Sari Fein, PhD

PSA

Recommended read for anyone interested in magic, gender, and Judaism.

Such a great post and book list! I am designing and teaching a college course on magic from Jewish antiquity to the present in the fall, with a somewhat inevitable focus on gender. I didn't know about all of these practices, and I will definitely point my students towards these resources.

This is very surprising, as I am not a theologian. But there's something about late antique Jewish liturgical poetry that just was the perfect invitation to theologize (queerly)...

I think I just wrote a piece of queer theology?

"Street Style" for Paris Fashion Week for Fall 2025

Still looking for a fascinating session to be a part of at #AARSBL 2025? Consider SBL's Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism unit's panel on "the street"!

Flyer for Women and Religious Leadership Symposium, March 6-8, Smith College

I'm delighted to be a co-organizer of this important and timely conference. If you're in the area this week, please join us! @smithcollege.bsky.social

Sari Fein, “'I urge the Spirit Who Sits on the Womb': Jewish Women’s Reproductive Practice in the Ancient World” In the ancient world, reproduction was critically important yet fraught with risk. Survival of not only the family but the community itself was dependent upon women's success in conceiving, bearing, a...

I'm excited to be offering a lecture in the Emerging Voices in Judaic Studies Series at @utknoxville.bsky.social tomorrow evening (5 Feb). Jewish history, women's history, reproduction, magic! You can register for the link here: calendar.utk.edu/event/sari-f...

Smiling white woman with green glasses and a green top in an office setting with piles of books and a window in the background.

First week of classes at @smithcollege.bsky.social , let's go!
This semester, teaching Motherhood in Early Judaism, Women and Gender in Jewish History, and Sacred Space in Jewish Antiquity ✨

Me!

good morning to humanities professors trying to teach empathy in an increasingly cruel world, and only humanities professors.

i hope your coffee is really good today.

I feel this lion's pain.

With the most fabulous chair!

Great conversation which wove between queer time, queer reproduction, birth, transness, angels, and the end of the world. Many thanks to the chair and my fellow panelists!

Happening now at the AJS annual conference: "Queering the Futures of the Past: Reading Ancient Jewish Eschatology with Queer Theory" with @shaynasheinfeld.bsky.social , @brownsmith.bsky.social , Caryn Tamber-Rosenau, @jaedarising.bsky.social and myself. Join us!

TOMORROW!

AJS goers! Join us for the very 🔥roundtable

CROSS-DISCIPLINARY ENCOUNTERS IN GENDER AND SEXUALITY RESEARCH

Monday, Dec. 16, 10:30 ET / 16:30 Warsaw

Guide to Biblical Citations: Teaching Resource — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW In my experience, teaching introductory-level classes in Bible and ancient Judaism is a constant process of realizing that things that are intuitive to me are not at all intuitive to my students.…

How to cite the Bible? Ethan Schwartz shares his handout for students.

Join us on Wednesday 12/18 at 3:30 PM ET in Zoom room 10!

Bringing students into the wild world of the rabbis in this setting is uniquely challenging but we all believe deeply in the benefits of making this literature accessible to all students.

We're only a week away from the AJS online conference and I'm so excited to convene a panel on Teaching Rabbinic Literature in the Undergraduate Classroom with brilliant teachers Matthew Haas, @kristadalton.bsky.social, Erez DeGolan and Madeline Wyze.

I will neither confirm nor deny this.
(Actually I spent the third day with my kids and sea lions, which would make a very good panel)

Happy Bible nerd after 2 days of great panels (incl. teaching the Bible with film, color in ancient synagogues, maternal voices in deuterocanonical lit., a review panel for The Prophetic Body), great tacos, and great catch-ups with great people over (occasionally great) coffee. Thanks SD! #sblaar24

University of Glasgow

View from University of Glasgow

Synagogue, Glasgow

Glasgow is a cool and vibrant city

Border-crossing in Jewish Studies

University of Glasgow
7-9 July 2025

CALL FOR PAPERS FOR #BIAJS2025

Proposals due by 30 Jan. See website for details of how plus guidance:

bajsbulletin.wpcomstaging.com/7944-2/

Fully 40% of the people on this airplane flying from Boston to San Diego are frantically typing things about Bible on their laptops at 37000 feet (and I am proud to count myself among them). #sblaar24

Do I know anyone who’ll be at SBL/AAR this weekend and is bringing an “OWL” device (something like the below link, not necessarily that exact version) that they’d let me borrow on Saturday afternoon?
www.amazon.com/Meeting-Owl-...

Honored to have an essay among the great work in this volume!

Hey y'all! I'm excited to be celebrating the 🎉 20th anniversary 🎂 of the journal the Bible and Critical Theory at #sblaar24 this weekend. Come join us! @rhiannongraybill.bsky.social

There is simply no way to know for sure

I benefited so much from the mentorship of the @jewish_studies AJS Paula Hyman Mentoring Program last year. Applications for 2024-2025 are due tomorrow (May 31). Early career scholars from underrepresented genders are encouraged to apply! www.associationforjewishstudies.org/professional...