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HJS News

UCL Festival of the Arts May 7-17

Start: May 7, 2013 1:00:00 PM
End: May 17, 2013 7:30:00 PM
Location: various venues, UCL Bloomsbury Campus More...

Europe and the Holocaust - Shifts in Public Debates in Poland, Germany and the UK


The panel investigates shifts in the role of the Holocaust in European public debates in the recent past. Contrasting developments in Poland, Germany, and Great Britain, we will identify common threads as well as differences in perceiving, presenting, memorizing the mass murder of European Jewries.
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Graduate Student Conference: Jewish Spirituality in Eastern Europe

The Yiddish Forverts has recently published a report from the Graduate Student Conference on ‘Jewish Spirituality in Eastern Europe – a Textual Perspective,’ held at the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, UCL on 6-7 June, 2012. The article, authored by conference participant Adi Mahalel (Columbia University), is available online on the website of the Forverts: http://yiddish.forward.com/node/4589 More...

New publication: The Russian-Jewish Diaspora and European Culture, 1917-1937


Over a period of three years, the Hebrew and Jewish Studies Department at UCL has been cooperating in a research project devoted to 'Cultural Continuitiy in the Diaspora: Paris and Berlin in 1917-1937', based at the Department of European Studies and Modern Languages, University of Bath, and in cooperation with the Centre for European and International Studies at the University of Portsmouth. The project had been funded by the Leverhulme Trust Academic Collaboration-International Network scheme. Among the initiators of the project had been the late John D. Klier. More...

International Graduate Student Conference 2012

The Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at UCL is pleased to announce plans for an International Graduate Student Conference, devoted to explorations of multiple aspects of Jewish spirituality in Eastern Europe, to be held on 5th and 6th of June 2012 in London. The conference organizers invite graduate students and recent PhD holders to submit their proposals. We welcome presentations addressing any aspect of the religious history and religious culture of Eastern European Jewry, with an emphasis on their textual products. We are particularly interested in proposals which open up new perspectives and pose new questions regarding conceptual frameworks and traditional definitions used to describe Eastern Europe in the field of Jewish Studies. Topics may include:
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Mark Geller

Mark Geller


Professor Mark Geller - Jewish Chronicle Professor of Jewish Studies

Professor Geller came to UCL's Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies in 1976, when the Department consisted of only five members of staff and a handful of students. He completed his first degree at Princeton University in Classics, one year of which was spent at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He completed his PhD at Brandeis University in Mediterranean Studies, where he was introduced to several Semitic languages, including Aramaic, Akkadian, Ugaritic, and Arabic, and he wrote his dissertation on the subject of Aramaic magic bowls in relation to Rabbinic texts.

After coming to London, Mark studied Akkadian and Sumerian for several years with W. G. Lambert, and  subsequently spent a year (1980-81) in Munich at the University's Institute for Assyriology and Hittitology, as Alexander von Humboldt-Fellow, working with D. O. Edzard. The result of this work was his first book on Sumerian incantations texs known as Udug-hul ('evil demons'). It was during this period that the bulk of the work was completed on a volume of copies of Sumerian literary tablets from the British Museum, together with a Danish colleague, Bendt Alster.

In 1987-88, Mark received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to work in Philadelphia and Chicago on Sumerian-Akkadian bilingual incantations. This was followed up by a year (1994-5) spent at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies in Wassenaar, as part of a research group on 'Magic and Religion in the Ancient Near East'.

His inaugural lecture was delivered in 1994 on the subject of the survival cuneiform, providing evidence for the survival of cuneiform script into the third century AD. This research has provided the basis for his recent studies of connections between Akkadian and Aramaic magic and medical texts, particularly comparing cuneiform tablets with information in the Babylonian Talmud.

In the summers of 1996 and 1998 he received further grants from the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung to work in the museums and institutes in Berlin, Jena, and Leipzig.

Mark acted as Head of Department from 1984-1993, and since 1982 has served as Director of the Institute of Jewish Studies at UCL, in which capacity he has organised many conferences and public lectures.

In 2000-2001 Mark again received a fellowship from the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Wassenaar, and spent the year working in a research group on Greek and Babylonian medicine. This was followed by grants from the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, to spend three months at the Max Planck Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin, in 2002, 2007, 2008, and 2009.

He has also received a grant from the Wellcome Trust for the History of Medicine, to spend  2005-2006 in Paris working on ancient Babylonian medicine.

Mark is currently on secondment from UCL,  serving as Visiting Professor for the History of Knowledge at the Freie Universität Berlin.


Books

  • Forerunners to Udug-hul: Sumerian Exorcistic Incantations (Freiburger Altorientalische Studien Band 12; Wiesbaden: Steiner Verlag, 1985).
  • Sumerian Literary Texts, Cuneiform Texts in the British Museum, Vol. 58, (London: British Museum Publications, 1990); together with B. Alster.
  • Ur III Incantations from the Frau Professor Hilprecht-Collection, Jena (Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2003), with J. J. A. van Dijk.


Edited Volumes

  • Figurative Language in the Ancient Near East (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1987), edited with M. Mindlin and J.E. Wansbrough.
  • Legal Documents of the Hellenistic World (London: Warburg Institute, 1995), edited with H. Maehler.
  • Studia Aramaica (Journal of Semitic Studies, Supplement 4; Manchester, 1995), edited with Jonas Greenfield and Michael Weitzman.
  • Sumerian Gods and their Representations (Groningen: Styx, 1997), edited with I. L. Finkel.


Articles

  • 'Akkadian Healing Therapies in the Babylonian Talmud', Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte Preprint 259 (2004), 1-60.
  • 'Akkadian Evil Eye Incantations from Assur', Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 94 (2004), 52-58.
  • 'Bloodletting in Babylonia', in H.F.J. Horstmanshoff and M. Stol (eds.), Magic and Rationality in Ancient Near Eastern and Graeco- Roman Medicine (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2003), pp. 305-324.
  • 'Ancient medicine: the patient's perspective, Journal of Nephrology 17 (2004), 605-610.
  • 'Diet and Regimen in the Babylonian Talmud', in C. Grottanelli and L. Milano (eds.), Food and Identity in the Ancient World (Padova, 2004), 217-242.
  • 'Music Lessons', Festschrift für Burkhart Kienast, (AOAT Band 274), ed. Gebhard J. Selz (Münster, 2003), 109-111.
  • 'Qumran's Teacher of Righteousness - a suggested indentification', Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia, Vol 1 (2002), 9-19.
  • 'The Free Library Inanna Prism Reconsidered', in Richesx Hidden in Secret Places, Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Memory of Thorkild Jacobsen, ed. T. Abusch, (Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, 2002), 87-100.
  • 'Mesopotamian Love Magic: Discourse or Intercourse?', CRAAI 47/1 (2003), ed. S. Parpola and R. Whiting (Helsinki, 2002), 129-139.
  • 'Hippocrates, Galen and the Jews: Renal Medicine in the Talmud', American Journal of Nephrology, 22 (2002), 101-106.
  • 'Incantations et magie', SupplŽment au Dictionnaire de la Bible (Paris, 2002), 269-283 [in French].
  • 'West Meets East: Early Greek and Babylonian Diagnosis', Archiv für Orientforschung 48-49 (2001-2002), 50-75.
  • 'A Kultmittelbeschwšrung in Trinity College Dublin', Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 91 (2001), 225-237.
  • 'The survival of Babylonian Wissenschaft in later tradition', Melammu Symposia I , ed. S. Aro and R. M. Whiting, (Helsinki, 2000), 1-6.
  • 'The Landscape of the Netherworld', Landscapes, ed. L. Milano, S. de Martino, F. M. Fales, G. B. Lanfranchi (Padova, 2000), III, 41-49.
  • 'Incipits and Rubrics', in Wisdom, Gods, and Literature, Studies in Honour of W. G. Lambert, ed. A. George and I.L. Finkel, (Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, 2000), pp. 225-258.
  • 'An Akkadian Vademecum in the Babylonian Talmud', in From Athens to Jerusalem, Medicine in Hellenized Jewish Lore and in Early Christian Literature, ed. S. Kottek, M. Horstmanshoff, G. Baader, and G. Ferngren (Erasmus, Rotterdam, 2000), pp. 13-32.
  • 'Fragments of magic, medicine, and mythology from Nimrud', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 63 (2000), 331-339.
  • 'Graeco-Babyloniaca in Babylon', Babylon: Focus Mesopotamischer Geschichte, Wiege früher Gelehrsamkeit, Mythos in der Moderne, ed. J. Renger (Saarbrücken, 1999), 377-383.
  • 'The Aramaic Incantation in Cuneiform Script' (AO 6489 = TCL 6, 58), Jaarbericht ex Oriente Lux 35-36 (1997-2000), 127-146. See also N.A.B.U. 2001 No. 4, 'Corrections', No. 101 (p. 97).
  • Magical texts from the Genizah (with a New Duplicate), [with Dan Levene], Journal of Jewish Studies 49 (1998), pp.
  • The Last Wedge, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 87 (1997), pp. 43-95.
  • Reflexives and Antipassives in Sumerian Verbs, Orientalia 67 (1998), pp. 85-106.
  • New Documents from the Dead Sea: Babylonian Science in Aramaic, in M. Lubetski (ed.), FS Cyrus H Gordon (Sheffield, 1998).
  • Freud, Magic and Mesopotamia: How the Magic Works, Folklore 108 (1997), pp. 1-7.
  • More Magic Spells and Formulae, BSOAS 60.2 (1997), pp. 327-35 (with 4 plates).
  • Jacobsen's "Harps" and the Kesh Temple Hymn, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 86 (1996), pp. 68-79.
  • Babylonian Influence on Hellenistic Judaism, in Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, I, (1995), 43-54.
  • A new translation of II Kings 15:25, Vetus Testamentum 26 (1976), 374-7.
  • Very Different Utu Incantations, Acta Sumerologica, 16 (1995), 101-126.
  • An Eanna Tablet from Uruk in Cleveland, in Solving riddles and Untying Knots, in Honor of J C Greenfield (Winona Lake, 1995), 531-542.
  • Internal Anatomy and Kidney Disease in Mesopotamia, Highlights from the history of Nephrology, ed. A. A. Diamandopoulos, (Athens, 1995), 11-14.
  • Kidney and urinary tract disease in ancient Babylonia, with translations of the cuneiform sources, with S. L. Cohen, Kidney International, 47 (1995), 1811-1815.
  • Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 56 (1993), 82-86.
  • A Vocabulary of Rare Words, Orientalia 61(1992), 205-207.
  • CT 58, No. 70. A Middle Babylonian Ershahunga, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 45 (1992), 528-532.
  • "Akkadian Medicine in the Babylonian Talmud", apud A Traditional Quest, Essays in Honour of Louis Jacobs, ed. D. Cohn-Sherbok, (Sheffield, 1991), 102-112.
  • Astronomy and Authorship, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 53, (1990), 209-13.
  • Taboo in Mesopotamia, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 42 (1990), 105-117.
  • New information on Antiochus IV from Babylonian astronomical diaries, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 54 (1991), 1-4.
  • Astronomical Diaries and Corrections of Diodorus, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 53/1 (1990), 1-7.
  • A New piece of Witchcraft, in Dumu Edubba, Studies in Honor of A Sjöberg, (Philadlephia, 1989), 193-205.
  • New duplicates to SBTU II, Archiv für Orientforschung 35, (1988), 1-23.
  • Eight incantation bowls, Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica 17 (1986), 101-17.
  • The Lugal of Mari at Ebla, Eblaitica, ed. C H Gordon and G Rendsburg (1987), 141-45.
  • Notes on Lugale, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 48 (1985), 215-223.
  • An Aramaic incantation from Oxyrhynchus, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 58 (1985), 96-98.
  • A-bar-sal4 at Ebla, Revue d'Assyriologie 77 (1983), 98-99.
  • More Graeco-Babyloniaca, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 73 (1983), 114-20.
  • A recipe against °U.GIDIM, Archiv für Orientforschung Beiheft 19 (1982), 192-97.
  • Four Aramaic incantation bowls, The Bible World (C.H. Gordon Festschrift, 1980), 47-60.
  • A Middle Assyrian tablet of Utukku Lemnutu, Tablet 12, Iraq 42 (1980), 23-51.
  • The Shurpu incantations and Lev. 5:1-5, Journal of Semitic Studies 25 (1980), 181-92.
  • Alexander Jannaeus and the Pharisee rift, Journal of Jewish Studies 30 (1979), 202-11.
  • New sources for the origins of the Rabbinic ketubah, Hebrew Union College Annual 49 (1978), 227-45.
  • Jesus' theurgic powers: parallels in the Talmud and incantation bowls, Journal of Jewish Studies 28 (1977), 141-55.
  • The Elephantine papyri and Hosea 2,3: evidence for the form of the early Jewish divorce writ, Journal for the Study of Judaism 8 (1977) 139-48.
  • Two incantation bowls inscribed in Syriac and Aramaic, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 39 (1976), 422-7.
  • A new translation of II Kings 15:25, Vetus Testamentum 26 (1976), 374-7.