Fairfield U. Bennett Center to Host Lecture on The Printing Press and Jewish Literacy Culture, Sept. 29

Fairfield, CT - On Tuesday, September 29 at 7:30 p.m., the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies will present the Adolph and Ruth Schnurmacher Scholar-in-Residence Lecture titled “People of the (Printed/Digital) Book: Printing and the Birth of the Jewish Bookshelf”, by Rabbi Joseph A. Skloot, PhD. This is the first of the Center’s online series of fall events. 

The invention of the printing press is one of the major events in the course of human history. But how did printing — and with it, the sudden availability of the printed word — change pre-modern Jewish texts and readers’ experiences of them? Rabbi Skloot, this year’s Adolph and Ruth Schnurmacher Scholar-in-Residence, will explore these questions as well as the implications of digitization for Jewish books and their readers. 

Rabbi Skloot teaches at Hebrew Union College in New York, where he is the Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish Intellectual History. He received his PhD in Jewish history at Columbia University (2017), where his dissertation was entitled, “Printing, Hebrew Book Culture and Sefer Hasidim.” His research explores the effects of printing on Hebrew texts during the sixteenth century, and his teaching encompasses courses in early modern and modern Jewish history, and Jewish religious thought.

Rabbi Skloot is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the Jacob K. Javits Graduate Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education; the Weinrib Fellowship at the Center for Jewish Studies at Columbia University; the Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization Graduate Fellowship at Cardozo Law School; and the Kenneth Christopher Harris Award for Service to the Moral and Ethical Life of Princeton University. 

The Schnurmacher Scholar-in-Residence Program is made possible by the generosity of the Adolf and Ruth Schnurmacher Foundation. In addition to this lecture, Rabbi Skloot will teach in two classes of Ellen Umansky, PhD, professor of Judaic Studies at Fairfield University, and director of the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies. He will also facilitate a discussion with University faculty, administrators, and staff on, “The Sabbath Upon Which Our Lives Depend: The Theology of COVID and Religious Liberty.” 

The September 29 lecture will be held online and is free and open to the public. Register at fairfield.edu/bennettprograms for a program link.

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Submitted by Fairfield, CT

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