Speaker: Rabbi John S. Friedman, Judea Reform Congregation, Durham John Friedman has been rabbi of Judea Reform Congregation for thirty years. His synagogue serves the Jewish communities of Durham, Chapel Hill, and surrounding areas. Rabbi Friedman attended the University of Kansas, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Harvard University where he was a Charles Merrill Fellow in 1994. He received a doctorate from the Hebrew Union College. In 2009, he was invited back to Harvard and awarded the prestigious Daniel Jeremy Silver Fellowship. During that sabbatical he translated Joseph Official’s record of the 1240 Disputation of Paris into English. His articles on Bible, Jewish literature, Jewish education, and Black-Jewish relations have been published in a variety of journals.
In 1242 in Paris, the agents of King Louis IX burned twenty-four oxcarts containing virtually every Talmud in France. Pope Gregory IX had requested that European monarchs, acting on behalf of the Church, confiscate all copies of the Talmud in their respective domains in 1239. Only Louis complied. One year later, the king called a public trial of the Talmud to judge whether it was indeed heretical, containing insults against Christianity, and whether it was an obstacle that kept Jews from accepting conversion. The Jewish record of the Trial is well known but, until recently, never translated into English. John Friedman recently completed the first such translation which will be published by the Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies. Rabbi Friedman’s book will include allied documents translated by him as well as some important Latin works concerning the disputation. In this lecture, Rabbi Friedman will discuss the history and events leading up to this famous trial and present passages from the Jewish record for analysis and discussion.
Title: The 1240 Trial of the Talmud: The Jewish Report
Type: Duke Medieval & Renaissance Studies Lecture
Date: Thursday, November 17, 2011
Time: 4:30pm
Location: Franklin Center, Room 240
Abstract: This lecture is co-sponsored by Duke's Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, the Jewish Studies Center, the Center for European Studies, and the History Department. Free parking is available in the Pickins lot across the street from the Franklin Center on Trent Drive after 4:00 pm.