Hebrews, Judahites, Jews 2900-JSL-HJZ

The course is titled "At the Border of Worlds: ‘Non-Jewish’ Perceptions and Behaviors of Jews in the Greco-Roman World." Its aim is to demonstrate that Jews frequently adopted Greco-Roman customs and drew on the broader cultural imagination of the surrounding world. Pagan deities appear in their texts and iconography; there are documented cases of attachment to Roman festivals and the adoption of Greek customs such as ekdosis—the giving of a bride in marriage by her father. The course is designed to raise students’ awareness of issues related to self-identification and external identification, not only in antiquity but also in later periods, up to the present day.