Karaite Judaism: An Alternative to the Religion of the Rabbis

In the Middle Ages a religious movement came on the scene that posed a serious challenge to rabbinic leadership across the Jewish world. Karaism opposed the rabbis, rejected the Talmud and called for a return to the Hebrew Bible. Karaism persisted for centuries in many places in the Near East and Europe. Even today, there remain two Karaite communities: a small one in Israel, and an even smaller one in the Bay Area. Free.

Presented by the Department of Jewish Studies as part of the Fall 2020 Lectures in Jewish Studies. Co-sponsored by the Classics Department and the Jewish Community Library.

Fred Astren

Fred Astren is professor of Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University. He received his Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley, and conducts research in the overlapping fields of late antique and medieval Jewish history. He is the author of Karaite Judaism and Historical Understanding (University of South Carolina Press, 2004) and many journal articles.