The Gennadius Library is delighted to announce the 2025–2026 Thalia Potamianos Lecture Series on the Impact of Greek Culture, to be presented by Katherine E. Fleming, an eminent scholar and thought leader. Dr. Maria Georgopoulou, Director of the Gennadius Library, said “Professor Fleming’s unparalleled expertise and deep insights into the interconnected histories of Greek and Jewish cultures make her the ideal speaker for this year’s Potamianos Lecture Series. Her scholarship not only illuminates the past but also fosters a greater understanding of the enduring impact of these traditions on the modern world.”

As Fleming explained, this year’s theme, “These Two Points of Influence: Judaism, Hellenism, and Modern Greece,” explores the Greek and Jewish tradition - their intermingling and their tensions – that together have often been said to comprise the origins of "Western Civilization."  The cohabitation of the two has at times been easy, but at others in conflict. In a paraphrase of Matthew Arnold's famous framing, they two ought to be, but rarely are, evenly and happily balanced. This series of lectures will consider the long and largely tortuous relationship between the Greek and Jewish traditions in the context of Greek history, and its culmination in a modern Greek nation state that has largely forgotten its own Jewish pasts - and the fact that there were Jews in Greece long before there were Christians.

Reflecting on the upcoming lectures, Andreas Zombanakis, Chairman of the Gennadius Library’s Board of Overseers, remarked, “Katherine Fleming is a distinguished scholar who delves into the long relationship between two ancient communities in a challenging series of lectures spanning from antiquity to the present day.”

2025—2026 Schedule for "These Two Points of Influence: Judaism, Hellenism, and Modern Greece"

Lecture I: When Greeks Were Jews, or Why We Celebrate Hanukkah
Tuesday, October 21, 2025—7:00 p.m. EEST / 12:00 p.m. EDT (US) (Save to Calendar)
Cotsen Hall, Athens, Greece

Lecture II: Bakeries and Synagogues: The Shared Greek and Jewish Space of the Late Imperial Mediterranean
Monday, January 12, 2026—6:00 p.m. PST (US) (Save to Calendar)
The Getty Villa Museum, Palisades Park, CA

Lecture III: To Die Like a True Greek: Greeks and Jews Since World War II
Wednesday, May 6, 2026—6:00 p.m. EDT (US) (Save to Calendar)
New York University, New York, NY 

The Thalia Potamianos lectures are being made possible by a generous grant from Phokion Potamianos, an Overseer of the Gennadius Library. Mr. Potamianos named the series in memory of his grandmother, a distinguished Greek doctor, academic, and philanthropist.

ABOUT KATHERINE E. FLEMING

Katherine E. Fleming is the CEO and President of the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Alexander S. Onassis Professor of Hellenic Culture and Civilization in the Department of History at New York University. The author of Greece, a Jewish History, which won both the National Jewish Book award and the Runciman Prize, she is an expert on the religious cultures of the Mediterranean. 
She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Commander in the Greek Order of Benificence, a Chevaliere in the French Legion of Honor, and a Commandeure in the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Fleming was educated at Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and the University of California at Berkeley.

JOIN US

This lecture series offers a unique opportunity to explore the complex and captivating relationship between Greek and Jewish traditions. Save the dates for all three lectures and register today to join us in person or via livestream.


 

ABOUT THE LECTURE SERIES

The Thalia Potamianos Lecture Series, inaugurated in 2020, is made possible by a generous grant from Phokion Potamianos, an Overseer of the Gennadius Library. Mr. Potamianos established the series in memory of his grandmother, a distinguished Greek doctor, academic, and philanthropist.

The Thalia Potamianos Lecture Series aims to create a stimulating environment that engages both the academic community and the public with the Gennadius Library of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. A highly distinguished and internationally renowned scholar is selected to conduct research on a topic relevant to the Gennadius Library’s mission. This work culminates in a minimum of three public lectures, delivered annually in both Athens and the United States.

Past speakers in this prestigious series include Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History at Oxford University and Stavros Niarchos Foundation Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research. Frankopan is the award-winning author of The Silk Roads, a New York Times #1 Best Seller. His lectures explored the enduring role of Greece and Greek culture, literature, and language over more than two and a half millennia.

Emily Wilson, Professor in the Department of Classical Studies and Chair of the Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Pennsylvania and the College for Women Class of 1963 Term Professor in the Humanities. Wilson is renowned for her recent translations of Homer’s Odyssey (2017) and Iliad (2023) into English iambic pentameter, which have brought fresh perspectives to Homer’s epics and were named one of The New York Times’ 100 notable books. A 2019 MacArthur “genius grant” recipient, Wilson’s lectures explored the surprising, often misunderstood, and most challenging elements of ancient Greek culture and its translation.

Please click here to learn more about this lecture series.