The People And The Book: The Invention of Printing And The Transformation of Jewish Culture

Speaker: Professor David B. Ruderman, Joseph Meyerhoff Professor of Modern Jewish History and the Ella Darivoff Director of the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania

Location: JCC of Greater Washington; Rockville, MD

The development of the printing press resulted in the emergence of a unique Jewish culture in the 16th century, an age when the Talmud and the Bible where printed and when Jews discovered a new world of medicine, science, and philosophy. It was a time in which books of a less formal and intellectual nature emerged in Yiddish and Ladino, as well as for women. This new technology transformed the way Jews thought and processed information about the world, as the internet and technology transformed the way we think and live today.

In honor of Dorothy G. and Robert H. Rumizen, endowed by Dr. Bruce and Joy Ammerman through the Ammerman Foundation