On Monday, May 9th, 2016, Prof. Angelika Berlejung, co-director of the RIAB Minerva Center, who was in Israel to participate in the 4th workshop, presented a lecture at Bar-Ilan University to a group of students and researches from various institutions in Israel. The lecture dealt with evidence of social climbing among the Judahite exiles in Babylonia, based on unpublished data from new Al-Yahudu texts (see here). Prof. Berlejung demonstrated, based on the appearance of different types of materials and possessions mentioned in these texts, how the Judahite exiles managed to improve their social and economic standing in the span of the 2-3 generations documented in the texts.
Following the lecture, there was a interesting discussion and questions and answers by participants and Prof. Berlejung.