Bar-Ilan University
The Faculty of Jewish Studies
The Department of Jewish History
Are pleased to invite the public to an international conference on
Israelite and Jewish Identity during the Biblical and Second Temple Periods: Tribalism, Nationhood and Religion
On Thursday, June 26, 2008, The Feldman Congress Center, Bar-Ilan University
The conference is part of a series on Jewish identity through the ages, held by the Department of Jewish History
8:30-9:00 – Gathering and Light Refreshments
9:00-10:30 Session 1: Questions of Identity in Biblical Literature
Chair: Prof. Meir Bar-Ilan, Bar-Ilan University
Opening remarks: Prof. Benzion Rozenfeld, Chair, Department of Jewish History
Dr. Amnon Shapira, Ariel University Center of Samaria: Israelite Identity in the Biblical Tribal Period: "Primitive Democracy"
Dr. Yigal Levin, Bar-Ilan University and Ariel University Center of Samaria: The Idea of Nationhood in the Book of Judges
Prof. Gershon Galil, University of Haifa: Judean Identity at the Beginning of the Monarchic Age
11:00-13:00 Session 2: Ethnic and Religious Identity in the Archaeological Record
11:00: Greetings: Prof. Moshe Kaveh, President, Bar-Ilan University
Prof. Moises Orfali, Dean, Faculty of Jewish Studies
Chair: Dr. Hayah Katz, The Open University of Israel
Prof. Avraham Faust, Bar-Ilan University: Ceramics and Boundary Maintenance in Iron Age I Israel
Prof. Adam Zertal, University of Haifa and Kinneret College: The Marked Pottery of the Iron Age I –Archaeological Evidence and Ethnic Identity
Dr. Alexander Zukerman, The W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and Dr. Itzhaq Shai, Bar-Ilan University: Defining the Political Affiliation of Gath and the Ethnicity of Its Inhabitants in the 8th Century BCE
Mr. Ram Bouchnick and Dr. Guy Bar-Oz, University of Haifa, and Prof. Haskel Greenfield, University of Manitoba: Jewish Religious Dietary Practices and the Formation of Jewish Identity: Animal Bone Remains from the Late Second Temple Period
13:00-14:00 – Lunch Break
14:00-15:30 Session 3: The Formation of Jewish Identity in the Second Temple Period
Chair: Prof. Sarah Japhet, The Hebrew University in Jerusalem
Dr. Jacob L. Wright, Emory University: Cultic Community or Nation: Observations on the Identity of Judah in the Persian Period (English)
Prof. Joseph Fleishman, Bar-Ilan University: The Struggle for Jewish Identity in the Days of Nehemiah
Dr. Eyal Ben Eliyahu, The Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Oxford University: Jewish Identity Versus Israelite Identity in the books of Judith and First Maccabees
Dr. Avishag Ayali-Weinberg, Kinneret College: The Search for the Boundary Between Isael and the Nations According to Three Stories in the Mishnah
15:45-17:15 Session 4: Jewish Identity in the Diaspora
Chair: Prof. Isaac Kalimi, The W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research
Dr. Lisbeth S. Fried, University of Michigan: Who Was a Jew? Perceptions of Ethnic Identity at Elephantine (English)
Dr. Ari Belenkiy, Bar-Ilan University: The Septuagint Story: The Hundred Years that Paved the Road to Hellenization
Ms. Giordana Moscati Mascetti, Bar-Ilan University: The “Other(s)" in Josephus’s Contra Apionem
Prof. Aryeh Kasher, Tel-Aviv University: The Ethnic Designation “Judaios" in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt
17:30-19:00 Session 5: Sects and Schisms in the Second Temple Period
Chair: Prof. Amos Kloner, Bar-Ilan University
Prof. Lawrence H. Schiffman, New York University: Who is a Jew in the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Dr. Avner Roei, Kibbutz Sa’ad: Jewish Nazarites in the Second Temple Period: Between Sectarianism and Social Solidarity
Prof. Hanan Eshel, Bar-Ilan University: Samaritans in the First Century CE: Between Jews and Gentiles
Dr. Rivka Nir, The Open University of Israel: The Image of John the Baptist Between Judaism and Christianity
Closing Remarks: Prof. Aaron Demsky, Bar-Ilan University
The Faculty of Jewish Studies
The Department of Jewish History
Are pleased to invite the public to an international conference on
Israelite and Jewish Identity during the Biblical and Second Temple Periods: Tribalism, Nationhood and Religion
On Thursday, June 26, 2008, The Feldman Congress Center, Bar-Ilan University
The conference is part of a series on Jewish identity through the ages, held by the Department of Jewish History
8:30-9:00 – Gathering and Light Refreshments
9:00-10:30 Session 1: Questions of Identity in Biblical Literature
Chair: Prof. Meir Bar-Ilan, Bar-Ilan University
Opening remarks: Prof. Benzion Rozenfeld, Chair, Department of Jewish History
Dr. Amnon Shapira, Ariel University Center of Samaria: Israelite Identity in the Biblical Tribal Period: "Primitive Democracy"
Dr. Yigal Levin, Bar-Ilan University and Ariel University Center of Samaria: The Idea of Nationhood in the Book of Judges
Prof. Gershon Galil, University of Haifa: Judean Identity at the Beginning of the Monarchic Age
11:00-13:00 Session 2: Ethnic and Religious Identity in the Archaeological Record
11:00: Greetings: Prof. Moshe Kaveh, President, Bar-Ilan University
Prof. Moises Orfali, Dean, Faculty of Jewish Studies
Chair: Dr. Hayah Katz, The Open University of Israel
Prof. Avraham Faust, Bar-Ilan University: Ceramics and Boundary Maintenance in Iron Age I Israel
Prof. Adam Zertal, University of Haifa and Kinneret College: The Marked Pottery of the Iron Age I –Archaeological Evidence and Ethnic Identity
Dr. Alexander Zukerman, The W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and Dr. Itzhaq Shai, Bar-Ilan University: Defining the Political Affiliation of Gath and the Ethnicity of Its Inhabitants in the 8th Century BCE
Mr. Ram Bouchnick and Dr. Guy Bar-Oz, University of Haifa, and Prof. Haskel Greenfield, University of Manitoba: Jewish Religious Dietary Practices and the Formation of Jewish Identity: Animal Bone Remains from the Late Second Temple Period
13:00-14:00 – Lunch Break
14:00-15:30 Session 3: The Formation of Jewish Identity in the Second Temple Period
Chair: Prof. Sarah Japhet, The Hebrew University in Jerusalem
Dr. Jacob L. Wright, Emory University: Cultic Community or Nation: Observations on the Identity of Judah in the Persian Period (English)
Prof. Joseph Fleishman, Bar-Ilan University: The Struggle for Jewish Identity in the Days of Nehemiah
Dr. Eyal Ben Eliyahu, The Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Oxford University: Jewish Identity Versus Israelite Identity in the books of Judith and First Maccabees
Dr. Avishag Ayali-Weinberg, Kinneret College: The Search for the Boundary Between Isael and the Nations According to Three Stories in the Mishnah
15:45-17:15 Session 4: Jewish Identity in the Diaspora
Chair: Prof. Isaac Kalimi, The W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research
Dr. Lisbeth S. Fried, University of Michigan: Who Was a Jew? Perceptions of Ethnic Identity at Elephantine (English)
Dr. Ari Belenkiy, Bar-Ilan University: The Septuagint Story: The Hundred Years that Paved the Road to Hellenization
Ms. Giordana Moscati Mascetti, Bar-Ilan University: The “Other(s)" in Josephus’s Contra Apionem
Prof. Aryeh Kasher, Tel-Aviv University: The Ethnic Designation “Judaios" in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt
17:30-19:00 Session 5: Sects and Schisms in the Second Temple Period
Chair: Prof. Amos Kloner, Bar-Ilan University
Prof. Lawrence H. Schiffman, New York University: Who is a Jew in the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Dr. Avner Roei, Kibbutz Sa’ad: Jewish Nazarites in the Second Temple Period: Between Sectarianism and Social Solidarity
Prof. Hanan Eshel, Bar-Ilan University: Samaritans in the First Century CE: Between Jews and Gentiles
Dr. Rivka Nir, The Open University of Israel: The Image of John the Baptist Between Judaism and Christianity
Closing Remarks: Prof. Aaron Demsky, Bar-Ilan University