Details
The College of Arts and Sciences at the University of South Carolina is proud to announce Dr. Amy Jill Levine as the featured guest for the 2024 Solomon-Tenenbaum Lectureship in Jewish Studies to be hosted on Tuesday, February 20 at 6 p.m. in the Karen J. Williams Courtroom, Joseph F. Rice School of Law, USC.

Dr. Levine will present a lecture entitled “Jesus, Judaism, Antisemitism: How the Good News Goes Bad,” highlighting how misinterpretations of biblical texts have contributed to popular misunderstandings about Jews and Judaism. Colleague Dr. Andrew Berns, Associate Professor of Early Modern Jewish History at USC, will be in conversation with Dr. Levine after her lecture.

Following the talk, guests are invited to stay for a post-reception in the Perrin Room.

This event is free and open to the public. However, registration is suggested to reserve your seat, since we expect a high volume for this evening’s conversation.

Check-in will open at 5:30 p.m. and we ask all guests to be seated no later than 5:45 p.m. The program will begin promptly at 6 p.m. The event will be video recorded. By registering, you agree to being filmed.

The event is made possible by the Solomon-Tenenbaum family and produced annually in memory of Samuel Tenenbaum’s father, Meyer Warren Tenenbaum, and his mother, LaBelle Florence Tenenbaum.

Parking
There are a limited number of reserved bagged meters (labeled College of Arts and Sciences) in front of the School of Law. Metered parking spots are also available in the Pendleton Street Garage (levels 1a, 1b, 2a). Garages/parking spaces are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Meters are free after 6 p.m.

About Amy Jill Levine
Amy Jill Levine (“AJ”) is Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace (Hartford, CT, USA) and University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies Emerita and Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies Emerita, at Vanderbilt (Nashville, TN, USA).

Her publications include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi; six children’s books (with Sandy Sasso); The Gospel of Luke (with Ben Witherington III, the first biblical commentary by a Jew and an Evangelical); The Jewish Annotated New Testament (co-edited with Marc Brettler), The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently (with Marc Brettler), The Pharisees (co-edited with Joseph Sievers), and thirteen edited volumes of the Feminist Companions to the New Testament and Early Christian Literature. Her Beginner’s Guide series includes Sermon on the Mount, Light of the World, Entering the Passion of Jesus, The Difficult Words of Jesus, Witness at the Cross, Signs and Wonders and The Gospel of Mark.

The first Jew to teach New Testament at Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute, an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the first winner of the Seelisberg Prize for Jewish-Christian Relations, and the 2023 recipient of the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation from Archbishop of Canterbury, AJ describes herself as an unorthodox member of an Orthodox synagogue and a Yankee Jewish feminist who works to counter biblical interpretations that exclude and oppress.