The Rumi Forum presents “Diversely Decorated Rooms in the House of God” with Dr. Ori Soltes Professorial Lecturer in Theology and Art History, Georgetown University.
Ori Z. Soltes is Professorial Lecturer in Theology and Art History at Georgetown University and former Director and Chief Curator at the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum. He has lectured in 23 other universities and museums across the United States, including extensive lecture series for the Smithsonian Institution, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and has also taught or lectured in France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Spain and various parts of the former Soviet Union.
He is the author of over 140 books, articles, and catalogue essays on a range of topics from linguistics and literature to philosophy, theology and art history. Among these is the book Our Sacred Signs: How Jewish, Christian and Muslim Art Draw from the Same Well (2002) and Seeking Oneness with the One: Common Themes within Jewish, Christian Muslim Mysticism (forthcoming in 2008).
Dr Soltes has curated over 80 exhibitions in the United States and overseas, including two exhibits that focused on the interweave of Muslim and Jewish Culture in Morocco and in Tunisia, respectively. He has traveled extensively in the region and has led tours in Northwest Africa and throughout the Mediterranean and other parts of Europe. He is comfortable in over a dozen languages.