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A Journey Across the Jewish Past
Feb 24, 2021 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video
Hidden in the nooks and crannies of libraries and museums across the world are clues to an often-surprising Jewish past: a 15th-century Italian woman’s siddur that includes a special prayer thanking God for “creating her as a woman”; a Haggadah from a Nazi concentration camp; manuscripts from the Court Jews enmeshed in the intrigues of European kings.
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What a Manuscript Can Teach Us about the Jews of Medieval France
Dec 7, 2020 By David C. Kraemer | Short Video
Dr. David Kraemer explains what we can learn about the everyday lives of medieval French Jews from the text—and the margins—of a manuscript from the JTS Library collection.
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The Real Lives of Jews in the Traditional World
Nov 23, 2020 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video | Video Lecture
Many of us know the “official version” of the lives of Jews through the ages, according to which Jews were pious and thoroughly immersed in Jewish life—a life apart. But many of the rare materials in the JTS Library offer a different picture, according to which Jews lived in the world with their neighbors, experiencing life first as human beings and then as Jews. Dr. David Kraemer shares evidence from the Library’s great collections, surprising and even shocking you with a corrective to commonly repeated historical “truths.”
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A History of the Talmud
Feb 25, 2020 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video
A discussion with JTS’s Dr. David Kraemer about his new book, which offers a sophisticated but accessible introduction to the Talmud, its origins, and its status through history.
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Rabbinic Judaism: Space and Place
Mar 15, 2016 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event audio
In the aftermath of the conquest of the Holy Land by the Romans and their destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, Jews were faced with a world in existential chaos—both they and their God were rendered homeless. In a religious tradition that equated Divine approval with peaceful dwelling on the Land, this situation was intolerable. In response, the Rabbis sought to build new “structures,” new homes for both God and Israel. Rabbinic Judaism: Space and Place offers the first comprehensive study of spatiality in rabbinic Judaism, exploring how the Rabbis reoriented the Jewish relationship with space and place following the conquest and destruction.
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Clothing and Adornment: Sartorial Insights on Gender Definition in the Talmud
Mar 11, 2012 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event video
How does the Talmud define Gender? Dr. David Kraemer seeks the answer to this question by looking into how the Talmud discussed clothing and adornment.
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Topics in Talmud: Kashrut
Oct 25, 2009 By David C. Kraemer | Text Study | Video Lecture
The Essential Talmud: 10 Talmudic Topics Every Jew Should Know.
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Topics in Talmud: Shabbat
Oct 25, 2009 By David C. Kraemer | Text Study | Video Lecture
The Essential Talmud: 10 Talmudic Topics Every Jew Should Know.
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Topics in Talmud: Bar and Bat Mitzvah
Oct 25, 2009 By David C. Kraemer | Text Study | Video Lecture
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Topics in Talmud: Conversion
Oct 25, 2009 By David C. Kraemer | Text Study | Video Lecture
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Topics in Talmud: Funerals and Mourning
Oct 25, 2009 By David C. Kraemer | Text Study | Video Lecture
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Topics in Talmud: Hanukkah
Oct 25, 2009 By David C. Kraemer | Text Study | Video Lecture | Hanukkah
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Topics in Talmud: Suffering
Oct 25, 2009 By David C. Kraemer | Text Study | Video Lecture
The Essential Talmud: 10 Talmudic Topics Every Jew Should Know.
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Topics in Talmud: The High Holidays
Oct 25, 2009 By David C. Kraemer | Text Study | Video Lecture | Rosh Hashanah | Yom Kippur
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Topics in Talmud: Matan Torah
Oct 25, 2009 By David C. Kraemer | Text Study | Video Lecture | Shavuot
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Food’s Symbolic Burden
Dec 3, 2005 By David C. Kraemer | Commentary | Toledot
It has often been noted — and properly so — that Parashat Toledot is framed by two stories of deceit and dishonesty.
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