Roy Doliner

Roy Doliner’s studies span the spectrum of the humanities: languages, comparative religion, art history, Italian and Roman history, and Judaica (including Talmud, Midrash and Kabbalah). He is often called upon to act as a docent for scholars and international dignitaries to Rome and the Vatican Museums. He divides his time between Rome and New York City.

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Biography/History

Catholicism

Judaism

The Sistine Secrets

Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican

Talking Points

Rabbi Benjamin Blech is an internationally recognized educator, religious leader, author, and lecturer. A recipient of the American Educator of the Year Award, he is a Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University since 1966. He has appeared on national television (including the Oprah Winfrey Show); hosted a popular weekly radio program in New York; and written for Newsweek, The New York Times and Newsday, in addition to a wide and varied number of scholarly publications.

Roy Doliner studies span the spectrum of the humanities: languages, comparative religion, art history, Italian and Roman history, and Judaica (including:Talmud, Midrash and Kabbalah). Mr. Doliner is often called upon to act as a docent for scholars and international visitors to Rome and the Vatican Museums. He divides his time between Rome and New York City.

Description

500 years ago Michelangelo began work on one of the most famous paintings and tourist sites in the world—the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Michelangelo’s Sistine ceiling is the largest fresco painting on earth in the holiest chapel in the Christian world. Yet, in this entire enormous work, there is not one single Christian image. What the public does not yet know is the extent, the quantity, and the shocking nature of all of Michelangelo’s hidden messages. Only in the last few years have many pieces of the puzzle come to light as a result of some very fortunate discoveries including several new works either found or finally definitively attributed to him, the cleaning and restoration of many other pieces, especially the extensive cleaning of the Sistine Chapel, and the uncovering of an underground movement of interfaith freethinkers and Kabbalists during the Renaissance that had its central “hideout” in Florence.

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