01/06/2026
For those who have been asking ...
Here are the upcoming lectures for our 2025-2026 season, all hosted by the
Bender JCC of Greater Washington
6125 Montrose Rd, Rockville, MD 20852
February 12, 2026 at 7:45 pm
"Prophetic Visions in the Book of Daniel"
Steven Cook – Virginia Theological Seminary
This presentation focuses on two of Neo-Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar's famous dreams in the Bible’s Book of Daniel
The first vision of Nebuchadnezzar shows how mankind’s dominion over animals symbolizes humanity's divine mandate to reflect God's image through responsible earthly stewardship and spiritual maturity. It’s telling of Nebuchadnezzar's dream transformation into a beast represents the loss of this divine image through pride and tyranny.
The second vision then restores mankind’s true dominion over the physical world, embodied by the ideal ruler who reflects divine authority and selfless governance.
By integrating these two dreams, Daniel offers a theological vision of humanity's potential to act fully in the image of God, underscoring divine judgment against human hubris and affirming ultimate redemption through restored cosmic order.
March 4, 2026 at 7:45 pm
"Ancient Mesopotamia: Ziggurats, Royal Sculpture, and the Shaping of the Akkadian Legacy"
Marian Feldman – Johns Hopkins University
The rulers of the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2100-2000 BCE) built massive new ziggurat temples in southern Iraq that replaced older iterations of the sacred space; yet within these complexes, they preserved and curated royal monuments from the preceding Akkadian dynasty (c. 2350-2150 BCE).
As historic architecture is a key element in shaping a culture’s memories of its past, it aids in the formation of its national identity. Deliberate displays of representational sculpture, however, permit new, interpretive narratives of the past and thereby also impacts national identity. This presentation shows the result when these two modes of identity-making intertwined with one another in the sacred precincts of the Ur III rulers: especially in the Ekur temple complex of the Sumerian god Enlil at Nippur.
April 14, 2026 at 7:45 pm
"Princess, Priestess & Poet Enheduana: History’s First Named Author"
Alhena Gadotti – Towson University
Enheduana was the daughter of Sargon The Great of Akkad (23rd century BCE), and is one of the most intriguing, yet elusive, women from antiquity. She has been celebrated as the earliest known named author in world history.
Royal princess, priestess, and putative poet, Enheduana deserves as much attention as her martial relatives. A crucial contributor to her father’s military ambitions, Enheduana nonetheless wielded religious and economic power, as evidenced by primary and secondary sources.
Even more interestingly, Enheduana remained alive in the cultural memory of those who came after her, so much so that writings attributed to her were integrated into the scribal curriculum centuries after her death.
This presentation will situate Enheduana in the tumultuous times in which she lived to gain a better understanding of her roles as princess, priestess of the Sumerian moon cult, and illustrious poet.
May 19, 2026 at 7:45 pm
"Emergence of the Israelites: Transition From a Village Perspective"
JP Dessel – University of Tennessee – Knoxville
This presentation will review the evidence for rural elites in Iron Age I and the implications that has for understanding the emergence of the Israelites.
Our understanding of the rural hinterland in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages of Israel is poor, at best. It has been assumed that rural villages are closely tied to nearby urban city-state and had little agency or impact on events like the emergence of ancient Israel.
Yet, based on the excavation of sites like Tell ‘Ein Zippori and Tell el-Wawiyat, in the Lower Galilee, multi-period villages offer compelling evidence for a deeply rooted rural population with its own potentially independent social and political organization. In particular, Tell ‘Ein Zippori displays an unforeseen sense of rural complexity that suggest the presence of rural elites, a group known from textual sources such as the Hebrew Bible and Ugaritic texts.
Sunday, May 31, 2026 at 7:30 pm at
B’nai Israel Congregation
6301 Montrose Rd, Rockville, MD 20852
"The Twelve Tribes of Israel"
Andrew Tobolowsky - William & Mary
The twelve tribes of Israel are the indisputable centerpiece of the Hebrew Bible's visions of Israelite identity, and the main protagonist of the biblical visions of history. They are, also, the main way the Hebrew Bible accounts for the unity of the historically and politically distinct kingdoms of Israel and Judah from the very beginning, right through the bitter end of their conquest and destruction.
But what do we really know about the actual history of Israel’s tribes? What do we know about the historical development of the biblical vision of the twelve, in its various forms? This talk offers a new look at the evidence, with some startling new conclusions.
