PHILADELPHIA –- The Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania will present a series of free public lectures exploring the early Jewish experience entitled “Beginnings: Jews, Christians and the Roman Empire.”

Natalie B. Dohrmann, executive editor of The Jewish Quarterly Review will kick off the series with a talk on “Jews, Christians and the Roman Empire: An Introduction” on Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, 420 Walnut St.

The series continues in February with lectures by Judaic-studies scholars Hindy Najman of the University of Toronto, RaÝanan Boustan of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Joshua Levinson and Rina Talgam of Hebrew University.

Additional information on the lecture series is available at www.cjs.upenn.edu/public/lectures/2006publiclecture.htm or by contacting Cynthia Saltzman at 215-238-1290, Ext. 507, or cyns@sas.upenn.edu.