The studies contained in this volume reflect the broad scope of Raymond Scheindlin’s professional and intellectual interests, his many years of friendship with colleagues, and his devotion and commitment to the raising up of the younger generation of academics. The contributions are in English and Hebrew, and are made by scholars from the United States, Europe, and Israel—all places in which Professor Scheindlin has taught and conducted research over the course of his professional career. Falling under the general purview of Hebrew and Arabic Letters, they address topics in Biblical criticism, Medieval Biblical lexicography, Classical and Post-Classical piyyut, Medieval Hebrew poetry and science, Judeo-Arabic poetry and epistolography, Classical Arabic poetry and prose, and the history of Jewish Studies in America. Taken together, they attest not only to the richness and fruitfulness of Professor Scheindlin’s scholarly activities, but also to the immense flourishing experienced by the various sub-specialties of the discipline of Jewish Studies in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st.

Jonathan P. Decter is Assistant Professor and the Edmond J. Safra Professor of Sephardic Studies in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. He is the author of Iberian Jewish Literature: Between al-Andalus and Christian Europe and several articles. His research interests include Hebrew literature in the medieval Islamic World, Judeo-Arabic literature, and Iberian Jewry.

Michael Rand is a graduate of the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, and currently serves as a Visiting Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is the author of Introduction to the Grammar of Hebrew Poetry in Byzantine Palestine.His main field of interest is Hebrew philology, in particular the interaction of grammar and poetics in Classical piyyut. Within a wider perspective, he is especially concerned with the evolution of Hebrew poetry, both as a self-contained literary/linguistic phenomenon, as well its interaction with other Semitic traditions.