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The Mocking of Jesus: The Talmud to Larry David
Elliott Horowitz, Neta Stahl, and Stephen Vider in conversation with Jeremy Dauber
APRIL 29, 2007


The Jewish people has had a complicated, and not always happy, relationship with Jesus and those who have followed him over the centuries; it is not surprising, then, that Jews have not always treated Jesus with the utmost respect. Anger, resentment, and subversive wit have occasionally found their way into Jewish depictions of Jesus, from scurrilous medieval tales to modern Hebrew and Yiddish stories to contemporary popular culture. Join an eminent Jewish historian, a scholar of comparative literature, and a cultural journalist for discussion about Jews making fun of Jesus—then and now.

ELLIOTT HOROWITZ was born in New York City and studied at Princeton and Yale. He has lived and taught in Israel since 1982. He is currently visiting Professor of History at Johns Hopkins. His most recent publication is Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence.

NETA STAHL is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago. She received her Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University in 2005. Before coming to Chicago, she taught at Yale University. Her book Other and Brother: Representations of Jesus in Twentieth Century Hebrew Literature will appear this spring in Hebrew (an expanded English edition is in preparation).

STEPHEN VIDER is associate editor of Nextbook.org, where he has contributed essays on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Deadwood, Roman Polanski, and Mitch Albom. He has also written on popular culture for The Village Voice, Newsday, and the New York Sun.

JEREMY DAUBER is the Atran Associate Professor of Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture at Columbia University. He is the author of Antonio's Devils: Writers of the Jewish Enlightenment and the Birth of Modern Hebrew and Yiddish Literature and editor and translator, with Joel Berkowitz, of an anthology of works from the Yiddish theater, Landmark Yiddish Plays. He has written on television for the online edition of The Christian Science Monitor.

Elliott Horowitz photo © Moshe Horowitz