YU Hosts Renowned Scholars on Oct. 31 to Discuss “Israel and Iran: From Cyrus the Great to the Islamic Republic” As tension between Israel and Iran escalates and with speculation that Israel is considering a pre-emptive strike against Iran, a group of renowned scholars will convene at Yeshiva University for a one-day conference to examine “Israel and Iran: From Cyrus the Great to the Islamic Republic.” The conference, on Sunday, October 31, 2010, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Yeshiva University Museum, Center For Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, is sponsored by the YU Center for Israel Studies and the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Center For International Relations, and co-sponsored by the Yeshiva University Museum, YU’s Sephardic Studies Program and YU’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. The program is free and open to the public. “Israel and Iran have a long cultural and political history that goes back thousands of years,” said Steven Fine, director of the Center for Israel Studies. “This conference will celebrate this history from various perspectives and examine how—if at all—it informs and impacts on the current situation. This promises to be a very insightful and thought-provoking exchange.” The scholars participating in the conference include Yaakov Elman, professor of Judaic studies at Revel; Judith Goldstein, professor of anthropology at Vassar College; Aaron Koller, assistant professor of Bible at Yeshiva College; Mahnaz Moazzami, associate research scholar at Columbia University; Evan Resnick, assistant professor of political science at Yeshiva College; Barry Rubin, professor at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel; Daniel Tsadik, associate professor of Sephardic and Iranian Studies at Revel; and Dalia Yashar-Poor, professor at Harvard University. Some of the major topics that will be addressed include Negotiating Empire: Living Jewishly Under the Achaemenids in Persia and Palestine; The Image of the Jews in Zoroastrian Literature; Facing the Music: The Role of Iranian Jews in Classical and Popular Persian Music; Iran’s Jewish Agenda; The Iran Lobby?: Domestic Business Interests and U.S. Foreign Policy Toward the Islamic Republic; and (Islamist) Iran on the World Stage: Motives, Methods, Goals and Implications. For more information or to register for the conference, visitwww.yu.edu/cis.