Martin Jacobs, Ph.D., acting director of the Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Studies Program in Arts & Sciences and associate professor of rabbinic studies, will present a lecture titled “Hebrew Belles Lettres and the Memory of Spain: Ibn Verga’s ‘Staff of Judah’ — An Early Printed Book from Washington University’s Shimeon Brisman Collection in Jewish Studies” at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 29, in the Olin Library Ginkgo Reading Room (level 1).
Considered one of the outstanding achievements of Hebrew literature of the Renaissance, “Staff of Judah” has special importance in the annals of Jewish historical thought. Jacobs will be introduced by Jill Storm, graduate student in the Department of History in Arts & Sciences, who will speak on the Brisman Collection.
The lecture accompanies the exhibition “Expressions of Jewish Life Through Texts and Objects,” which is on display in Olin Library’s Ginkgo Reading Room and Grand Staircase Lobby through June 28.
The exhibition brings together objects from the Jewish Heritage Collection at the University of Michigan’s Special Collections Library and texts from Washington University Libraries’ Shimeon Brisman Collection in Jewish Studies.