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The Wexler Lecture on Jewish History: Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig

Name: The Wexler Lecture on Jewish History: Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig
Start: 2026-05-13T19:30:00-04:00
End: 2026-05-13T21:00:00-04:00
Location: Edlavitch DCJCC

Adults (18+)

Date : Wednesday, May 13

Time : 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Location : Edlavitch DCJCC
1529 Sixteenth Street, NW, Washington, DC

Jews do not eat pig. This (not always true) observation has been made for thousands of years. Join us for an exploration of the role that the pig has symbolically played throughout Jewish history, followed by a (kosher-certified!) reception.

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Jews do not eat pig. This (not always true) observation has been made by both Jews and non-Jews for three thousand years. Over time, the pig becomes a popular metaphor for Jewish/non-Jewish identity. This talk explores this historical development. Starting in the Hebrew Bible, where the pig is tabooed but not necessarily singled out more than other food prohibitions, we see the emergence of the pig as a symbol of Jewish identity in the Second Temple period and beyond.

From the pages of the Talmud to the pages of The Forward, we follow the pig as it forages through Jewish history. Following the lecture, there will be a Q&A session and a thematic (and kosher-certified!) reception.

This program is free to attend in person or virtually, but advance RSVP is required. If you have any questions, please contact Helene Ziesing at hziesing@edcjcc.org.

This program is a part of the annual Wexler Lecture series made possible by the Edlavitch DCJCC’s Bernard Wexler Fund for Jewish History.

About the Speaker: Jordan D. Rosenblum is the Belzer Professor of Classical Judaism and Director of Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His most recent book, Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig (New York University Press, 2024), won a 2024 National Jewish Book Award. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Forbidden is an engaging and surprisingly cheerful study of that odd couple of the religious imagination, the Jew and the pig.” In addition, he is the author of Rabbinic Drinking: What Beverages Teach Us About Rabbinic Literature (University of California Press, 2020); The Jewish Dietary Laws in the Ancient World (Cambridge University Press, 2016); and Food and Identity in Early Rabbinic Judaism (Cambridge University Press, 2010), as well as the co-editor of four volumes, including Feasting and Fasting: The History and Ethics of Jewish Food (New York University Press, 2019) and Animals and the Law in Antiquity (Brown Judaic Studies, 2021).

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The Wexler Lecture on Jewish History: Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig

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