Erez DeGolan is an Assistant Professor of Classical Rabbinic Judaism in the Department of Theology at Fordham University. His research combines textual, historical, and critical methods in thematic studies of rabbinic literature in Hebrew and Aramaic from between the first and seventh centuries (CE). His work appeared in the Ancient Jew Review, Jewish Law Association Studies, the Journal of Textual Reasoning, and the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. Erez holds a B.A. in Hebrew Literature and Middle Eastern History from Tel-Aviv University, an M.T.S. in Jewish Studies from Harvard Divinity School, and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Columbia University, and has served as the 2023-25 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Jewish Studies at Wellesley College.

Jewish history under Roman rule has long been told as “a history of suffering.” From this perspective, joy is considered incongruous with the experience of the rabbis of Roman Palestine. This talk puts joy back in rabbinic history. It is not, however, a feel-good lecture (at least not only). Instead, the talk will explore what rabbinic literature reveals about the nexus between public joy and imperial power in Palestine, elsewhere in the Roman world, and even within asymmetric political systems of other times and places.