The Samaritans: Ancient and Modern

Dr. Yaelle Frohlich is a current Leon Charney Fellow at Yeshiva University’s Center for Israel Studies. She recently completed her Ph.D. in history and Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, writing on diaspora Jewish engagement with, and Jewish-Christian discussions about, the Holy Land in the mid-nineteenth century. She holds an MA and BA from Yeshiva University, and serves as a history instructor at The Frisch School (Yeshivat Frisch) in Paramus, NJ. In 2016, she competed as a semi-finalist at the International Adult Bible Contest (Chidon HaTanach) in Jerusalem.

Dr. Jeffrey P. García is an associate professor of New Testament and Second Temple Literature at Nyack College. He specializes in the interrelation between the Gospels/Acts and ancient Jewish literature, in particular, the early Jewish and early Rabbinic corpora. Dr. García is the author of On Human Nature in Ancient Judaism: Creation, Composition, and Condition, Understanding the Gospels as Ancient Jewish Literature, and co-editor, with R. Steven Notley, of The Gospels in First-Century Judaea. Dr. Garcia has also contributed to The Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions and the Biblical Archaeology Review magazine. Currently, Dr. García is preparing his next book which deals with the nature of charity in the Gospels and ancient Judaism. He also regularly works as a teaching guide in Israel and Turkey and is a member of the US team excavating at El Araj (Bethsaida-Julias).

Steven Fine is the Dean Pinkhos Churgin Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University, director of the YU Center for Israel Studies and the YU Israelite Samaritans Project. A cultural historian of ancient Judaism, Fine’s most recent book is: The Menorah: From the Bible to Modern Israel. His Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World: Toward a New Jewish Archaeology received the 2009 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award of the Association for Jewish Studies. Fine is a founding editor of IMAGES: A Journal for the Study of Jewish Art and Visual Culture. His exhibition catalog book, The Arch of Titus: From Jerusalem to Rome and Back was published by Brill in 2021. Fine’s exhibition, The Samaritans: A Biblical People will open at Museum of the Bible in Fall, 2022.

Jesse Abelman is responsible for the Torah Scrolls, Judaica objects, and Hebrew and Jewish books in the collections of Museum of the Bible. Abelman leads The Torah Scrolls Project, a long-term project to digitize, catalog, and make the museum’s uniquely large and diverse collection of Torah scrolls available to the public.  Prior to joining Museum of the Bible, he taught Bible and history in a variety of contexts to a diverse set of audiences, including high schools, synagogues, and university students.  He spent nine years teaching at a variety of programs at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education and taught in several high schools in the New York area, as well as at Yeshiva College.

He has a BA from Mcgill University and an MA, Ph.D., and Rabbinic Ordination from Yeshiva University.