The Bilgray Lectureship is a joint project, cosponsored by Temple Emanu-El and the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies. It was created in 1985 to honor Albert T. Bilgray, Rabbi Emeritus and Professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona. In the course of more than a quarter century, Rabbi Bilgray created and helped develop three programs at the University: Hebrew Language and Literature; Religious Studies; and Judaic Studies. This Lectureship seeks to perpetuate two primary emphases of Bilgray's career through both a popular as well as an academic presentation on Jewish life and literature.

2013 - Rabbi Arthur Green, PhD - "The Origins of Neo-Hasidism"

2012  Rabbi Michael Morgan, PhD - "The Social and Ethical Character of Human Existence: Emmanuel Levinas and Judaism"

2011  Joe Regenstein - "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Kosher and Halal But Were Afraid to Ask"

2010  Jonathan Boyarin - "Trickster's Children: Paul Radin, Stanley Diamond & Filiation in Anthropology"

2009  Neil Gillman - "The Death of Death: Jewish Views of the Afterlife"

2008  Jonathan Sarna - “The Mystical World of Colonial American Jews”

2007 

2006  Tamara Eskinazi -

2005  Byron Sherwin - "When Passion Cools: Judaism and Catholicism from Vatican II to the 21st Century"

2005 (Fall)  Reuven Firestone - "Divine authority and mass violence: Holy war in Islam, Christianity and Judaism"

2004  Mitchell Schwarzer - "Recreating a World in Images"

2003  Daniel Matt - "God and the Big Bang: Discovery Harmony Between Science and Spirituality" 

2002  Edwin Black - "IBM and the Holocaust"

2001  Marge Piercy - "Jewish Poetry in a Contemporary Mode"

2000  Yehudah Reinharz - "Revolution in Jewish History The Founding & Future of Israel"

1999  In lieu of a regular Bilgray lecture, the Committee on Judaic Studies - in conjunction with the Bilgray Lectureship Committee of Temple Emanu-EL - sponsored a celebration in memory of Rabbi Albert T. Bilgray.

1998  Arnold J. Band - "Hebrew Literature and the Zionist Narrative"

Lectures given from 1986-1997 were
transcribed and most are available
as Pdf documents.

1986 - Jacob Marcus
"The Significance of American Jewish History"

1988 - Robert Alter
"Putting Together Biblical Narrative"

1989 - Amos Funkstein
"Intellectuals and Jews"

1990 - Ellis Rivkin
"Josephus and the Pharisees"

1991 - Leon A. Jick
"Method in Madness"

1992 - Arnold M. Eisen
"Rethinking Jewish Modernity"

1993 - Shemaryahu Talmon
"The 'Dead Sea Scrolls' or 'The Community of the Renewed Covenant'"

1994 - Michael Fishbane
"To Jump for Joy: The Rites of Dance According to R. Nahman Bratzlav"

1995 - Susannah Heschel
"Transforming Jesus from Jew to Aryan:  Protestant Theologians in Nazi Germany"
(Contact Judaic Studies for a printed copy)

1996 - Marc Bregman
"Serah Bat Asher: Biblical Origins, Ancient Aggdah and Contemporary Folklore"

1997 - Amy-Jill Levine
"Threatened Bodies Women, Apocrypha, Colonialism"