Eliav, Yaron Z.

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Eliav, Yaron Z.

PERSONAL: Male. Education: Open University of Israel, B.A. (cum laude), 1990; Hebrew University, Jerusalem, M.A. (summa cum laude), 1993, Ph.D., 1998; also attended Princeton University, 1995.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Michigan, 2068 Frieze Bldg., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, instructor, 1992–98; New York University, New York, NY, Dorot Teaching Fellow, 1998–99; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, assistant professor of rabbinic literature, 2000–. Princeton University, teaching assistant, 1995–96; Hebrew University, Institute of Advanced Studies, senior fellow, 2004–05.

MEMBER: World Union of Jewish Studies, American Association of Jewish Studies, Israeli Historical Society, Society of Biblical Literature.

AWARDS, HONORS: Excellence Grant, Hebrew University, 1991; Gutwirth Award, Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University, 1992; Rector Award, Hebrew University, 1992; Kahana Award, Hebrew University Institute of Jewish Studies, 1993; A. & R. Negev Award, Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology, 1993; M.A. Grant for Excellence, Hebrew University, 1993; Francis Giinter Award for Jerusalem Studies, 1994; Research Award, Jewish Memorial Foundation, 1994–95; Rotenstreich Fellowship, Israeli Council for Higher Education, 1994–97; Fulbright Fellowship, Princeton University, 1995–96; Bernard M. Bloomfield Prize for Outstanding Doctorate Dissertation in the Humanities, Hebrew University, 1999; Faculty Enhancement Award, 2004.

WRITINGS:

Sites, Institutions and Daily Life in Tiberias during the Talmudic Period: A Source Book, Ariel and Bar-Ilan University Press (Jerusalem, Israel), 1995.

God's Mountain: The Temple Mount in Time, Place, and Memory, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 2005.

(Editor, with Elise Friedland and Sharon Herbert) The Sculptural Environment of the Roman Near East: Reflections on Culture, Ideology, and Power, Peters (Leuven, Belgium), 2006.

Also contributor of articles to festschrifts, collections, and encyclopedias, including Encyclopedia Judaica, [Jersualem, Israel], 1997; The Interpretation of Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity, edited by C.A. Evans, 2000; Proceedings of the 12th International Conference of Jewish Studies, [Jersualem, Israel], 2000; Sovereignty of God and Man: Sanctity and Political Centrality on the Temple Mount, edited by Y. Reiter, [Jerusalem, Israel], 2001; What Athens Has to Do with Jerusalem: Essays on Classical, Jewish and Early Christian Archaeology in Honor of Gi-don Foerster, edited by Leonard V. Rutgers, Peters (Leuven, Belgium), 2002; The Talmud Yerushalmi and Graeco-Roman Culture, edited by Peter Schäfer, Mohr Siebeck (Tübingen, Germany), 2002; The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered, edited by Peter Schäfer, Mohr Siebeck (Tübingen, Germany), 2003; The Beginnings of Christianity, edited by J. Pastor and M. Mor, Yad Ben-Zvi (Jerusalem, Israel), 2005; Avoda and Ibada: Studies in Jewish and Islamic Liturgy, edited by S. Ward and others; Jewish and Christian Scholars of the Twentieth Century, edited by I. Gafni & A. Oppenheimer; The New Onomasticon of Ancient Palestine, edited by L.I. Levine, Hebrew University; Encyclopedia of Early Christian Art and Archaeology, edited by P.C. Finney; A Companion to the Roman World, edited by D. Potter, Blackwell (London, England). Contributor to journals, including Cathedra, Sidra, Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Folklore, Kiryat Sefer: Collected Essays, Harvard Theological Review, Prooftexts, and Hebrew Union College Annual. Reviewer for periodicals, including Hebrew Studies and Journal of the American Oriental Society.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A Jew in the Roman Bathhouse: Daily Life Encounters with Hellenism in Roman Palestine; Jewish Literatures and Cultures—Context and Intertext, edited with Anita Norich.

SIDELIGHTS: In God's Mountain: The Temple Mount in Time, Place, and Memory, Yaron Z. Eliav traces the history of one of the most holy—and most contested—sites on earth: the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. For Jews, the Mount is the last vestige of the sacred Second Temple, constructed by the Jews after they returned to Jerusalem following the Babylonian Captivity in the sixth century BCE. For Christians, the Mount is associated with the career of Jesus, who spoke at the Temple and who cast out the moneychangers there. For Muslims, the Mount is the site of the Prophet's ascension into heaven. The Mount is currently the site of the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third most holy shrine in all Islam.

In his book, Eliav traces the history of the Mount from the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE to the conquest of Jerusalem in the seventh century. He suggests that the Temple Mount was not sacred space for Jews and Christians until long after the destruction of the Temple, and that it only later won that iconic status. Instead, he suggests the Temple Mount served as a center for cultural identity at the same time that it was earning its religious status. For Eliav, wrote Library Journal contributor Sandra Collins, "this physical entity serves as both a religious concept and a cultural image."