Pearl and Jack Mandel Lecture in Jewish Studies

Miriam Goldstein, "Judeo-Arabic Literature 101 and Toledot Yeshu among Near Eastern Jews"

This talk will explore the astonishing popularity of Toledot Yeshu—a parody of the life of Jesus, first attested in Late Antiquity in Aramaic—among the Arabic-speaking Jews of the medieval Islamic world. Presenting Toledot Yeshu as a product of medieval Judeo-Arabic literature and as a Jewish narrative shared and exchanged between the Near East, the Mediterranean and Europe, it will illuminate sustained Jewish interest in the work for more than a millennium and a half in the Near East, as well as the significance of this enduring appeal for understanding Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations in the Islamic milieu.

Miriam Goldstein is associate professor of Arabic Language and Literature and chair of the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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