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The at the Â鶹ӰԺ is pleased to welcome Professor Matt Goldish as the 2017 annual . Goldish will be in residence March 15 toÌý16, and hisÌýpublic lecture "1492: Columbus, the Jews, and the Messiah in Spain"Ìýwill take place Thursday, March 16, at Old Main.

Goldish will focus on three enormous events that occurred in Spain during 1492: the end of the centuries-long war to stop Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula,Ìýthe voyage of Christopher ColumbusÌýand the expulsion of the Jews. These events are intimately connected, and their intersections run directly through Spanish expectations about the messiah.

Is it possible that we did not learn everything there is to know about Columbus in school? Find out from a Columbus (Ohio) resident!

Goldish is a professor of history and Jewish studies at The Ohio State University and holds the Melton Chair in Jewish history. His research interests focus on the Western Sephardi Diaspora and the Portuguese conversos of Amsterdam, LondonÌýand Hamburg.

His book, The Sabbatean Prophets, deals with the role of prophecy in the great messianic movement of Sabbatai Zevi, which swept the Jewish world in 1665 and 1666. Goldish also authored the bookÌýJewish Questions: Response on Sephardic Life in the Early Modern Period andÌýa monograph titled "Judaism in the Theology of Sir Isaac Newton,"Ìýwhich revolves around the impact of Jewish ideas and literature on European intellectuals at the dawn of the Enlightenment.

In addition to his public lecture, Goldish will present a graduate student and faculty colloquium and serve as a guest lecturer in a Jewish studies course.

Professor Goldish is the Program in Jewish Studies’ fifth annual Sondra and Howard Bender Visiting Scholar. His visit celebrates the , honoring the lives of Howard and Sondra Bender—devoted parents and grandparents who cherished Jewish culture, celebrated educationÌýand lived life to the fullest. The has generously endowed the fund.