There is also an occasional Rabbinics seminar, and a graduate seminar, specially designed for MA and PhD students to present to their peers accounts of work in progress, is being established.

The following seminars, which are open to the public, will be held on Thursdays 4.00-5.30 p.m., normally in Room A18 of Humanities Lime Grove (formerly known as the Arts Building), University of Manchester, Oxford Road. (Building 24 on the Old Campus map, but Building 67 on the New Campus map).

28 Oct 2004 Prof. Estee DVORJETSKI, Dept. of Archaeology, University of Haifa: "Social and Cultural Aspects of the Therapeutic Baths in the Eastern Mediterranean according to Rabbinic Literature"

9 Dec 2004 Dr. Shlomo SELA, Bar-Ilan University: "Secularisation of the "Holy Tongue" and the Development of "Medieval Hebrew Science" See ABSTRACT

10 Feb 2005 Prof. Giacomo TODESCHINI, Dipartimento di Storia, Università di Trieste: "Trustfulness and avarice as economic-religious elements of the Christian infamia facti vocabulary"

Abstract: "Medieval Canon Law had a category of "infamous people" (infames) who were ineligible to testify in court. Jews, along with other heretics, were amongst the classes regarded as "infamous" as a matter of public notoriety, without need for judicial proof in individual cases. Although the immediate context may appear to be the economic relations between Jews and Christians, and particularly the issue of usury, this paper will argue, from an historical survey of the relevant texts from Roman times, that the discrimination stems from deeper theological issues, infamy being associated with carnality and deprivation of the Spirit, and indeed from an historical context when Jewish proselytising appeared a threat to Christian identity."

14 April 2005 Prof. Benjamin HARY, Emory University: "The Languages of the Jews: Some Preliminary Thoughts"

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