This lecture was postponed from March 21 to September 12, 2024.

Evidence for enslaved, manumitted, and fostered people in the households of the late antique Jewish patriarchs and rabbis has long been known, but the contribution of non-normative Jews to late antique synagogues, rabbinic learning, and Jewish society in Late Antiquity has not been acknowleged. In this lecture, Professor Mika Ahuvia argues that our imaginings of Jewish society and the Jewish household in premodernity must change to accommodate the evidence of these heretofore marginalized Jews and the challenges posed by their enslaved status and gendered identity.

Mika Ahuvia is the Herbert L. & Lucia S. Pruzan Chair in Jewish Studies and the Director of the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington. She is the author of On My Right Michael, On My Left Gabriel: Angels in Ancient Jewish Culture (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2021). She received her Ph.D. in religion from Princeton University and has published book chapters and articles on gender and rabbinic literature, ancient ritual-magic, and late antique archaeology, among other areas of interest.

This lecture is sponsored by the Program of Jewish Studies with support from the Department of Near Eastern Studies, Program of Religious Studies and Department of Classics.