#MeToo, the Talmud, and the Ethics of Accountability, Prof. Mira Beth Wasserman (Rabbinical College in Philadelphia)

PUBLIC LECTURE (In person and live stream): #MeToo, the Talmud, and the Ethics of Accountability, Prof. Mira Beth Wasserman (Rabbinical College in Philadelphia)
When: TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2023
Time: 5:30 – 7:00 PM (EST)
Where: NEW COLLEGE OF FLORIDA, SAINER AUDITORIUM (located at NCF's Caple Campus, 5313 Bay Shore Rd)
Live Streaming: New College of Florida Religious Studies YouTube Channel.

#MeToo, the Talmud, and the Ethics of Accountability
Prof. Mira Beth Wasserman
Director of the Center for Jewish Ethics and Associate Professor of Rabbinic Literature at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia.

With the rise of the #MeToo movement, Jewish activists invoked the Jewish ethical tradition to support principles of accountability, dignity, and gender justice. The Talmud seemed to offer a perfect precedent for #MeToo in the story of a rabbinic leader who was chastened and dismissed for sexual violations. But is this an accurate reading of Moed Katan 17a? In this talk, I take a second look at the talmudic text I at first celebrated and discover a more complicated and disturbing story. I offer my reading and re-reading as a case study in how the Talmud can--and can't--advance contemporary ethics.

Professor Wasserman’s research focuses on the art of the Babylonian Talmud and on how the Talmud can be deployed to support contemporary Jewish ethics. Her book, Jews, Gentiles, and Other Animals: The Talmud after the Humanities (Penn Press), was awarded the Baron Prize for the best first book in Jewish studies published in 2017. Her current projects include a history of the idea of aggadah, and the direction of NEH-funded public scholarship on race, religion, and American Judaism.

Read more here: https://www.ncf.edu/ncf-events/klingenstein-lecture-series/
About Prof. Mira Beth Wasserman: https://www.reconstructingjudaism.org/profile/rabbi-mira-beth-wasserman-phd/ 

With Best Wishes,
Prof. Susan Marks