Alan Verskin
CANADA
Alan Verskin is the Samuel J. Zacks Chair of Jewish History at the University of Toronto. He has held academic positions at Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Rhode Island. He researches the history of the Jews of the Islamic world, Ashkenazi-Sephardi interactions, and Jewish thought.
SESSION INFO
SUNDAY 9-10am
A Black Jewish Prince and His Quest to Save the Jews
Who was David Reubeni, the charismatic Black Jewish warrior, who appeared in 16th-Century Venice with a desperate plan to restore Jewish pride and political independence? Why did Kings, bishops, rabbis, and bankers open their homes and wallets for him? Some answers from one of the weirdest documents of Jewish history, Reubeni's personal diary.
SUNDAY 11.30-12.30pm
Maimonides’ Response to Obadiah the Convert
The Middle Ages were famously a time of forced conversions of Jews to other religions, but less well known are the instances of conversion to Judaism. Rabbi Moses Maimonides, who himself may have lived for a time as a Muslim, was deeply interested in the ramifications of conversion, both for the converts themselves and for the communities which they joined. In this talk, we’ll discuss both Maimonides’ legal theory about how to treat converts to Judaism and his correspondence with one particular convert named Obadiah, who asked for Maimonides’ help in navigating his conversion and crisis of identity.
SUNDAY 2.40-3.40pm
Kol Nidrei Controversy: A Millennium of Jewish Arguments about the Famous Yom Kippur Prayer
Kol Nidrei is one of the most well-known Jewish prayers, but it has also been one of the most frequently banned and censored. Beloved by the Jewish community as a whole, rabbis have historically fretted about its project of cancelling peoples oaths and obligations. This presentation explores a millennium’s worth of Jewish arguments about the prayer and its future.