All twenty-two original articles in the current volume are based on lectures given at the conference "The Jews in Italy: Their Contribution to the Development and Diffusion of Jewish Heritage", which was convened in September 2011, at the University of Bologna, Department of Cultural Heritage. Geographically, the articles range from Italy to the Ottoman Empire (the Balkans and Aleppo), from France and Germany to the Middle East, including Israel, North and East Africa (Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, and Ethiopia). Chronologically, articles begin with the Roman period, through the Middle Ages and Renaissance until modern times. In this collection, the reader will find a wide range of subjects reflecting various scholarly perspectives such as history; Christian-Jewish relations; Kabbalah; commentary on the Bible and Talmud; language, grammar, and translation; literature; philosophy; gastronomy; art; culture; folklore; and education.

About the Author

Mauro Perani is Full Professor of Hebrew at the University of Bologna, Department of Cultural Heritage. President of the European Association for Jewish Studies in 2006-2010, he is currently President of the Italian Association for Jewish Studies (AISG). In 2013, he discovered the oldest complete Sefer Torah, in the University of Bologna library. In the same year, he received a PhD honoris causa from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for his research on thousands of medieval Hebrew manuscripts reused in Italian archives as bindings in the 16th-18th centuries. Director and Editor of Materia Giudaica, journal of the AISG, he also founded the series Corpus Epitaphiorum Hebraicorum Italiae. He has worked on the "Italian Genizah Project" for thirty-five years, and is currently partaking in the "Books within Books" initiative as a Member of the Scientific Board. He is the author of a dozen volumes and more than four hundred articles.

Yaron Harel is Full Professor at the department of Jewish History at Bar Ilan University. He is the vice-chairman of the Israeli Historical Society, and incumbent of the Yekutiel and Hannah Klein Chair in the History the Rabbinate during the Modern Period, Bar-Ilan University. His research deals with political, social, and cultural history of the Jews in the Middle East in modern times. He published twelve books and several peer-reviewed articles.

Reviews

"Individually and collectively [the articles] provide valuable information and analysis about the current state of research of Italian Jewry in particular and in the context of Jewish studies in general. ... The Jews in Italy: Their Contribution to the Development and Diffusion of Jewish Heritage highlights how at the communal level Italian Jewish culture embodies Italian, and indeed global, culture."

-Howard Adelman, H-Judaic

Book Information
ISBN 9781644690253
Author Yaron Harel
Format Hardback
Page Count 444
Imprint Academic Studies Press
Publisher Academic Studies Press