

Dr. Vadim Putzu, Assistant Professor and our Judaism scholar in Religious Studies at Missouri State University, was recently invited to present a paper at the inaugural Kabbalah in America Conference. Dr. Putzu was invited, along with 23 other scholars from Israel and the U.S., to the three-day, expenses-paid conference organized and hosted by Rice University in Houston, TX. Among the invitees were the very top scholars in the field, as can be seen from the program (above).
In his paper, Dr. Putzu argued that, for a short period of time in the 1880s, Osceola, Missouri served as an important center for the reception, re-elaboration, and transmission of Kabbalah and Jewish esotericism in the U.S., Europe, and India – mostly among non-Jews – thanks to the various activities of Thomas Moore Johnson. Dr. Putzu’s contribution was well received, and will be published in a dedicated volume by Oxford University Press in late 2019.
Congratulations to Dr. Putzu for being invited to this prestigious conference!