The text of the Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism, is the focus of an international translation project which began as the idea of University of Rome law professor Clelia Piperno. One volume is currently available to read in Italian. The translation of the remaining text will continue over the next eight years.
Piperno approached the Italian education ministry with the idea for the project in 2010.
Clelia Piperno is Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law, University of Teramo, and Italian Translation Project Director and Chair of the Project's Board of Directors.
Piperno, the chief rabbi of Rome Riccardo Di Segni, Yeshiva University President Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman and a team of international scholars convened at Cardozo to discuss the translation project at an event titled “The Talmud and Western History, Politics and Law: A Conference in Celebration of the Translation of the Talmud into Italian.”
The first event panel addressed the history of the reception of the Talmud in Europe, from medieval attempts to suppress the Talmud, to the turn to the Talmud as a resource for early modern European political thought; the second panel focused on the contemporary turns to the Talmud as a resource for thinking about law in Europe, Israel and the United States.
Dr. Berman welcomed the group, saying the event reflected the “ways in which our Western tradition meets our Jewish tradition; this event is everything we’re about at Cardozo Law School and Yeshiva University. Our truths and values should be accessible to all.”
Panelists included Professor Michael Herz; Professor Michel Rosenfeld; Professor Suzanne Stone; David Berger, Ruth & I. Lewis Gordon Professor of Jewish History and Dean of Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, Yeshiva University; Alberto Melloni, Professor of History of Christianity, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, UNESCO Chair for Religious Pluralism and Peace, and Director of the Fondazione per le Scienze Religiose Giovanni XXIII, Bologna; Professor Eric Nelson, Harvard University; Professor and Chair Susanna Mancini, Comparative Constitutional Law, University of Bologna; Professor Arye Edrei, University of Tel Aviv Law School; and Professor Emeritus Mario Patrono, University of Rome, La Sapienza School of Law.
