Prof. Marc Michael Epstein
14th Annual CSP Summer Scholar
The Most Elegant Jews: The Western Sephardim
Friday, July 15, 2016 - 12:00 pm at Congregation Shir Ha-Ma'alot
Who is a Jew? Sects and Parties in Jewish History and Tradition
Saturday, July 16, 2016 - 7:00 pm at Univeristy Park Community Center
Sermonds in Wood in the Lost Synagogues of Poland
Sunday July 17, 2016 - 2:00 pm at Temple Beth Emet
Jews and Music: Beautiful Harmonies
Sunday July 17, 2016 - 7:00 pm at Congregation B'nai Israel
The Lost Tribes: A Quest
Monday July 18, 2016 - 12:00 pm at University Synagogue
$10.00 per person for each event/$36 for all four
Free to CSP $180+ Members with RSVP by July 1, 2016
Special rates apply to CBI, US & SHM members
12th Annual CSP Summer Scholar Institute
Serious Comedy: Popular Jewish Culture of the Twentieth Century- and Beyond
July 13-16, 2014
Winner of the 2015 Jewish Book Award in Visual Arts for Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink: Jewish Illuminated Manuscripts, Marc Michael Epstein is the product of a mixed marriage between the scions of Slonimer and Lubavitcher Hassidim and Romanian socialists, and grew up, rather confused, but happy, in Brooklyn, New York. He is currently Professor of Religion at Vassar College, where he has been teaching since 1992, and was the first Director of Jewish Studies. At Vassar, he teaches courses on medieval Christianity, religion, arts and politics, and Jewish texts and sources. He is a graduate of Oberlin College, received the PhD at Yale University, and did much of his graduate research at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has written numerous articles and three books on various topics in visual and material culture produced by, for, and about Jews. His prior book, The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination (Yale, 2011) was selected by the London Times Literary Supplement as one of the best books of 2011. During the ‘80s, Epstein was Director of the Hebrew Books and Manuscripts division of Sotheby's Judaica department, and continues to serve as consultant to various libraries, auction houses, museums and private collectors throughout the world. Among them are the Herbert C. and Eileen Bernard Museum at Temple Emanu-El in New York City, for which he curated the inaugural exhibition, and currently serves as consultant for the Fowler Museum at UCLA, where he is in the process of helping plan a major exhibition on aspects of Kabbalah and its relationship to visual culture.