Dr. Marc Michael Epstein will share stunning images from beautiful medieval haggadot, texts that tell of the Exodus from Egypt and outline the practices of the seder. Though the importance of these manuscripts is universally acknowledged, they contain a number of fascinating elements that have seldom been explored. Dr. Epstein examines them with fresh eyes and proposes new answers to long-unresolved questions concerning the meaning of the art within them and what this art says about broader issues in the Jewish experience.

Dr. Marc Michael Epstein is Professor of Religion and Jewish Studies at Vassar and an adjunct member of the Spertus faculty. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University and served as Director of the Hebrew Books and Manuscripts division of Sotheby’s Judaica department. His new book, The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination, is forthcoming from Yale University Press this spring.