Presented by Maxine Grossman
Associate Professor, Religious Studies & Jewish Studies and Director, Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies, University of Maryland
The writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls saw themselves as the only true remnant of the Jewish covenant, whose constant quest for perfection would lead to their salvation. Their view of themselves as the only true Jews created, at best, a complicated relationship with other Jewish leaders and communities. What was the place of the Dead Sea Scrolls and their authors in Second Temple Judaism, and how did their exclusionary theology shape the Jewishness of their day?
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Barring technical issues, this program will be posted in our Program Archive.
Maxine (Max) Grossman is an associate professor of religious studies and Jewish Studies and director of the Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies at University of Maryland. Her areas of scholarship include ancient Judaism and Dead Sea Scrolls, methods and theories in the study of religion, and contemporary constructions of religious identity. Her publications include articles, essays, and reference pieces on the sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls, priesthood, marriage and sexuality, and religious identity, as well as such books as Reading for History in the Damascus Document: A Methodological Study and the edited volume Rediscovering the Dead Sea Scrolls: An Assessment of Old and New Methods.
Professor Grossman served for a decade as (founding) co-editor of the Journal of Ancient Judaism and is currently an area editor for Brill’s forthcoming Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Her favorite courses to teach at UMD include the introductory course “Is Judaism a Religion?” and the upper-level seminar, ’Sex, Gender, and Jewish Identity.” In 2024 she served as co-chair of the University’s Task Force on Antisemitism and Islamophobia, whose final report can be found here.
We extend a special thank you to Andrew R. Ammerman for sponsoring our Fall 2025 program lineup. He dedicates the our learning in loving memory of Josephine and H. Max Ammerman and Stephen C. Ammerman.