The Talmud and Western History, Politics and Law: A Conference in Celebration of the Translation of the Talmud into Italian

“The Talmud and Western History, Politics and Law: A Conference in Celebration of the Translation of the Talmud into Italian” will celebrate the first ever translation of the Talmud into Italian. Funded by the Italian government and chaired by the chief rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, the translation project is a collaboration of a broad-based consortium that includes the government, the National Research Council, the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, and the Italian Rabbinical College. Scholars on three continents used specially developed, made-in-Italy software to aid in their translation. Tractate Rosh HaShana was published in Rome in 2017, and the complete Italian translation should be completed in eight more years.

Keynote addresses by YU President Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman and Rabbi Di Segni will precede a presentation by Professor Clelia Piperno, Project Director and Chair of the Project’s Board of Directors, outlining the results of the translation project. The conference will conclude with academic panels devoted to the contribution of the Talmud to legal and political thought in both historical and contemporary contexts.

The conference is being co-sponsored by the Israeli Supreme Court Project and the Yeshiva University Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

The conference is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required. To register, email iscp@yu.edu.

Program

Greetings

Melanie Leslie, Dean, Cardozo School of Law

Keynote Speeches

Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, President, Yeshiva University

Riccardo Shemuel Di Segni, Chief Rabbi of Rome

Chair, Michael Herz, Arthur Kaplan Professor of Law, Cardozo School of Law

The Italian Translation of the Talmud Project in Perspective

Clelia Piperno, University of Rome, La Sapienza School of Law, and Director and Board Chair, Italian Translation of the Talmud Project

Academic Panels

Panel One

This panel will address the history of the reception of the Talmud in Europe, from medieval attempts to suppress the Talmud to the turn to the Talmud as a resource for early modern European political thought.

Panelists

David Berger, Ruth & I. Lewis Gordon Professor of Jewish History and Dean of Bernard Revel School of Jewish Studies, Yeshiva University

Alberto Melloni,  Professor of History of Christianity, the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, UNESCO Chair for Religious Pluralism and Peace, and Director of the Fondazione per le Scienze Religiose Giovanni XXIII, Bologna

Eric Nelson, Robert M. Beren Professor of Government, Harvard University

Chair, Susanna Mancini, Professor and Chair in Comparative Constitutional Law, University of Bologna

Panel Two

This panel will address contemporary turns to the Talmud as a resource for thinking about law in Europe, Israel, and the United States.

Arye Edrei, Professor, University of Tel Aviv Law School

Mario Patrono, Emeritus, University of Rome, La Sapienza School of Law

Suzanne Last Stone, University Professor of Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization, Yeshiva University, Professor of Law, Cardozo School of Law, and Director, Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization

Chair, Michel Rosenfeld, University Professor of Law and Comparative Democracy and Justice Sydney L. Robins Professor of Human Rights, Cardozo School of Law