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Iran, Israel, and the Jews have a relationship that is in the news all the time. But it cannot be understood just in modern terms. Its roots are 2,500 years old. This volume surveys that history through case studies and broad overviews--from the first intensive contacts under Cyrus the Great, through Persian influence on Judaism evident in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Babylonian Talmud, into the Middle Ages and the flourishing of Judeo-Persian literature and culture, and finally into modern times, when the political, social, and cultural ties are multifaceted and profound. Written by experts in both Iranian and Jewish studies, these essays convey the richness and complexity of a long and tumultuous relationship between two ancient and great civilizations, which continues to shape the world today.Aaron Koller is Associate Professor of Near Eastern and Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University. He is the author of The Semantic Field of Cutting Tools in Biblical Hebrew (2013), Esther in Ancient Jewish Thought (2014), and Unbinding Isaac (forthcoming).Daniel Tsadik is Associate Professor of Sepharadic and Iranian Studies at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University. He is the author of Between Foreigners and Shi''is (2007), and Jews of Iran and Rabbinic Literature (forthcoming).

Iran, Israel, and the Jews have a relationship that is in the news all the time. But it cannot be understood just in modern terms. Its roots are 2,500 years old. This volume surveys that history through case studies and broad overviews--from the first intensive contacts under Cyrus the Great, through Persian influence on Judaism evident in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Babylonian Talmud, into the Middle Ages and the flourishing of Judeo-Persian literature and culture, and finally into modern times, when the political, social, and cultural ties are multifaceted and profound. Written by experts in both Iranian and Jewish studies, these essays convey the richness and complexity of a long and tumultuous relationship between two ancient and great civilizations, which continues to shape the world today.Aaron Koller is Associate Professor of Near Eastern and Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University. He is the author of The Semantic Field of Cutting Tools in Biblical Hebrew (2013), Esther in Ancient Jewish Thought (2014), and Unbinding Isaac (forthcoming).Daniel Tsadik is Associate Professor of Sepharadic and Iranian Studies at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University. He is the author of Between Foreigners and Shi''is (2007), and Jews of Iran and Rabbinic Literature (forthcoming).

"As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of the Exile," S. Y. Agnon declared at the 1966 Nobel Prize ceremony. "But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem." Agnon''s act of literary imagination fueled his creative endeavor and is explored in these pages. Jerusalem and the Holy Land (to say nothing of the later State of Israel) are often two-faced in Agnon''s Hebrew writing. Depending on which side of the lens one views Eretz Yisrael through, the vision of what can be achieved there appears clearer or more distorted.These themes wove themselves into the presentations at an international conference convened in 2016 by the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies in New York City, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Agnon''s Nobel Prize. The essays from that conference, collected here, explore Zionism''s aspirations and shortcomings and the yearning for the Land from afar from S. Y. Agnon''s Galician hometown, which served as a symbol of Jewish longing worldwide. 

"As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I was born in one of the cities of the Exile," S. Y. Agnon declared at the 1966 Nobel Prize ceremony. "But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem." Agnon''s act of literary imagination fueled his creative endeavor and is explored in these pages. Jerusalem and the Holy Land (to say nothing of the later State of Israel) are often two-faced in Agnon''s Hebrew writing. Depending on which side of the lens one views Eretz Yisrael through, the vision of what can be achieved there appears clearer or more distorted.These themes wove themselves into the presentations at an international conference convened in 2016 by the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies in New York City, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Agnon''s Nobel Prize. The essays from that conference, collected here, explore Zionism''s aspirations and shortcomings and the yearning for the Land from afar from S. Y. Agnon''s Galician hometown, which served as a symbol of Jewish longing worldwide. Contributing authors: Shulamith Z. Berger, Shalom Carmy, Zafrira Cohen Lidovsky, Steven Gine, Hillel Halkin, Avraham Holtz, Alan Mintz, Jeffrey Saks, Moshe Simkovich, Laura Wiseman, and Wendy Zierler