Rotem Avneri Meir is a historian of Jews and Judaism in antiquity, specializing in the political, social, and cultural dynamics of life under ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern empires. He employs comparative methods to reimagine how the Persian, Hellenistic, and early Roman empires shaped local societies, political cultures, and religious practices—and dismantles inherited boundaries between Judaism and Hellenism. His research draws on a wide range of sources, including Second Temple literature, the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Hellenistic historiography, and epigraphy. Bridging history, philology, and religious studies, his work addresses questions of empire, communication, and intercultural exchange in the ancient world.
His first book, forthcoming with Edinburgh University Press, examines the emergence of the Hasmonean dynasty within the Seleukid imperial framework. Rather than portraying the Hasmoneans as Jewish national liberators, it presents them as local dynasts operating within imperial court networks, articulating their hegemony through established Seleukid channels. The book reframes Jewish political and religious developments in the Hellenistic period as products of imperial integration rather than resistance.
At Yale, Rotem is launching his second book project, which explores how systems of communication and information shaped ancient ideas of power, divinity, and the self. Focusing on what he terms “ancient documentality,” the project examines how Jewish communities adapted one of empire’s key administrative tools—the letter—to articulate local identities and negotiate their place within imperial landscapes. It traces how epistolary forms became vehicles for administrative, ritual, and interpretive innovation, transforming conceptions of authority, history, and materiality.
Rotem received his PhD from the University of Helsinki, where he was a member of the Center of Excellence in Ancient Near Eastern Empires. He also studied at Tel Aviv University and the University of Lausanne and held fellowships at Harvard University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
His work has appeared in Vetus Testamentum, Journal of Ancient Judaism, and Journal of Ancient History, as well as in several edited volumes. He recently co-edited a special issue of JAJ on Antiochus III’s decrees for Jerusalem that offers an interdisciplinary re-evaluation of this important set of documents.