Joseph Benatov

Joseph Benatov is the Coordinator of the Modern Hebrew Language Program; Lecturer in Foreign Languages, as well as the Associate Director, of the Jewish Studies Program. He holds a doctorate in comparative literature and literary theory from the University of Pennsylvania. His dissertation is titled “Looking in the Iron Mirror: Eastern Europe in the American Imaginary, 1958-2001.” He has also written on Jewish identity politics in Philip Roth’s early fiction; the sensationalism of U.S. representations of life behind the Iron Curtain; and competing national narratives of the saving of the Bulgarian Jews during World War II. Dr. Benatov is the English translator of the contemporary Bulgarian novel Zift (Paul Dry Books). He has also translated Israeli poetry, prose, and drama. His translations of plays by Hanoch Levin, Martin McDonagh, and Ethan Coen were all staged to wide acclaim in Bulgaria. Dr. Benatov lectures regularly on the history of Jewish life in Bulgaria and on the fate of Bulgarian Jews during the Holocaust. His article on the topic appears in the anthology Bringing the Dark Past to Light: The Reception of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Europe (University of Nebraska Press). He teaches Hebrew courses of all levels.
- HEBR 053: Intermediate Modern Hebrew I
- HEBR 054: Intermediate Modern Hebrew II

[Originally illuminated at the workshops of Bonifacio Bembo and Cristoforo De Predis, 15th century Northern Italy]. The Rothschild Miscellany. London: Linda and Michael Falter, Facsimile Editions, London ; Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1989. Gift of Ruth and Raymond Brenner and the Brenner Family Fund for Jewish Studies in honor of Gregory Brenner, W', 1999; Adam Brenner, W', 2001; Jason Brenner, W', 2005.
One of the most lavishly illuminated and lavishly decorated examples of renaissance Jewish manuscript production, this facsimile edition reproduces in precise detail every aspect of the original, including the scribal method of ruling known as "pricking", the uneven cut of the pages, stains and holes found on the original parchment, and the texture of the gold leaf.
Jewish Studies @ PENN
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Fall/Winter 2021
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