Robert Alter, a professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley, will present “The Challenge of Translating the Bible” for the Kansas City community.
The presentation will be held on Feb. 16 in the Truman Forum Auditorium at the Kansas City Public Library Plaza Branch, with a reception at 5:30 p.m. and the program beginning at 6 p.m.
This program is presented in memory of the late Matilda Rosenberg, who served for 20 years as director of social work at Village Shalom in Overland Park, Kansas, and Aberdeen Village in Olathe, Kansas.
In this program, Alter will discuss his work translating the Hebrew Bible (which he published as “The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary”), the significant implications from even the tiniest alterations to biblical texts, and his push to look beyond the 17th-century King James Version and give closer study to the text.
Alter has taught at UC Berkeley since 1967 and is Emeritus Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature. He is a two-time Guggenheim Fellow, a Senior Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem, and an Old Dominion Fellow at Princeton University. He has written 24 books.
The presentation will be offered both in person and via livestream on the library’s YouTube channel.
The program is co-sponsored by Congregation Beth Shalom; Congregation Beth Torah; Jewish Experiences, A Collaboration of Jewish Federation and The J; Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy; Kehilath Israel Synagogue; New Reform Temple; Rabbi Mark Levin's Shabbat Torah and Rabbinics Study; Congregation Kol Ami-KC; and The Temple, Congregation B'nai Jehudah.
