Ruth Calderon: How Intellectuals Can Create Political Change

Date: 

Tuesday, November 5, 2019, 4:00pm to 6:00pm

Location: 

Harvard Law School, Austin 200, Ames Courtroom, 1515 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138

2019 Annual Robert and Florence Dreben lecture
Ruth Calderon, Caroline Zelaznik Gruss and Joseph S. Gruss Visiting Professor in Talmudic Civil Law, Harvard Law School

Dr. Ruth Calderon is one of Israel’s leading figures in the effort to revive Hebrew culture and sustain a pluralistic Israeli-Jewish identity and was elected to the Israeli Knesset in January 2013. She became a national celebrity when she taught a page of Talmud in the Israeli parliament, arguing that the text was the heritage of the entire Jewish people. She is founder and former director of the Elul Beit Midrash in Jerusalem (the first secular yeshiva in the world) and founder and chair of Alma: Home for Hebrew Culture in Tel Aviv. After eighteen years as director of Alma, Ruth was appointed head of the culture and education department at the National Library of Israel. She also hosted a TV program, Ha-Heder, on which she invited guests to study Jewish texts with her.

Co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies and the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law, Harvard Law School

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