Center for Jewish Studies Hosts Visiting Distinguished Professor

October 25, 2006

by Jodi Cunningham, student newswriter, (254) 710-1961

Dr. Jonathan Boyarin, the Robert M. Beren Distinguished Professor of Modern Jewish Studies at the University of Kansas, will visit Baylor University on Thursday and Friday, to discuss renowned Jewish rabbi and theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel.

Sponsored by Baylor's Center for Jewish Studies, Boyarin will present "Translating Heschel: A Jewish Journey Then & Now" in room 133 of the Marrs McLean Science building. In addition, he will give a lecture titled "Praying Justice - The Life & Spirituality of Abraham Joshua Heschel" at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 26, in the Great Hall of George W. Truett Theological Seminary.

Boyarin received a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1998 and his doctorate in anthropology from the New School for Social Research in New York in 1984. He has written numerous books and essays about Judaism based on his backgrounds in anthropology and Yiddish culture.

Currently, Boyarin is in the process of conducting a study that involves the translation of Heschel's last published book from Yiddish to English. According to the Center for Jewish Studies, he also is finishing a "manuscript on the relation between Jewish difference in late medieval Europe and the dynamics of the colonial encounter in Latin America."

For more information on Boyarin, contact the Center for Jewish Studies at (254) 710-2866.