Marc Michael Epstein Vassar College · Beit Venezia
Lectures

Lectures& Series

Professor Epstein lectures widely to scholarly and adult audiences in North America, Europe, and Israel — for universities, museums, synagogues, Jewish community programs, conferences, and tour groups. Recent venues include the Library of Congress, the Getty Research Institute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Israel Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Stanford, Duke, UCLA, the British Library, and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Ilene Winn-Lederer, A BeKnighted Bestiary: medieval-style menagerie of lions, griffins, unicorns, peacocks, dragons and other creatures arranged around blocks of Hebrew letters from the Second Commandment.
Ilene Winn-Lederer, “A BeKnighted Bestiary.” Created for “Encountering the Second Commandment,” American Jewish Museum, Pittsburgh, 2001.

Representative Lecture Topics

Available as single lectures, multi-part courses, or week-long residencies.

Recorded lectures & series →

People of the Image: How Jews Made Art in Spite of the Second Commandment — and Why It Matters

An introduction to the core argument of Epstein’s 2025 book: that the Second Commandment never was the constraint on Jewish visual culture it has been taken to be, and that Jews have been makers and patrons of images across three millennia.

The Medieval Haggadah: Narrative, Image, and Religious Imagination

How the illuminators of the great fourteenth-century Sephardi and Ashkenazi Haggadot used imagery as commentary, interpretation, and subversion of the Passover story.

Jesus: A Radical Life

Yeshua bar Yosef of Nazaret situated in his own Jewish world, before “Christians” or “Christianity” existed — drawing on the canonical Gospels and the hundreds of others.

Judaism: The Big Questions

Monotheism, Prophecy, Land, and related themes — the core theological and political questions of Jewish tradition, taught comparatively and with attention to contested readings.

The Most Elegant Jews: The Western Sephardim

The liturgical, musical, and visual culture of the communities of Amsterdam, London, and the New World — Bevis Marks, Shearith Israel, and their forebears.

Lions, Unicorns, and Fiery Dragons: The Art of the Polish Synagogues

The painted wooden synagogues of early modern Poland and Ukraine, their iconographic programs, and what they tell us about Jewish visual imagination.

Jews and Music: Beautiful Harmonies

Jewish engagement with music across traditions, from biblical cantillation to the Western Sephardic tradition and beyond.

The Lost Tribes: A Quest

The long history of Jewish and Christian attempts to locate the Ten Tribes, and what that history reveals about the shape of Jewish geographic imagination.

Keynotes& Distinguished Lectureships

Named lectures and keynote addresses at universities, museums, and research institutes.

2024
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Celebrity Lectures
Art as Evidence: Jewish Manuscripts and the Archeology of Jewish Life
Library of Congress, Hebraic Section (African & Middle Eastern Division), Washington, DC
Live! at the Library of Congress
Joel’s Women: Joel ben Simeon, the Washington Haggadah, and the Ambivalent Feminine
2023
North Carolina Jewish Studies Consortium (Appalachian State, NC State, Elon, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Wilmington, Wake Forest)
Method and/or Madness: How to ‘do’ ‘Jewish Art History’
Duke University
Shatzmiller Seminar
Women and Other Monsters
2022
Getty Research Institute / UCLA CMRS Center for Early Global Studies, Los Angeles
Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts: Transcultural Interpretation and Transmission
Detectives in the Archives: A Mysterious Absence in the Rothschild Pentateuch in Transcultural Context
2020
Pontifical Gregorian Institute, Rome
Distinguished Visiting Lecturer in Jewish Studies
Jewish and Christian Art As/In Dialogue
2019
Zemaljski Muzej Bosne i Hercegovine, Sarajevo
Sijaric Inaugural Lecture in Bosnian Sefardi Cultural Arts
The Once and Future Sarajevo Haggadah
UCLA, Los Angeles
The Maurice Amado Distinguished Lecture in Sephardic Studies
Thought Crimes: Politics in Art Made for Medieval Jews
Casa Adret, Universitat de Barcelona
In This Very House? The Barcelona Haggadah in Its Original Context
Ca’ Foscari University, Venice
The Library of Memory Project
The Jewish Book & the Library of Exile
2018
Oberlin College
The Haskell Distinguished Lecture in Judaic and Near Eastern Studies
Women Hidden in Plain Sight
Case Western Reserve University & The Cleveland Museum of Art
The Julius Fund Lecture in Medieval Art
The Subversive Afterlife of Images: Implied, Ensuing Action in Medieval Jewish Visual Culture
Fairfield University
The Adolph and Ruth Schnurmacher Lecture in Judaic Studies
Is a Manuscript a Mirror?
2016
Stanford University
Taube Center for Jewish Studies Distinguished Lectureship
Skies of Parchment, Seas of Ink: Jewish Illuminated Manuscripts
Fordham University, New York
Jewish Studies Lecture Series
Jews in Medieval Art: A View from the Inside and the Outside
2014
University of Toronto
Shoshana Shier Memorial Lectures in Jewish Studies
Jews & Visual Culture: The Problematic Relationship
Southern Methodist University, Dallas
The Comini Lecture in Art History
The Jewish Anachronic: Temporality in Medieval Manuscripts Made for Jewish Patrons and Audiences
2013
Alfred University, New York
The Lefkowitz Lecture in Jewish Studies
Old Haggadot for New Audiences: Art, Storytelling, and Religious Imagination
Leo Baeck College & Alyth Congregation, London
The Van der Syl Lecture
People of the Image: How Jews Made Art in Spite of the Second Commandment — and Why It Matters
University College, London
UCL Institute of Jewish Studies Distinguished Lectureship
Mazzah, Eucharist, and the Jewish-Christian Conversation in The Birds’ Head Haggadah
Drew University, Madison, NJ
The Pincus Lecture
Moses, Jesus, and the Dialogue of the Visual: Another ‘Flight into Egypt’
2012
SUNY Albany
Center for Jewish Studies Distinguished Lecture Series
Old Haggadot for New Audiences: Art, Storytelling, and Religious Imagination
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The David Berg Foundation Lecture
Bad Boy: The Rylands Haggadah as Naughty Sibling
2011
University of Miami
The Lawrence and Susanne Fishman Lecture
The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative and Religious Imagination
2009
University of Hartford, Maurice Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies
The Rose and Arthur Fallman Lecture
The Art and Artifacts of the Jews: Three Thousand Years in the Making
2005
Jewish Educators Assembly Conference, Coral Springs, FL
Keynote Address
Stepchild, Servant, or Crown? The Cultural Arts as Midrash, Memory, and Mirror in the Service of Jewish Education
2003
Jewish Theological Seminary, New York
History Department Visiting Distinguished Lecture Series
Art and Text: Medieval Encounters
Indiana University, Bloomington
The Burke Distinguished Lectureship in Art History
The Mystery of the ‘Birds’ Head Haggadah’ and the Secret Language of Jewish Art
2002
Makor / Steinhardt Center, 92nd Street Y, New York
Inaugural Lecture, Makor Artist’s Network
Cherubs, Chariots, and Donkeys: Jewish Artists and ‘Jewish Art’
1997
The Jewish Museum, New York
The Harry G. Friedman Society Lecture
The Jerusalem Haggadah: A Postmodern Traditionalist Woman Looks at the Ancient Text
1995
The Jewish Museum, New York
The Benjamin F. Zucker Lecture in Judaica
Leo Strauss’ ‘Careful Reader’ and Medieval Jewish Art
SUNY New Paltz
The Louis and Mildred Resnick Lecture
Dreams of Subversion: Religion, Art, and Politics in the Middle Ages

Symposia, Colloquia& Invited Scholarly Talks

Invited participation in international conferences, seminars, and scholarly workshops.

2021
55th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI
The Breath of All That Lives: New Research in Medieval Jewish Art
Addressing the State of the Field
2019
Fordham University, New York
Les Enluminures Presents the Lombard Haggadah
The Lombard Haggadah in Context
INALCO, Paris
Maternal Sacrifice in Jewish Culture
Resurrecting Rachel as the Archetype of Mourning Motherhood
2017
Institute for Jewish Philosophy and Religion, University of Hamburg
Depictions of God in Jewish Art
Avoiding and Implying the Divine Image in Medieval Iconography Created for Jews
2016
Zentrum Jüdische Studien, Berlin
Graduate Colloquium in Art and Material Culture
Emotions Studies and Medieval Manuscripts Illuminated for Jews
2015
Bar Ilan University, Ramat Aviv
International Conference: Constructing and Deconstructing Jewish Art
Expanding the Methodological Toolbox for the Study of Medieval Judaism
2014
University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Books and Readers in the Pre-Modern World
Reimagining Margins in Manuscripts Made for Medieval Jews
Museu d’Història de Barcelona
Haggadot: The Jewish Flower of Gothic Barcelona
Affect, Emotion, and Imagination: The ‘Inner Life’ of the Haggadot
The British Library, London
Imagining Medieval Jewish Life in Word and Image
Art and Text as Cultural Resistance: Polemical Exchange
Lubar Institute, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Visualizing and Translating Scriptures
Jewish Translations and Visualizations of Scriptural Texts
Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, Stockholm
Medieval Roots of Modern Antisemitism
Bestial Bodies on the Jewish Margins
University College, London
IHR Jewish History Seminar
Reconsidering Jewish Art History
Universität Zurich, Kunsthistorisches Institut
Clothing Sacred Scripture
Yale University
Program for the History of the Book
Book Arts and the Expansion of the Methodological Toolbox for the Study of Medieval Judaism
Boston College
Jews, Christians & Visuality: An International Conference
New Directions for Old Manuscripts (Keynote)
2013
Emory University
Mellon Sawyer Seminar: Visual Exegesis
The ‘Akedah in Medieval Manuscripts Made for Jewish Audiences
Harvard University
Medieval Studies / Jewish Cultures & Societies / Center for Jewish Studies
Artist Anonymous, Patron Unknown: Iconography and Authorial Intention in the Medieval Haggadah
American Cultural Center & Jewish Museum, Prague
Symposium on Jews and Visual Culture
Iconography as Exegesis: The Role of the Visual in Interpretive Contexts
Leo Baeck College, London
Kol-Bo Distinguished Scholar Residency
The Secret Language of Jewish Visual Culture (4-day residency)
2011
The Jewish Museum, New York
Symposium on The Jews of the Netherlands
Representations and Re-Presentations of Jewish Customs in Eighteenth-Century Amsterdam
2008
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Krems, Institut für Realienkunde
Images, Ritual, and Daily Life: An International Workshop
Passover Practice and Polemic in the Birds’ Head Haggadah
Center for Jewish History / NYU Center for Religion and Media
Objects of Affection: The Wedding in Jewish Life
‘The Way We Were’: Realia or Fantasia? A Marriage Procession, Italy, 1465

Select Public Presentations

Lectures and multi-part series for museums, congregations, community programs, and cultural organizations.

2025
  • Jewish Renaissance Magazine Artist Development Scheme, LondonThe Role of Visual Art within Jewish Creative Expression
  • KK Shearith Israel, New York — Annual Shavu’ot ColloquiumMonuments of Exile: Diaspora, Home, and Western Sephardi Liturgy
  • Two Pound Bag Productions (film project, dir. P.J. Posner)The Book That Wouldn’t Burn: The Sarajevo Haggadah’s Survival Story
  • Heritage Media Group (film project, dir. Walter Schlomann)From Margins to Center: The Making of the Star of David
2024
  • Museum of Fine Arts, BostonArt as Evidence: Jewish Manuscripts and the Archeology of Jewish Life
  • KK Shearith Israel, New YorkDiasporic Resonance: Western Sephardic Liturgy in Colonial Contexts
  • KK Mikveh Israel, PhiladelphiaTracing Sephardic Resonance: Western Liturgy in Colonial Contexts
  • Community Scholar Program, Orange County, CAArtifacts of Identity (5-part series); Images of a People (3-part series); Jesus for Everyone, Not Just Christians (with Amy-Jill Levine)
2023
  • Central Synagogue, New YorkReimagining Spain: Sephardic Voices Today (3-session series)
  • KK Shearith Israel, New YorkBridging Tradition: Western Sephardic Liturgy Revisited
  • KK Sha’ar HaShamayim, Lauderdale Road Synagogue, LondonBridging Tradition: Western Sephardic Liturgy Revisited
  • Loeb Gallery, Vassar CollegeTraining the Eye: Docent Preparation and Visual Literacy
  • Community Scholar Program, Orange County, CAFive Great Jewish Books; Jesus: Back by Popular Demand; Danger! Women & Books (5-part series each)
  • Vassar College First-Year Orientation AddressThe Brick and the Book, or, That Time I Really Screwed Up
2022
  • 92nd Street Y — Himan Brown 60+ Senior Program, New YorkPeople of the Image: Jews & Art (4-part series)
  • 92nd Street Y — Roundtable Program, New YorkPeople of the Image: Exploring the Jewish Visual Imagination (2-part series)
  • Central Synagogue, New YorkReimagining Spain: Sephardic Echoes in Liturgy
  • KK Sha’ar HaShamayim, Bevis Marks Synagogue, LondonReframing Western Sephardic Liturgy: Community, Innovation, Tradition
  • Beit David Congregation, BarcelonaThe Barcelona Rite and the New Sephardi Siddur
  • KK Mikveh Israel, PhiladelphiaStarting Anew: Jews in Early America
  • Community Scholar Program, Orange County, CASecrets of the Torah: Book by Book (5-part series); “Kabbalistic Tree”; interview with Yossi Chajes of Haifa University
2021
  • Community Scholar Program, Orange County, CAThe Whole Megillah; Three Amazing Jewish Books (3-part series)
  • Brotherhood Synagogue, New YorkInside the Jewish Imagination (4-part series)
  • The Jewish Drinking PodcastWine in Medieval Haggadah Art
2020
  • London JW3 Jewish Community Centre — Revelation 2020Plagues, Emotions, and Empathy: Dispatches from Art Made for Jews
  • Park Avenue Synagogue, New YorkJews and Christians in Dialogue, Argument & Art
  • Community Scholar Program, Orange County, CAInside the Jewish Imagination — Demons / Dybbuks / Golems; “The Jewish Jesus in Art”
  • Gomez Mill House, Marlboro, NYColonial Harmonies: Crossing Cultural Boundaries to Reveal Glorious Music
2019
  • Esnoga (The Portuguese Synagogue), AmsterdamColonial Harmonies: What the Congregation’s Archives Reveal, Part III
  • KK Sha’ar HaShamayim, Bevis Marks Congregation, LondonColonial Harmonies: What the Congregation’s Archives Reveal, Part II
  • Tempio Maggiore, FlorenceThe Florentine Heritage in Judaica Arts
2018
  • KK Congregation Shearith Israel, New YorkColonial Harmonies: What the Congregation’s Archives Reveal, Part I
  • KK Mikveh Israel, PhiladelphiaGershom Mendes Seixas and the Fledgling New York Congregation
  • College of Jewish Studies, BinghamtonPeople of the Image: Jews & Art
2016
  • Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PAAll This Has Come Upon Us: The Art of Mark Podwal
2015
  • Spertus Institute, ChicagoSkies of Parchment, Seas of Ink: Jewish Manuscript Illumination
  • Morgan Library, New YorkSkies of Parchment, Seas of Ink: Barbara Wolff and Her Place in the History of Jewish Manuscript Illumination
  • Ida Crown Day School, ChicagoMirror or Projection? Using Medieval Manuscripts Made for Jews in the Day School Curriculum