Seth Schwartz is a professor of classical Jewish civilization at Columbia University and the author of Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 BCE to 640 CE. The book examines the effects of Persian, Greek, and Roman rule of Jewish society in antiquity and how it shaped Jewish life and identity. Episode 1 focuses on the return of Judahite exiles from P…

Seth Schwartz is a professor of classical Jewish civilization at Columbia University and the author of Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 BCE to 640 CE. The book examines the effects of Persian, Greek, and Roman rule of Jewish society in antiquity and how it shaped Jewish life and identity. Episode 2 discusses the impacts of the Hasmonean territor…

Aren Meir and Sue Frumin come back on the show to discuss a paper they co-authored that examined plant-related Philistine ritual practices at Tell Es-Safi, which is believed to be the biblical Gath. You can find a link to the study here. Aren is a professor at Bar Ilan University and director of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project. His res…

Joan Taylor is a Professor of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism at King’s College London and the author of the book The Essenes, The Scrolls, and the Dead Sea. In this episode, we discuss her book that challenges misconceptions about who the Essenes were and their place in Second Temple Judaism. You can purchase a copy of the book on Amaz…

Michael Fradley is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford and a landscape archaeologist. He was one of the co-authors of a recent study about how a remote sensing survey in southern Jordan identified at least three Roman military camps that seem to reveal a previously unknown military campaign against the Nabateans. You can find a li…

Liane Feldman discusses her book The Consuming Fire, which presents a complete translation of the Priestly Source of the Bible, offering a distinctive account of the origins of the people of Israel and their relationship with God. By presenting the complete translation of the Priestly Source without the other sources that are believed to also be pa…

Dr. Piers Mitchell is an Honorary Research Associate at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge and the lead author of a recent study that analyzed sediments from two latrines from the Kingdom of Judah. The study found that dysentery was widespread in the ancient capital of Jerusalem. You can read the study…

In this episode of the podcast, Abigail Krasner Balbale discusses her book The Wolf King: Ibn Mardanish and the Construction of Power in Al Andalus. The Wolf King explores how political power was conceptualized, constructed, and wielded in twelfth-century al-Andalus, focusing on the reign of Muhammad ibn Sad ibn Ahmad ibn Mardanīsh also known as Th…

Dr. Shamam Waldman discusses a recent paper she co-authored with her colleagues at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem that was published in the journal Cell. The study was an effort to sequence the DNA from the remains of Ashkenazi Jews in medieval Europe and focused on a DNA analysis that was done on the extracted teeth of individuals who were bur…

Professor Gary Rendsburg comes back on the podcast to discuss his book How The Bible Is Written. The book examines the literary aspects of the Hebrew biblical text and highlights the artistry and skill of the biblical authors. How The Bible Is Written is available in a number of stores, including in-person at Barnes & Noble and online at the links …

Hannah-Lena Hagemann is based in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Hamburg University, where she leads a research group on rebellion in early Islam. She is the author of The Kharijites in Early Islamic Historical Tradition which is the first comprehensive literary analysis of the Kharijites’ history as depicted in early Islamic historiograp…

Professor Yosef Garfinkel is a Professor of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Yigael Yadin Chair in Archaeology of Israel. In 2021 he was one of the authors of a study published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology which examines how the Assyrian army laid siege to the town of Lachish in Judah in 701 BC. Specifically, the st…

Professor Benjamin Sommer is an American biblical scholar and Jewish theologian. He’s a Professor of Bible at The Jewish Theological Seminary of America and a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. Professor Sommer is the author of the book Revelation & Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition, which examines how the biblical auth…

Andrea Berlin is the James R. Wiseman Chair in Classical Archaeology and a Professor of Archaeology and Religion at Boston University. Her research focuses on the archaeology and history of the Achaemenid, Hellenistic, and Roman East, Ceramic Studies, Second-Temple Judaism, and the archaeology of Israel. In this episode, we discuss the book The Mid…

Professor Boaz Zissu is an archaeologist and a member of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University. He has authored and collaborated on numerous studies of the Bar Kokhba Revolt including co-authoring the book The Bar Kokhba Revolt: The Archaeological Evidence. We discuss the background to the re…

Khalil Andani is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Augustana College and holds a Ph.D. In Islamic Studies from Harvard University. Professor Andani’s dissertation “Revelation in Islam: Qur’anic, Sunni, and Shi‘i Ismaili Perspectives” won the 2020 Best PhD Dissertation of the Year Award from the Foundation for Iranian Studies. In this episode of…

Gideon Bohak is a Professor in the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at Tel Aviv University. He is a specialist in Jewish magic, especially in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and in the study of the Cairo Genizah. Professor Bohak came back on the show to discuss a paper he co-authored titled Divorcing Lilith: From the Babylonian Incantation…

Matthew Chalmers is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Religious Studies and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Northwestern University’s Department of Religious Studies. He is a scholar and theorist of religion, working with texts and traditions of the late antique eastern Mediterranean in Greek, Coptic, Aramaic, and Hebrew. In his current book p…

Daniel Fuks is a Newton International Fellow of the British Academy at the McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge. As a PhD candidate in the Archaeobotany Lab at Bar-Ilan University, he was the leading author of the research study that examined the rise and fall of the Byzantine Negev viticulture. You can find …

Sarit Kattan-Gribbetz is an Associate Professor of Theology at Fordham University and the author of Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism, which can be purchased on Amazon. The book explores the rhythms of time that animated the rabbinic world of late antiquity, revealing how rabbis conceptualized time as a way of constructing difference between …

Playaling is a language learning platform founded by Jordan Gerstler-Holton, a former Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) fellow and long-time student of Arabic. Playaling is composed of a dedicated team of language professionals making engaging real-world Arabic content available to teachers and students across the globe with a heavy focus on Ar…

Carolina Lopez-Ruiz is a Professor at Ohio State University in the Classics Department and her research focuses on understanding Greek culture in its broader ancient Mediterranean context. She has authored a number of books on the Phoenician civilization and in this episode we discussed her book When The Gods Were Born - Greek Cosmogonies and the N…

Professors Aaron D. Rubin and Lily Kahn came back on the show to discuss their new book Jewish Languages From A to Z. The book is a comprehensive survey of Jewish languages, covering more than 50 different languages and language varieties and sheds light on the rich variety of languages spoken and written by Jews over the past three thousand years.…

Michael Philip Penn is a professor of religious studies at Stanford University and the author of Envisioning Islam: Syriac Christians and the Early Muslim World as well as the book When Christians First Met Muslims. Professor Penn’s book and research examine Syriac sources to better understand how Christians in the Middle East perceived the early M…

Sue Frumin is a post-doctoral researcher at Bar Ilan University and archaeobotanist. Sue works in the archaebotany lab run by Professor Ehud Weiss at the university. She is one of the co-authors of a 2015 paper that examined the impact of the Philistine migration on biodiversity in the Southern Levant. You can check out the paper here…

Gideon Bohak is a Professor in the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at Tel Aviv University. He is a specialist in Jewish magic, especially in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and in the study of the Cairo Genizah. In this episode of the podcast, we spoke about Jewish magical practices of late antiquity and the use of Jewish amulets, incanta…

Professor David Ilan has come back to discuss the Chalcolithic age in the Southern Levant (4500 - 3700 BC) and specifically theories concerning religious beliefs about death and reincarnation. Professor Ilan serves as the Director of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem and the Director of the Te…

Roni-Henkin is an Associate Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. We spoke about the contact between Palestinian Arabic and Israeli Hebrew and how the two languages have interacted with one another for over a century. One item we did not get around to discussing, but is still important, is the major phenomenon of codeswitching among youn…

Lily Kahn is a Professor of Hebrew and Jewish languages at University College London. Professor Kahn is also a scholar of the Yiddish language and published the book Colloquial Yiddish, which can be purchased on Amazon. In our talk, we examined the history of Yiddish, its rise, fall, and resurgence, and also how the language continues to change and…

Professor David Ilan serves as the Director of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem and the Director of the Tel Dan excavations. Our discussion focused on Professor Ilan’s new theory surrounding the emergence of Israelite settlements in the hill country of Canaan.…

Eric Cline is a Professor of Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies and Anthropology and the Director of the GWU Capitol Archaeological Institute. He's also the author of the book 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed, which covers the Bronze Age collapse, its causes, and what we can learn from it. You can purchase the book on Amazon and Bar…

In this episode of the podcast, we spoke with Nesrin Amin, the founder, and host of the Bilmasri blog and podcast. Bilmasri is a blog & podcast dedicated to the Egyptian dialect, its sounds, structures, vocabulary, and the culture behind it. You can download episodes of the Podcast from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and others and check out the blog at …

In this episode of the podcast, we spoke with Professor Dawn Chatty who is the former director of the Refugee Studies Center at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of the British Academy and an internationally recognized expert on Bedouin culture and tribalism. She is the author of From Camel to Truck - The Bedouin in the Modern World. We spoke abou…

In this episode of the podcast, we spoke with Professor Devin Naar who is the Sephardic Studies Program Chair, Isaac Alhadeff Professor of Sephardic Studies, and an Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at the University of Washington. We spoke about the Ladino language, its history and cultural legacy and efforts underway at the univer…

In this episode of the podcast, we spoke with Professor Emeritus Mina Weinstein-Evron of the University of Haifa who is the former head of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology. Her research focuses on the middle Paleolithic hunter-gather culture that lived in the Levant known as the Natufian Culture.Por Foreigncy

In this episode of the podcast, we spoke with the founder of the Hebrew language learning website and Youtube Channel Hebrew with Teacher Mike. We had a great conversation about his journey mastering Hebrew, the methods he’s adapted for his own students, and the importance of learning and using non-violent communication in Hebrew…

In this episode of the podcast, we spoke with Reem Makhoul, the co-founder and creator of Ossass, a publisher of children’s books written in Arabic dialect. In our talk, we discussed what drew Reem to begin writing children’s books in Arabic dialect, the importance of publishing materials in dialect v. Modern Standard Arabic, and the impact the sto…

In this episode of the podcast, we spoke with Gary Rendsburg who is a professor of biblical studies, Hebrew language and ancient Judaism at Rutgers University. He holds the Blanche and Irving Laurie Chair in Jewish History. Professor Rendsburg is an expert on the historical development of the Hebrew language and ancient Hebrew dialects, which was t…

In this episode of the podcast, we spoke with Matt Goldish who’s a professor at Ohio State University and a specialist in Jewish and European History, Messianism, and the Spanish Jews after the expulsion from Spain. He holds the Samuel M. and Esther Melton Chair in Jewish History. The topic of our discussion was his book The Sabbatean Prophets, whi…

In this episode of the podcast, I spoke with Erez Ben-Yosef who is an Associate Professor of Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University. He’s the director of the Central Timna Valley Project and the excavations that he has been leading in the Aravah Valley have raised the possibility that w…

In this episode of the podcast, I speak with Ed Greenstein who is professor emeritus of Bible at Bar-Ilan University and a world-renowned scholar in biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies. He recently published a new translation of the Book of Job which offers a new perspective on the story, which is speaking the truth to power no matter the cos…

In this episode of the podcast, we spoke with Professor Paul M. Cobb about his book The Race for Paradise - An Islamic History of the Crusades. Professor Cobb's book offers a new perspective on the Crusades by telling this period of history through Muslim sources. The book can be purchased on Amazon. Professor Cobb is a Professor of Islamic History…

In this episode of the podcast, I spoke with Dr. Marina Rustow who is the director of the Princeton Genizah Lab and the Khedouri A Zilkha Professor of Jewish Civilization in the Near East at Princeton. She is also the director of the program of Near Eastern Studies. We spoke at length about the Cairo Genizah and what its findings can tell us about …

In this episode of the podcast, I spoke with Professor Uri Bar-Joseph who is a professor of political science at the University of Haifa, an expert on Israeli intelligence, and the author of the book The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel. His book was recently adapted to a Netflix movie called The Angel and tells the story of Ashraf Marwan, …

In this episode of the podcast, I spoke with director Kamal Hachkar who made the film Tinghir-Jerusalem: Echoes from the Mellah. The film documents the story of the Berber Jews from the city of Tinghir who left in the 1960s with the majority of them winding up in Israel. In the film, Kamal travels to Morocco to interview the people of Tinghir about…

In this episode of the podcast, I spoke with Dr. Ahmad Al-Jallad who is the Sofia Chair in Arabic Studies and an Associate Professor at Ohio State University. He is one of the foremost authorities on early Arabic and his work focuses on the languages and writing systems of pre-Islamic Arabia and the ancient Near East. The focus of our discussion wa…

In this episode of the podcast, I spoke with Dr. Peter Webb who is a university lecturer of Arabic literature at Universiteit Leiden. Dr. Webb’s research focuses on literature and culture of pre-modern Islam and in this podcast, we discuss the origins of Arabness and his book Imaging the Arabs – Arab Identity and the Rise of Islam.…

In this episode of the podcast, I spoke with Aaron Rubin, who is The Malvin and Lea Bank Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, Jewish Studies, and Linguistics at Penn State University. Professor Rubin is one of the leading scholars of the Modern South Arabian languages and in this episode we discussed his research on Jibbali and …

In this episode of the podcast, I spoke with Geoffrey Khan, who is the Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge. Over the last few years, Professor Khan has been working to document the last native speakers of Neo-Aramaic around the world as the language inches toward extinction. In our talk we discuss the history of Aramaic, his e…

In this episode, I spoke with Ed Greenstein who is Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at Bar-Ilan University, where he served as Professor since 2006, headed the Institute for Jewish Biblical Interpretation and held the Meiser Chair in Biblical Studies. He also serves as Chair of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Hermeneutics and Cultur…