Sign In Forgot Password
Tue, April 1 2025 3 Nisan 5785

Sunday, March 30, 2025 • 1 Nisan 5785

7:30 PM - 9:00 PM

$10 General Admission (BAF and B’nai Israel members admitted without charge)

The story of mass suicide at Masada has been told by our only contemporary source, Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, priest, autobiographer and general. Although his histories may have been written, at least in part, for a Roman audience, this presentation evaluates the story in the context of ancient Jewish sectarianism and nationalism.

The validity of the story in light of Josephus’s biases and motivations will be probed, and taken into consideration will be the attitudes toward suicide and martyrdom as articulated by Josephus and other ancient Jewish sources.

Also explored will be the meanings the story has taken on in contemporary Israeli history and culture with comparisons to some more recent stories of tragic mass suicide.

For more information, send an email to: baf.jccgw@gmail.com. 

JONATHAN KLAWANS is Professor of Religion and Judaic Studies, Religion and Religious Literature of Judaism in Late Antiquity at Boston University. He received B.A.s from Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, an M.A. from New York University, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Dr. Klawans has authored: Heresy, Forgery, Novelty: Condemning, Denying, and Asserting Innovation in Ancient Judaism; Josephus and the Theologies of Ancient Judaism; Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple: Symbolism and Supersessionism in the Study of Ancient Judaism; and, Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism.

Co-hosted by B’nai Israel Congregation, BAF, BASONOVA, and the Haberman Institute for Jewish Studies.

 

Share Print Save To My Calendar