Lawrence H. Schiffman, one of the most distinguished scholars in the history of Judaism and the Dead Sea Scrolls, will lecture on the theme "JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY AND THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS: LIGHT FROM ANCIENT TEXTS AT THE CROSSROADS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION". This lecture is co-sponsored by the Five-College Seminar on Biblical Literature, the Smith College Program in Jewish Studies and the Smith College Department of Religion and Biblical Literature

Schiffman is Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University's Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and in
the Department of Near Eastern Languages. He is also a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem as part of a research group devoted to the Dead Sea Scrolls. He received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University and specializes in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Judaism in late antiquity, the history of Jewish law, and talmudic literature. Professor Schiffman's volume, RECLAIMING THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS: THE HISTORY OF JUDAISM, THE BACKGROUND OF CHRISTIANITY, THE LOST LIBRARY OF QUMRAN, is considered by many to be the most penetrating, insightful and comprehensive introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls currently available.