem, City of Three Faiths: Histories of the Past, Present and Future, Northwestern University, Chicago, May
  20. “The Desolating Sacrilege: A Jewish Christian Discourse on Statuary, Space, and Power,” delivered at an international conference on The Sculptural Environment of the Roman Near East, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, November
  21. “Rabbis Remembering their Past: The Case of the Temple Mount,” delivered at the annual Orion international symposium for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Matters, Jerusalem, January
  22. “The Temple Mount in Jewish Tradition,” delivered at an international conference on The Idea of Jerusalem, Middlebury College, Middlebury Vermont, April 2005; second, revised version of 19.
  23. “Secularism, Hellenism, and Rabbis in Antiquity,” delivered at an international conference on Judaism and Secularism, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, April
  24. Second, revised version of 20; delivered at the SBL annual conference, Philadelphia, November
  25. “Jewish Magic in the Roman Bathhouse,” delivered at the AJS annual conference, Washington DC, December
  26. Panelist on “Aramaic Judaism,” in a Conference on Shuubiya in Hellenism and Islam, Institute of Advance Studies, Princeton, May
  27. “The Mishnah and the Rabbis: What Came First?,” delivered at an International Seminar on Communication and Jewish Identity, Hebrew University, Institute for Advance Studies, Jerusalem, June,
  28. “The Temple Mount and the Roman City of Aelia Capitolina,” delivered at a conference on The Jerusalem Perspective: 150 Years of Archaeological Research, Brown University, Providence RI, November
  29. Respondent in a session on “Art and Religions of Antiquity,” delivered at the SBL Annual Conference, Washington DC, November
  30. “Rabbinic Textures of Memory: The Case of the Temple Mount,” delivered at the SBL Annual Conference, Washington DC, November
  31. “Archaeology and the Study of Talmudic Literature,” delivered at a conference on “Teaching Rabbinic Literature,” Brandeis University, Waltham MA, January
  32. “From Realia to Material Culture: A Century of Studies on the Physical World of the Rabbis in Roman Palestine,” delivered at a conference on Rabbinic Literature and the Material Culture of Roman Palestine, Princeton University, November
  33. “The World of (Rabbinic) Babylonia as Seen from Roman Palestine,” delivered at a conference on Talmudische Archaeologie, University College, London, June
  34. “Spatial Symbolism in Jerusalem among Jews and Christians,” delivered at a conference on Image and Symbol in Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions, Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre and Lomonosov Moscow State University, March 2014.
  35. Respondent to “Law and Scripture after the Bible,” delivered at a conference on Law, Society, and, University of Michigan, October 2016.

Public, Invited Lectures (selection)

  1. “The Temple Mount in Rabbinic Literature: Continuity or Change,” February 2000 at Baltimore Hebrew
  2. “Judaism and Hellenism: Conflict and Cooptation,” December 2000 at the Shaarey Zedek Congregation, West Bloomfield
  3. “Jewish Sovereignty through the Ages,” May 2001 at the Jewish Federation of Washtenaw
  4. “Current Topics in Jewish Studies – The Temple Mount: Past, Present and Future,” November 2001 at the Beth Israel Congregation, Ann
  5. “Sacred Space and Middle Eastern Reality,” May 2002; keynote speaker at the annual banquet of the Michigan alumni club of Wayne IN.
  6. “Who Did Rabbi Aqiva Meet Near the Holy of Holies: The Temple Mount in Time, Space, and Memory,” December 2002 at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New
  7. “Jews and Graeco-Roman Culture – 50 Years after Lieberman,” February 2004 at the Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA); second version (in Hebrew) in March 2005 at the Department for the Study of the Land Of Israel, Bar Ilan University, Ramat
  8. “Another View at the Supposed Conflict between Jews and Roman Culture,” October 2004 at the Israeli Academy of Sciences,
  9. “A Jew in the Roman Bath-House: Another View on the Encounter between Judaism and Graeco-Roman Culture,” March 2005 at the Department of Jewish History, Ben Gurion University, Beer
  10. “Place and Memory in Post Second Temple Judaism,” April 2005, at the Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Memory, Institute of Advance Studies, Hebrew University,
  11. “God’s Mountain: The Temple Mount in Jewish Tradition,” February 2006, University of Illinois-Chicago.
  12. “History and Archaeology of Ancient Israel/Palestine,” March 2006, Jewish Federation of Washtenaw County, Israel’s Educators Fellowship
  13. “Are the Rabbis Still Relevant?” The U of M Student Socrates Club, April
  14. “The Land of Israel: Geography, History, and Culture,” Ha-magshimim fellowship of Hadassah, Ann Arbor, October
  15. “Judaism and Racism in the Ancient World,” Martin Luther King’s Day Symposium, Department of Classical Studies, University of Michigan, January
  16. “Roman Statues, Rabbis, and Greco-Roman Culture,” February 2008, Getty Museum, Los Angeles,
  17. “Middle Eastern Conflicts in Historical perspective,” J-Street Panel Discussion, University of Michigan, December
  18. “Current Israeli Politics from Historical perspective,” University of Michigan Students Israel Cohort Annual Dinner, March
  19. “Jerusalem: Ancient Roots of Modern Conflicts,” Institute of Asian and African Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia, March
  20. “Changing the Ways We Teach the Ancient World,” Provost’s Seminar on Teaching, Thinking Long-Term: Next Steps for Engaged Learning at U-M and Beyond, May 2016.

Service to the University and Scholarly Community (selection)

  1. Referee for articles: Journal for Jewish Studies; Jewish Quarterly Review; Journal of the American Oriental Society; Journal of the American Academy of Religion; Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Jerusalem and Eretz
  2. Referee of books: Brown Judaic Studies; Brill; Open University of
  3. Fellowship Referee: Israel Science Foundation (ISF).
  4. Academic advisor on films: (a) The Israeli Ministry for Education in the production of a cartoon video “Figures in Ancient Jewish History” (b) The Discovery Channel in production of the documentary “Jesus in the First ”
  5. Chair of the Section on History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism, Society of Biblical Literature (2007 – 2009).
  6. Book Review Editor – HENOCH (2005-9).
  7. Executive Committee Member: Department of Near Eastern Studies (2006-7); Frankel Center for Judaic Studies (2008-9).
  8. University Committees: Student Relations Advisory Committee (2006-9); Fulbright Campus Evaluation Committees (2010, 2011, 2013); International Institute Individual Fellowship Review (2010, 2015).
  9. Chair of Search Committees: (a) Christianity in Late Antiquity (2008-9); (b) Modern Hebrew and Jewish Culture (2008-9).
  10. Coordinator of International Conferences: (a) Jewish Literatures and Cultures: Context and Intertext (University of Michigan, 2004; together with Anita Norich and Todd Endelman); (b) The Sculptural Environment of the Roman Near East (University of Michigan, 2005, Together with Elise Friedland and Sharon Herbert); (c) A Century after Krauss’ Talmudische Archaeologie: Rabbinic Literature and the Material Culture of Roman Palestine (Princeton 2008; together with Peter Schäfer).
  11. Secretary of the International Lecture Series – The Michigan Lectures on Judaism and Christianity in the Roman World (2003-9).