Contact: Renata Nyul at 617-373-7424

What: Northeastern University will host a lecture on Wednesday, February 7th, titled “Jewish Magic, Magical Judaism” delivered by Dr. J.H. “Yossi” Chajes, an Israeli scholar from the University of Haifa. Dr. Chajes will discuss religion and magic in early modern Judaism. The event is part of the Jewish Studies Program’s 2006-2007 lecture series, “Seers, Spirits and Sages: Magic, Mysticism and the Jewish Experience.”

Who: Dr. Chajes teaches medieval and early modern Jewish cultural history as Senior Lecturer in Jewish history in the Department of Jewish History at the University of Haifa. He has served as a Fulbright Visiting Research Fellow at Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as a Wexner Fellow in Jewish Studies at Yale University. A long-time fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, Chajes also has served as Visiting Professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and as a fellow at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Chajes is the author of Between Worlds: Dybbuks, Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaism, which was a finalist for the Koret Jewish History Book Award in 2003.
The lecture is free and open to the public.

When: Wednesday, February 7, 2007 at 7:30 p.m.

Where: Northeastern University Alumni Center, Columbus Place (716 Columbus Avenue), 6th floor. Visitor parking is available at the Renaissance Parking Garage, 835 Columbus Avenue. Northeastern University parking rates apply

About the Lecture Series: The “Seers, Spirits and Sages: Magic, Mysticism and the Jewish Experience” lecture series will conclude on Tuesday, March 13th, when Prof. Shaul Magid will compare the contemporary resurgence of mysticism and magic in Israel and the United States. Magid is an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University and the Jay and Jeannie Schottenstein Chair in Modern Judaism. He was the editor of God’s Voice from the Void: Old and New Essays on Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav (Suny Press, 2001), co-editor of Beginning Again: Toward a Hermeneutic of Jewish Texts (Seven Bridges Press, 2002) and author of Hasidism on the Margin: Reconciliation, Antinomianism, and Messianism in Izbica and Radzin Hasidism (University of Wisconsin Press, 2003). His current book project is entitled, From Theosophy to Midrash: Late Kabbala and the Interpretation of Scripture, on scriptural hermeneutics in the mystical school of Rabbi Isaac Luria.

These events are made possible by support from Mort and Marcia Ruderman, the Northeastern Jewish Studies Program, and the Department of Philosophy and Religion.

For more information, please contact Jenny Sartori at 617-373-7045 or at j.sartori@neu.edu, and visit the Jewish Studies Program’s Web site: http://www.neu.edu/jewishstudies/

About Northeastern: Founded in 1898, Northeastern University is a private research university located in the heart of Boston. Northeastern is a leader in interdisciplinary research, urban engagement, and the integration of classroom learning with real-world experience. The university’s distinctive cooperative education program, where students alternate semesters of full-time study with semesters of paid work in fields relevant to their professional interests and major, is one of the largest and most innovative in the world. The University offers a comprehensive range of undergraduate and graduate programs leading to degrees through the doctorate in six undergraduate colleges, eight graduate schools, and two part-time divisions. For more information, please visit www.northeastern.edu.