Jews do not eat pig. This (not always true) observation has been made by both Jews and non-Jews for 3,000 years. The pig has consequently become a popular metaphor for Jewish/non-Jewish identity. This talk explores this historical development beginning with the Hebrew Bible, where the pig is tabooed but not necessarily singled out. We then follow the pig as a symbol of Jewish identity from the Second Temple period onward, and from the Talmud to modern television, as it forages through Jewish history.

Jordan D. Rosenblum is the Belzer Professor of Classical Judaism and Director of Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His latest book, Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig (NYU Press, 2024), won a 2024 National Jewish Book Award and was praised by The Wall Street Journal as “engaging and surprisingly cheerful.” He is also the author of several books on Jewish food and identity, including Rabbinic Drinking, The Jewish Dietary Laws in the Ancient World, and Food and Identity in Early Rabbinic Judaism, and co-editor of volumes such as Feasting and Fasting and Animals and the Law in Antiquity.