Lecture by Academic Professor and Rabbi, Yaakov Elman on the history of Iran, the Magi, and the Jews at the Chautauqua Institute. 

Professor Yaakov Elman is a professor of Judaic studies at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. He divides his time between Yeshiva and Harvard, where he is an associate of the Center for Jewish Studies. Rabbi Elman received his MA in Assyriology from Columbia University and his PhD in Talmud from New York University. He is researching the relation of the Babylonian Jewish community of Talmudic times to the surrounding Middle Persian culture and religions >>>