Anti-Judeanism and Anti-Judaism: The Formation of Jewish Identity and the Story of Chanukah
Dr. Malka Z. Simkovich / December 31, 2019
Audio Videos Source Sheets
This webinar will consider what Jewish life was like in Judea and in the diaspora during the time of Hasmonean uprising, in the second century BCE, by reading ancient texts about Jewish practices, and exploring Greek attitudes towards the Jews which may have contributed to Jews’ self-understanding. We will conclude by discussing what our sources about Chanukah can tell us about Jewish life during this period, and why Jews living throughout the Greco-Roman world considered the story to be so powerful.
Dr. Malka Z. Simkovich
Dr. Malka Z. Simkovich is the Crown-Ryan Chair of Jewish Studies and the director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies program at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. She is the author of The Making of Jewish Universalism: From Exile to Alexandria (2016), and Discovering Second Temple Literature: The Scriptures and Stories That Shaped Early Judaism (2018), which received the 2019 AJL Judaica Reference Honor Award. Simkovich’s articles have been published in journals such as the Harvard Theological Review and the Journal for the Study of Judaism, as well as on online forums such as The Lehrhaus, TheTorah.com, and the Times of Israel. She is involved in numerous local and international interreligious dialogue projects which help to increase understanding and friendship between Christians and Jews.