Professor Reif will explain how the “Cairo Genizah”, the world’s greatest collection of Hebrew and Jewish manuscripts from the Middle Ages, was accumulated and grew over many centuries into a unique source for rewriting Jewish history. He will describe the manner in which it was first discovered over a century ago and how it was brought from Egypt to academic institutions in the western world by a number of remarkable individuals. He will trace the process of decipherment, analysis and research undertaken on these precious but fragmentary documents, and will clarify and exemplify the great variety of content that they have preserved. Professor Reif will also estimate the major effect that these discoveries have had on our understanding of life in and around the Eastern Mediterranean a thousand years ago.

Stefan Reif (BA, PhD London; MA LittD Cambridge: Hon. PhD Haifa) is Emeritus Professor of Medieval Hebrew Studies and Fellow of St John's College in the University of Cambridge. He also holds senior research posts at the Universities of Haifa and Tel Aviv. He was the Founding Director of the Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge University Library (1973-2006). He is the author of many books and articles and has lectured widely in Europe, Israel, Canada  and the USA. His latest volumes are A Jewish Archive from Old Cairo (2000), Problems with Prayers (2006), Charles Taylor and the Genizah Collection (2009), and Death in Jewish Life (2014). He is currently working on a volume describing and analysing medieval liturgical fragments from the Cairo Genizah. Together with F. W. de Klerk, former President of South Africa, and Chaim Topol, the famous actor, he was recently awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Haifa.

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Cost: $25/adult, $15/child (ages 4-12), $85/family.

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