Jewish Studies offers lecture series on medieval scholar Maimonides

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News staff

Rice’s Jewish Studies Program, in conjunction with the Jewish Community Center (JCC), is offering a series of lectures on the famed medieval scholar Moses Maimonides on successive Wednesdays beginning Oct. 14.

	A series of lectures on the famed medieval scholar Moses Maimonides will be held on successive Wednesday beginning Oct. 14.

Titled “Contextualizing Moses Maimonides,” the three-part series will be held at the JCC, 5601 S. Braeswood Blvd., at 8 p.m.

The first lecture, by Paula Sanders, interim director of Rice’s Jewish Studies Program, professor of history and dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies, will discuss the little-known story of Maimonides as a leader and activist in 12th-century Old Cairo. Sanders’ theme is “Man of Action: Maimonides as Jewish Community Leader.” She will speak Oct. 14.

The second lecture, Oct. 21, features Gregory Kaplan, the Anna Smith Fine Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies at Rice. His presentation, “Between Athens and Jerusalem: Maimonides as Jewish Philosopher,” will trace some of the most important readings of Maimonides leading up to the present day.

David Cook, associate professor of religious studies at Rice, will give the final lecture Oct. 28. Titled “From Cordoba to Cairo: Maimonides as Jewish Traveler of the Islamic West,” Cook’s presentation will follow Maimonides on his journey from Spain through North Africa and the Holy Land until he finally settled in Egypt.

“Jewish studies programs have a tradition of interacting with local Jewish communities,” Sanders said. “We thought the JCC would be an ideal partner because it engages all elements of the Houston Jewish community and has a very broad cultural and educational mission.

“We chose Maimonides because it is hard to think of any other individual in Jewish history whose work is important for so many scholarly disciplines or has been the subject of study by people in so many different areas of Jewish scholarship.”

The registration fee for each lecture is $15 for the general public.

For more on the series, contact Naomi Barancik at 713-729-3200 or nbarancik@jcchouston.org.