All posts by Franziska Kleybolte
Apply now for the Moritz Steinschneider Research Prize 2027
According to the call the “[t]he prize is intended for doctoral candidates, postdoctoral researchers, and scholars working toward their habilitation whose research makes an outstanding contribution to the identification, cataloguing, editing, and analysis of premodern Jewish primary sources.”
Application Deadline: 31 October 2026
CfA Tenure Track Position “Judaistik” (Univ. Salzburg)
According to the CfA the Department of Ancient Studies at the University of Salzburg seeks to hire a tenure-track position in “Jewish Studies” (assistant professorship).
Deadline: 27 May 2026
CfA: Doctoral Fellowships “Contending with Crises” (directed by Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten), Hebrew University Jerusalem
According to the call, “[t]he Israel Science Foundation sponsored research project Contending with Crises: The Jews in XIVth Century Europe at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the direction of Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten is offering up to 2 visiting fellowships for Ph.D. students in the fields of History, Jewish Studies, Religious Studies, Literature, or Art History starting in October 2026. It is possible to apply for a full year or for any part of one ( a month, two months, a term etc).
Deadline for application: 1 May 2026
Click here for more information
CfA: Postdoctoral Fellowship “Contending with Crises” (directed by Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten), Hebrew University Jerusalem
According to the call, “[t]he Israel Science Foundation sponsored research project Contending with Crises: The Jews in XIVth Century Europe at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the direction of Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten is offering up to 1 Post-Doctoral scholarships beginning in the 2026-2027 academic year. It is possible to apply for a full year or for part of one (a month, two months, a term).”
Application Deadline: 1 May 2026
“Only One Jew”: Theological Pretexts, Political Leverage, and the 1514 Expulsion from Merseburg
by Arik Solomon, Ben Gurion University of the Negev
The following analysis is a micro-historical fragment drawn from my wider research into the Jewish communities of the Merseburg region during the late Middle Ages and early modern period. While my overarching project investigates the complex political, economic, and social forces at play before, during, and after the expulsion of the Jews from the diocese in 1514, this article isolates a critical precursor from 1493. Far from being a random jurisdictional feud, this earlier power struggle between Bishop Thilo von Trotha and Archbishop Ernst illustrates the precarious nature of Jewish settlement in the region and how, decades before the final expulsion, the community’s fate was used as a pawn in a broader struggle for territorial sovereignty.
Researcher of the Week
Reed O’Mara
Ph.D. candidate, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) (dir. Professor Elina Gertsman) and 2025–27 Samuel H. Kress Institutional Fellow in the History of Art at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte (ZI)
In my research, I focus on the art of medieval Ashkenaz, with a special interest in Hebrew illuminated manuscripts and incunabula. My dissertation examines word and image relationships in manuscripts and printed works in order to better understand the ever-changing perceptions of the Hebrew language in the late Middle Ages, ca. 1200–1500, by Jewish and Christian communities alike. From examples of visual-verbal wordplay to the material splendor of word panels in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Mahzorim all the way to the weaponization of Hebrew in fifteenth-century broadsides and anti-Jewish polemics, my work aims to contribute to our appreciation of how language and art operated in tandem in medieval visual culture.
CfP: Vassals and Lords. Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Western Mediterranean (13th–15th Centuries)
The conference “Vassals and Lords: Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Western Mediterranean (13th–15th Centuries)”, taking place in Madrid from 26 to 28 October 2026, invites paper proposals.
News on the Medieval Synagogue in Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Following the discovery of the medieval synagogue foundations in Rothenburg in the summer of 2025 (which was also reported here), a non-invasive ground survey was conducted, revealing the full layout of the synagogue, including the frauschul.
Clicke here for the newest press release (in German) by the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments.
© Grafik: Roland Linck (BLfD), Drohnenfoto: Stadt Rothenburg.
CfP: Jewish Medieval Spaces and Places
The interdisciplinary conference, held at the University of Münster from 18 to 20 May 2026, aims to broaden our understanding of Jewish spaces and places in the medieval period and to rethink the methodological approaches through which they are studied. It invites submissions for papers.
Deadline: 13 March 2026