Charles Sidlow Memorial Scholar-in-Residence
Shabbat Feb 3 – 4, 2012Dr. Steven Fine, Professor of Jewish History and Director of the Center for Israel Studies at Yeshiva University, an expert on the interface of Jewish History and Art History, and on the archaeology of the Talmudic period.
Steven Fine is a cultural historian, specializing in Jewish history in the Greco-Roman world. He focuses on relationships between the literature of ancient Judaism, art and archaeology. Holding a doctorate in Jewish history from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an MA in art history from the University of Southern California and a BA in religious studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Professor Fine is also an alumnus of Jerusalem’s Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies and of Yeshiva University of Los Angeles.Dr. Fine’s unique blend of history, rabbinic literature, archaeology and art is expressed in a broad range of publications. The author of academic monographs, museum catalogs, articles and even a book for children, Professor Fine’s most recent book is Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World: Toward a New Jewish Archaeology (Cambridge, 2005), the second edition of which will appear in late 2009. He is an editor of IMAGES: A Journal for the Study of Jewish Art and Visual Culture.
Professor Fine has lectured throughout the United States, Israel and in Europe, including presentations at the University of Haifa, Oxford University, the Hebrew University, Yale University, the Hebrew Union College, UC Davis, Duke University and the Brooklyn Museum. Dr. Fine delivered the first Cecil Roth Memorial Lecture at the Jewish Museum in London. His current projects include a web-based learning portal on Jews and Judaism in the Greco-Roman Period and studies in Samaritan-Jewish relations during late antiquity, polychromy in ancient Jewish art and God’s Artisan: Bezalel the Tabernacle Builder in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Professor Fine lectures widely to adult audiences. His combination of history, Talmud, archaeology and “bonhomie” make Dr. Fine a popular with both Jewish and Christian audiences.
Steven Fine is Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University in New York, head of the department of Jewish History at Yeshiva College, and director of Yeshiva University’s Center for Israel Studies.
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One of the most compelling of the seventy-plus commandments that comprise the compressed compendium of this morning’s portion is the two-verse, life-prolonging mitzvah of “shiluach hakein” (22:6-7): sending away the mother bird if one wishes to take the eggs or young.