Fordham-NYPL Lecture Series in Jewish Studies: Rivka Elitzur-Leiman on ‘Magic in New York: Reassessing a Collection of Late-Antiquity Jewish Amulets at the NYPL’

In her talk, Rivka Elitzur-Leiman will discuss a collection of late-antiquity Jewish Aramaic amulets at the NYPL, engraved on small metal leaves. She will explore the amulets’ magical and cultural significance and reveal the history of the collection itself and the role Mary Anna Draper played in creating it. The lecture will also be available to attend via Zoom.

About the Speaker
Rivka Elitzur-Leiman received her Ph.D. from Tel-Aviv University, where she wrote her dissertation on Jewish-Aramaic amulets from late antiquity. She was a postdoctoral fellow at NYU and Harvard University, where she worked on several projects, including an article on a rare Jewish Aramaic lead curse tablet written to win a chariot race and found hidden under the hippodrome of ancient Antioch. As a fellow of the Fordham-NYPL Research Program in Jewish Studies, she is working on ancient Jewish Aramaic amulets that made their way from the Middle East to New York more than 100 years ago.