UNC News Service

CHAPEL HILL -- A talk by a pioneer of Dead Sea Scrolls research will kick off a series of community events sponsored by the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, an interdisciplinary program in the College of Arts and Sciences at UNC.

The events for the 2009-10 academic year will begin with the Sept. 14 lecture by Geza Vermes, emeritus professor of Jewish Studies at Oxford University. He will discuss the Dead Sea Scrolls and evaluate their contribution to the study of ancient Judaism and early Christianity.

Vermes' talk will be this year's Eli N. Evans Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Studies, which is free to the public, at 7:30 p.m. at the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education.

Other events will include academic lectures and a two-day seminar.

The free academic lectures, which will be open to the public but geared to a scholarly audience, will focus on Jewish identities, poetry and politics, and 18th-century Hebrew printing. The speakers also will hold lunchtime seminars focused on their recent publications.

In addition, the center will host new book launches for history professor Christopher Browning's "Remembering Survival" and religious studies professor Jonathan Boyarin's "The Unconverted Self."

The two-day Uhlman Family Seminar, a paid event that requires advance registration, is planned for spring 2010. For event details and to register, visit http://www.unc.edu/depts/human/. The seminar is offered by the Program in Humanities and Human Values in the college.

For details on all events, visit http://www.unc.edu/ccjs/ or call (919) 962-1509.

The center strives to promote a deeper understanding of Jewish history, culture and thought through teaching, research and community outreach initiatives.

THE JEWISH EXPERIENCE

Other free community events sponsored by the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies will cover topics ranging from the revival of Jewish Mysticism to a film screening about a 1913 case in which a Jewish factory manager is accused of murder. The events, all free to the public at 7:30 p.m. at the Friday Center, will include:

Nov. 16: Miri Rubin, professor of medieval history at Queen Mary, University of London, will explore the origins of ritual murder accusations against Jews in the Middle Ages.

Jan. 25: Boaz Huss, associate professor at Ben-Gurion University, will examine some of the major features of contemporary Kabbalah, and the context of the revival of Jewish Mysticism in today's culture.

April 19: Ben Loeterman, writer and director, will screen his new film, "The People v. Leo Frank," which recounts the 1913 legal case of a Jewish factory manager in Atlanta who was accused of murdering one of his employees.