Quint Lecture in Jewish Studies
The Hannah A. Quint Lecture in Jewish Studies was established by Eliot Levinson (1942-2019), of the Middlebury College class of 1964, and his family, to honor his mother, Hannah A. Quint (1905-2005).
Its purpose is to provoke interest in and to deepen understanding of the culture, the religion, the history, and the literature of the Jews, and to bring a Jewish perspective to bear on ethical and political questions. Its goal is also to draw not only the Middlebury College community, but the people of the town and region into the discussion and debate.
Video and audio recordings of some Quint Lectures are available online. These include the 1988 Inaugural Quint Lecture by the late Arthur Hertzberg and all lectures from 2013-14 onward. If a recording is available, the title listed below will link to it. Additional recordings of some of the lectures can be viewed at Special Collections in the Davis Family Library.
Past Speakers
| 2023-24 | Peter Cole | Wanting Song, In the Beginning: Poetic Surprise and Jewish Life |
| 2022-23 | Joy Ladin | The Soul of the Stranger: Reading the Torah from a Trans Perspective |
| 2021-22 | Jeremy Dauber | Jewish Comedy: A History in Five Jokes |
| 2020-21 | David Nirenberg | Does the History of Anti-Semitism Tell Us Anything about its Future? |
| 2019-20 | David Nirenberg | postponed on account of the Covid-19 pandemic |
| 2018-19 | Ismar Schorsch | National Pride and European Prejudice: The Creation of Jewish Studies |
| 2017-18 | Jonathan Sarna | Contemporary American Antisemitism in Historical Perspective |
| 2016-17 | Moshe Halbertal | The Biblical Book of Samuel and the Birth of Politics: Two Faces of Political Violence |
| 2015-16 | Paula Fredriksen | Augustine on the Jews: From Fourth-Century North Africa to Present-Day Israel |
| 2014-15 | Maud Mandel | Muslims and Jews in France: History of a Conflict |
| 2013-14 | Art Green | Neo-Hasidism: Origins and Prospects |
| 2012-13 | The 25th Anniversary Symposium: “The Jews in America: Past and Future” | - Professor Riv-Ellen Prell, (University of Minnesota): “Women, Men and Families: The Axes of Jewish Cultural Change” - Professor Ted Sasson, (Middlebury College/Brandeis University): “American Jews’ Changing Relationship to Israel” - Professor Stephen Whitfield (Brandeis University): “The Place of Jews in American Society” - Rabbi Michael G. Holzman (Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation): “The ‘Joining’ Paradigm and the Future of Communal Life” |
| 2011-12 | Christine Hayes | Moses: God’s Partner or God’s Adversary. Rabbinic Readings of the Golden Calf (Ex. 32:1-6) |
| 2010-11 | Ruth Messinger | Global Hunger 2011 and our Role as Global Citizens |
| 2009-10 | James Kugel | How to Read the Bible |
| 2008-09 | Michael Oren | Mr. Oren had to cancel when, shortly before the lecture, he was appointed Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. |
| 2007-08 | William Quandt | Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Guidelines for a New Administration |
| 2006-07 | Susannah Heschel | From Jesus to Shylock: Christian Supersessionism and ‘The Merchant of Venice’ |
| 2005-06 | Marcie Ferris | Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South |
| 2004-05 | Paul Mendes-Flohr | A Land of Two Peoples: Martin Buber’s Vision of Arab-Jewish Rapprochement |
| 2003-04 | Tikvah Frymer-Kensky | Reading the Women of the Bible |
| 2002-03 | Michael Fishbane | Rabbinic Myth and Mythmaking |
| 2001-02 | Ross Kraemer | Rehabilitating Salome: Blaming Jewish Women for the Death of John the Baptist |
| 2000-01 | Chaim Milikowsky | Jews, the Messiah and the Millennium |
| 1999-00 | Jacob Lassner | The Dialectic of Jewish-Muslim Relations |
| 1998-99 | Margot Strom | The Holocaust: Whose History is It? |
| 1997-98 | Robert Alter | The David Story and the Beginnings of Political Fiction |
| 1996-97 | Arthur Hertzberg | The Future of the Zionist Movement: A Reassessment on its Centenary |
| 1995-96 | Jack Wertheimer | The Political and Religious Wars of American Jews |
| 1994-95 | Jon D. Levenson | Did God Forgive Adam? An Exercise in Comparative Religion |
| 1993-94 | David Novak | Who Chose the Jews? The Modern Views of Baruch Spinoza and Hermann Cohen |
| 1992-93 | Amos Oz | I. Amos Oz Reading from his Work II. Lecture: The Eyes of the Lord—The Theological Quest in Hebrew Literature Old and New |
| 1991-92 | Chava Weissler | Women’s Studies and Women’s Prayers |
| 1990-91 | Arthur Green | The Environment: A Jewish Mystical Perspective |
| 1989-90 | David Grossman | The Survivor’s Paradox in the Middle East |
| 1988-89 | Shaye J.D. Cohen | The True Israel: Judaism and Christianity in the First Centuries of the Common Era |
| 1987-88 | Arthur Hertzberg | Israel and Palestine: A Battle of Two Rights |