The history of Jews and Judaism constitutes an essential part of the history of Western civilization. Both Christianity and Islam have have emerged in dialogue with the Jewish tradition which preceded them and which they claimed as they inheritance — debates which had a lasting impact on the living conditions of Jews established in the Islamic and Christian worlds.
A Cross-Cultural Perspective
As a comparative research centre, LEM devotes much attention to Jewish culture and society in the ancient and medieval worlds. It explores the place of Judaism in the religious history of the West, and the role of the Jewish tradition in the emergence of critical scholarship on religion. The history of Jews and Judaism is studied in a cross-cultural perspective, mindful of the interactions, conflicts and exchanges that have contributed to the development and reception of the foundational sources of ancient and medieval Judaism.
– Judaism in relation to the Greco-Roman culture of the ancient world
– The emergence of rabbinic Judaism
– Jewish culture and society in the Sassanian Empire
– Biblical hermeneutics and Jewish exegesis in Anti-quity and the Middle Ages
– Jewish magic: documents, practices and dis-courses
– The history of anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism
– Jews and Christians: controversy, exchange and polemics
– Judeo-Arabic philosophy and mysticism
– Jewish cultures in the Islamic world
– The history and prosopography of the Jews of France
| Selected books
Geoffrey Herman and Jeffrey Rubenstein (dir.), The Aggada of the Bavli and Its Cultural World, Society of biblical Literature, 2018.
Gilbert Dahan, Les juifs en France médiévale, Éditions du Cerf, 2017.
Daniel Barbu, Naissance de l’idolâtrie. Image, identité, religion, Liège, Presses universitaires de Liège, 2016.
Paul Fenton, with David G. Littman, Exile in the Maghreb. Jews under Islam, Sources and Documents, 997–1912, Teaneck, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2016.
Pierluigi Piovanelli, Apocryphités : études sur les textes et les traditions scripturaires du judaïsme et du christianisme anciens,
Turnhout, Brepols, 2016.
Geoffrey Herman, Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians Religious Dynamics in a Sasanian Context, Gorgias Press, 2015.
Simon Mimouni, wtih C. Clivaz and B. Pouderon, Les judaïsmes dans tous leurs états aux Ier-IIIe siècles (les Judéens des synagogues, les chrétiens et les rabbins),
Turnhout, Brepols, 2015.
Danièle Iancu, Régine-Catherine et Bonet de Lattes. Biographie croisée. 1460-1530, Draguignan/Aix-en-Provence/Rome, Paris, Les Editions du Cerf, 2017.
Simon Mimouni, Le judaïsme ancien du VIe siècle avant notre ère au IIIe siècle de notre ère : des prêtres aux rabbins,
Paris, PUF, 2012.
Juliette Sibon, Chasser les juifs pour régner,
Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 2017.
Juliette Sibon, Les Juifs au temps de Saint Louis,
Paris, Albin Michel, 2017.
Danièle Iancu, Juifs et néophytes en Provence. L’exemple d’Aix à travers le destin de Régine Abram de Draguignan (1469-1525), Préface de Georges Duby, Postface de Gérard Nahon, Paris-Louvain, Peeters, 2001.
Grand Prix Historique de Provence 2002, and Prix de l’Académie des Sciences, Agriculture, Arts et Belles Lettres d’Aix-en-Provence 2002.
