Conferences

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 1997.
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 1997.
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 1997.
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 1998.
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 1998.
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 1999.
8. “R. Elazar of Modiim and Bar-Kokhba: Another Look at the Historicity of Rabbinic Narrative,” delivered at the SBL annual conference, Boston, November 1999.
9. “The Presumed Synagogue on the Temple Mount in the Days of Julian,” delivered at the AJS annual conference, Chicago, December 1999.
10. “The Temple Mount and the Rabbis’ Inadvertent Reshaping of the Jewish Past,” delivered at the SBL annual conference, Memphis, November 2000.
11. “Pagan Shrines and Jewish Synagogues on the Temple Mount: Reality and Fiction,” delivered at the SBL annual conference, Memphis, November 2000.
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 2000.
13. A revised version of no. 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 2001.
15. “Viewing the Sculptural Environment, Shaping the Second Commandment,” delivered at a Symposium on Translation and Culture, Washington University at St. 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 2003.
17. “Sacred Space and Urban Realities: The Case of the Temple Mount in Aelia Capitolina,” delivered at the SBL annual conference, Atlanta, November 2003.
18. “Josephus and the ‘Rise’ of the Temple Mount,” delivered at the AJS annual conference, Boston, December 2003.
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 2004.
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 2004.
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 2005.
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 No. 19.
23. “Secularism, Hellenism, and Rabbis in Antiquity,” delivered at an international conference on Judaism and Secularism, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, April 2005.
24. Second, revised version of 20; delivered at the SBL annual conference, Philadelphia, November 2005.
25. “Jewish Magic in the Roman Bathhouse,” delivered at the AJS annual conference, Washington DC, December 2005.
26. Panelist on “Aramaic Judaism,” in a Conference on Shuubiya in Hellenism and Islam, Institute of Advance Studies, Princeton, May 2006.
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, 2006.
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 2006.
29. Respondent in a session on “Art and Religions of Antiquity,” delivered at the SBL Annual Conference, Washington DC, November 2006.
30. “Rabbinic Textures of Memory: The Case of the Temple Mount,” delivered at the SBL Annual Conference, Washington DC, November 2006.
31. “Archaeology and the Study of Talmudic Literature,” delivered at a conference on “Teaching Rabbinic Literature,” Brandeis University, Waltham MA, January 2008.
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 2008.
33. “The World of (Rabbinic) Babylonia as Seen from Roman Palestine,” delivered at a conference on Talmudische Archaeologie, University College, London, June 2009.
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.
36. “The Temple Mount as a Place and a Concept: 15 Years after God’s Mountain,” delivered at the conference on Jerusalem in Memory and Eschatology: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Visions of the Past and Future of Jerusalem, at the Swedish Theological Institute, Jerusalem, February 2022.
37. “Rabbis and Syriac Church leaders on attending Public Roman Bathhouses,” delivered at the ARAM: Society of Syrio-Mesopotamian Studies on Syriac Christianity, Oxford, July 2023.