The Origin of the Jews
University of Pennsylvania Hillel
215 S 39th Street
2nd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19104
The Jews are an ancient people with one of the longest recorded histories, yet scholars have long puzzled over their origins. When exactly did they appear? What were the precipitating factors that contributed to their arrival? This talk will explore some of the latest research bearing on the origin of the Jews, ranging from the Bible to 21st-century biology. Professor Weitzman will survey an area that has confounded historians and archaeologists for centuries with the help of genealogy, linguistics, archaeology, psychology, sociology, and genetics.
The talk will be followed by a reception celebrating the publication of Professor Weitzman’s book on the same topic, The Origin of the Jews: The Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age, which just won a National Book Award.
This talk is cosponsored by the Department of Religious Studies and the Jewish Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania.
Featuring
Steven Weitzman
University of Pennsylvania
Steven Weitzman is the Ella Darivoff Director at the Katz Center and Abraham M. Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages & Literatures at Penn.