Rebecca M. Lesses is on research leave from Ithaca Collge at the Ruhr-Universitat in Bochum, Germany in 2015. Her project for the year is called "Angels' Tongues and Witches' Curses: Jewish Women and Ritual Power in the Ancient World;" and is funded by a Fellowship from the German university. "Angels’ Tongues and Witches’ Curses" discusses the development of Jewish magical and mystical traditions in the ancient world (ca. 250 BCE to 700 CE) and the ways in which women (both real and imagined women) are included within Jewish ritual practices to gain power (usually designated “magic”) and largely excluded from Jewish mystical circles, practices, and knowledge.