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February 21, 2005
Tenenbaum lecture to feature Columbia scholar, March 3

BY Katherine Baust

Internationally renowned author and scholar Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi will explore the varied relationship between Jews and the powers that have ruled them in his lecture, “Servants of Kings and Not Servants of Servants: Some Aspects of the Political History of the Jews,” part of the annual Tenenbaum Family Lecture Series in Judaic Studies. The lecture will be held Thursday, March 3, at 7:30 p.m. in the Carlos Museum Reception Hall.

“This annual event is a very popular series, and Professor Yerushalmi is a very well-known academic who has authored many famous books and has appeared publicly with philosopher Jacques Derrida,” said Rebecca Rubin, senior secretary in the Tam Institute of Jewish Studies, which sponsors the lecture series. “We are expecting a significant response to his appearance.”

Yerushalmi is the Salo Wittmayer Baron Professor of Jewish History, Culture and Society and director of the Center for Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University. His scholarly interests span both medieval and modern times, with particular research interests in the Sephardi diaspora, 19th and 20th century German Jewry, Jewish history-writing, and psychoanalysis.

Among Yerushalmi’s many publications is Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory (1982), one of the most widely read works in Jewish history. The book is credited with bringing a generation of students to the study of Jewish history as well as Jewish historical representation, consciousness of time, narrative and tradition, and the role of history-writing in Jewish identity.

Twice Yerushalmi has received the National Jewish Book Award. In 1995 he was presented with the medal of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture in recognition of his achievements as a historian. In 1997 he participated in a public dialogue with Derrida, a well-known philosopher. He previously had commented on Yerushalmi’s 1995 book Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression.

Yerushalmi is the recipient of six honorary doctorates, among them from the University of Haifa, Israel; the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich; and most recently from the École Pratique des Hautes Études
(Sorbonne) in Paris.

The Tenenbaum Family Lecture Series celebrates the family of the late Meyer Tenenbaum (’31C, ’32L) of Savannah. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 404-727-6301 or
go to www.js.emory.edu/tenenbaum.

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