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November 9, 2008            Sunday, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm
Was it good for the Jews? Judaism, Islam, and the Legacy of the Middle Ages
Speaker: Fred Astren, Ph.D., Director, Jewish Studies Program, San Francisco State University

The interaction of Judaism with Islam started in the 7th century CE with the origin and spread of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. Since then, Jews and Muslims have had a nearly 1400-year relationship that helped define major aspects of Jewish identity. In recent times this relationship has been shaped by Zionism, Arab and Muslim nationalism, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Dr. Fred Astren will discuss the historical dimensions of Judaism and Islam in the Middle Ages and how this history impacts contemporary events. He will examine questions such as: What is Islam? How is Islam related to Judaism and Christianity? How does Islam see itself in relation to other religions? What is Islamic civilization? Then, he will discuss Jews of Islam: What was Jewish life like in Muslim society during its heyday in the Middle Ages? What is Judeo-Arabic culture? Were Jews in the Muslim world marginal or central to social life, the economy, and politics? Who were the important Jewish personalities of this history? Was there a “Golden Age of Spanish Jewry”? Finally, he will look at traces of these medieval phenomena in modern history and the current situation to examine the question: “Was it good for the Jews?”

About the Speaker
Dr. Fred Astren is Director of the Jewish Studies Program at San Francisco State University. He received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from the University of California at Berkeley in 1993. He holds a B.E.S. from the University of Minnesota and an M.A. in Arabic from UC Berkeley. Since receiving his Ph.D., he has taught at San José State University and held an assistant professorship in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. His areas of research include minority/sectarian history and sacred history, with special focus on Jewish history under Islam, Jewish-Muslim relations, and the Karaite Jewish sect. He is now writing a book on Jews in the Mediterranean during the early Middle Ages.

Dr. Astren’s articles include Islam and Karaite Judaism, Karaism and the Dead Sea Scrolls, minority religion in the medieval Islamic world, death rituals in Judaism and Islam, and biblical constructions of British sacred history. His books include The Jewish Printed Book in India: Imprints of the Blumenthal Rare Book and Manuscript Library; Judaism and Islam: Boundaries, Interaction, and Communication; and Karaite Judaism and Historical Understanding, which won a Koret Jewish Publications award. He is active in the American Academy of Religion, American Historical Association, American Oriental Society, Association for Jewish Studies, Middle East Studies Association, Society for Biblical Literature, and on the board of the Western Jewish Studies Association. He has taught in Jewish venues throughout the Bay Area and was a member of the Board of Governors of the Bureau of Jewish Education of San Francisco.

February 22, 2009            Sunday, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm
What Do We Know About the Origin of the Biblical Philistines?
Speaker:  Assaf Yasur-Landau, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History, U.C. Santa Cruz

Dr. Yasur-Landau will discuss the origin of the Biblical Philistines, a timely topic as we read Exodus and contemplate encounters between Israelites and Philistines. He will discuss his view that the Philistines were an offshoot of 12th century BCE Aegean society in which internal competition and strife enabled mobility and incentives for people to seek opportunities in foreign lands, unlike the common view that the Philistines were violent invaders, coming by ships from the Aegean and conquering the southern coast of Canaan. In most cases in the eastern Mediterranean, Aegean settlement was not violent and co-existed peacefully with the local peoples. In opposition to views of Philistine society as predominately Aegean, Dr. Yasur-Landau will also propose that Philistine society, as well as other migrant societies in the eastern Mediterranean of the 12th century BCE, was multi-cultural from its beginning, combining Aegean, Canaanite, and Cypriot elements in architecture, culinary practices, and religion.

About the Speaker
Dr. Assaf Yasur-Landau is Assistant Professor of History at the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he teaches Jewish Studies. His interests include archeology of ancient Israel and the Near East and Aegean Bronze Age studies. He is the co-director of the Tel Kabri archaeological project in the western Galilee, leading the excavation of a Canaanite palace at one of the largest Bronze Age cities uncovered in Israel. He is also a member of the Ashkelon publication team, working on the typology of the Philistine pottery from this site. He has a Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University and has excavated in Israel, Greece, and Turkey.

April 19, 2009                  Sunday, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm
Ethical Frontiers in Medical Technology
Speaker:  Michael Sinensky, Ph.D., Prof. Emeritus, Biochemistry Dept., East Tennessee State University.

Advances in medical technology over the last thirty years have pushed the boundaries of our understanding of human life. Within Jewish thought there has been concern about beginning and end of life issues. Besides these concerns, a broader discussion among some biomedical ethicists has taken place regarding the disturbing redefinition of human individuality by the potentially limitless power of new biomedical technologies to intervene in natural human processes. Dr. Sinensky will illustrate these areas of concern by discussing the social and ethical implications of recent and anticipated advances in molecular, biological, and genetic medical technologies.

About the Speaker
Bronx-born Michael Sinensky received an A.B. from Columbia College in 1966 and a Ph.D. from the Harvard University Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 1971. He was a member of the Harvard University Society of Fellows 1971-1974, Professor of Biochemistry and Pathology at the University of Colorado College of Medicine 1974-1995, and Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry at the East Tennessee State University J. H. Quillen College of Medicine 1995-2007, where he is now Professor Emeritus. His research interests include molecular mechanisms of human diseases involving cholesterol and related molecules. His current research is on the cellular mechanisms of human aging. He was a research assistant for biomedical ethicist Leon Kass at the National Research Council in 1972 and has taught medical students about the technical and ethical interface from a Jewish perspective. Dr. Sinensky recently moved to San Jose, where he joined his wife Michal Strutin as a member of Congregation Beth David.