Seth Schwartz

Seth Schwartz is the Gerson D. Cohen Professor of Rabbinic Culture and professor of History at The Jewish Theological Seminary.

A scholar of ancient Judaism, Dr. Schwartz received the National Jewish Book Award for his work Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 BCE to 640 CE (Princeton University Press, 2001), a study of the influence of imperialism on the religious, political, social, and economic development of Jewish life in ancient Palestine. He is also the author of Josephus and Judaean Politics (E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1990), coauthor of Consuls of the Later Roman Empire (American Philological Association, Philological Monographs, Atlanta, 1987), and author of numerous articles and reviews that have appeared in scholarly journals. Dr. Schwartz edited, along with Dr. Richard Kalmin, Jewish Culture and Society Under the Christian Roman Empire (Peeters, 2002).

Dr. Schwartz has been a full-time member of the JTS faculty since 1995 and previously taught at Cornell University, University of Rhode Island, and Dropsie College in Merion, Pennsylvania. In 1999, he was the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship.

Dr. Schwartz earned an MA, MPhil, and PhD in Ancient History from Columbia University and a BA, magna cum laude, in Classics from Yeshiva University. Dr. Schwartz's impressive academic credentials include fellowships at King's College, Cambridge; the Harvard University Society of Fellows; and Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

February 2009

Published Works

Were the Jews a Mediterranean Society? Reciprocity and Solidarity in Ancient Judaism. Princeton University Press (to come, fall 2009)

Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 BCE to 640 CE Available for Purchase

Josephus and Judaean Politics Available for Purchase

Consuls of the Later Roman Empire Available for Purchase

Courses

Spring 2009

ANC/HIS 5511Y: Jewish Texts in Greek

ANC/HIS 6117Y: Jews and Judaism in the Ancient World

HIS 9224Y: Charity in Ancient Jewish Society

Fall 2009

HIS 7347X: The Jews Under Christian Rule, 300–600 CE