Women’s Initiative for Jewish Studies (WIJS) at Young Israel of New Rochelle in New York is proud to present Dr. Ruth Langer on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024 at 8:15 p.m. on Zoom. Langer will be the fifth speaker of the 2023-2024 season in the monthly scholarly programming offered by WIJS at YINR.
Langer’s lecture is titled “Cursing the Christians?: The Story of the Birkat HaMinim.” This presentation is based on Langer’s book of the same name, “Cursing the Christians?: A History of the Birkat HaMinim” (Oxford University Press, 2012), which traces the transformations and polemics surrounding the Jewish prayer of Birkat HaMinim from its putative origins as a curse of Christians in the early rabbinic period, through its censorship by the church and finally, to its modern emergence into an inoffensive prayer that asks God to rid the world of evil.
Langer is professor of Jewish studies and director of graduate studies in the theology department at Boston College and associate director of its Center for Christian-Jewish Learning. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and received her Ph.D. in Jewish Liturgy from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati.
Langer publishes and speaks in two major areas: the development of Jewish liturgy and ritual, and Christian-Jewish relations. In addition to “Cursing the Christians?: A History of the Birkat HaMinim,” Dr. Langer’s works include “To Worship God Properly: Tensions between Liturgical Custom and Halakhah in Judaism” (Hebrew Union College Press, 1998), investigating the tensions between rabbinic dictates and the actual practices and understandings of the medieval Jewish community; and “Jewish Liturgy: A Guide to Research” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), an annotated bibliography of over 1,000 entries of English-language studies of Jewish liturgy accessible to those from outside the Jewish studies world. She also co-edited “Liturgy in the Life of the Synagogue” (Eisenbrauns, 2005) and “Engaging in Dialogue About the Land: A Resource Book for Jews and Christians” (Stimulus, 2021), and has published over 70 articles.
All WIJS programming is open to women and men. Visit www.yinr.org/wijs to view the complete WIJS 2023-24 schedule. For more information, to be added to the WIJS email list, or for Zoom information, call(914) 636-2215 or email [email protected]. Individuals on the WIJS mailing list will automatically receive the Zoom information.
