Lecture 1: Is the Talmud Racist?
In this presentation, Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies director Professor Steve Weitzman will introduce the series and its goals. Following that, Mira Wasserman will explore concepts of race and racism as they relate to the foundational source of Jewish tradition, the Babylonian Talmud.
Mira Wasserman

Rabbi Mira Wasserman, Ph.D., is director of the Center for Jewish Ethics and assistant professor of rabbinic literature at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Her book Jews, Gentiles, and Other Animals is a study of how the Talmud describes what makes Jews different from others.
More from the lecturer
- Podcast with Dr. Wasserman, New Books Network, 2018.
More on the topic
- Podcast with Dr. Weitzman, Jewish History Matters, 2018.
- David M. Goldenberg, “The Curse of Ham: A Case of Rabbinic Racism?”
- Avi Killip, “Turn to the Talmud for Lessons on Anti-Racism,” The Forward, 2020.
- Meylekh (PV) Viswanath, “Black People in Jewish Tradition: Eliminating Racism Requires Honesty”, TheTorah.com, 2020.
- Armin Langer, “Being White is Not the Jewish Norm: How the Mishnah Can Help Us Deconstruct a White-normative Approach to Judaism,” Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations, 2020.