Category Archives: Conferences

Illness, Health, and Healing among Jewish Communities in the Lands of Islam, Jerusalem, 4–5 November 2026

According to their call, “[t]he annual conference of the Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East will be dedicated to the theme of Illness, Health, and Healing among Jewish Communities in the Lands of Islam. The conference seeks to explore these issues from the late seventh century to the present day, focusing on Jewish communities from Afghanistan in the east to Morocco in the west, including the Land of Israel, Iran, the Ottoman Empire and its successor states, as well as Jewish immigrant communities originating in the lands of Islam outside Israel.”

International Conference Moving Beyond Prevailing Narratives

Moving Beyond Prevailing Narratives: Rethinking the Medical Knowledge of Pre-Modern Jews at the Crossroads of Cultures, Sources and Traditions

Granada, 7-8 September 2026

The development of medicine and the provision of healthcare among pre-modern and early modern Jewish cultures have received significant scholarly attention, especially in recent decades. However, despite the extensive bibliography that continues to grow, important areas remain underexplored, particularly with regard to medical theories, concepts, practices, and beliefs as transmitted through a wide range of texts.

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VI Krakow Jewish Studies Conference: Boundaries, 27-28 May 2026

According to their call, they “invite undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students to submit their proposals. [….] Boundaries have played a central role in shaping Jewish identities, communities, and relationships – both within Jewish societies and in relation to the Other. At the same time, Jewish historical and cultural experiences are deeply marked by the crossing, negotiation, and renegotiation of boundaries: geographic, social, linguistic, cultural, religious, and symbolic. This conference seeks to explore boundaries not only as lines of division or exclusion, but also as zones of contact, exchange, tension, and transformation. We especially welcome contributions that address processes of boundary-making, boundary-crossing and liminality in Jewish contexts across time and space.”

Deadline: 25 March 2026.

Conference: “Innovations in the Study of Ashkenazi Jews in the Middle Ages: A Scholars’ Seminar in Memory of the Late Prof. Avraham Grossman on the Second Anniversary of His Death,” Bar-Ilan University, March 9

The World Union for Jewish Studies is to sponsor a scholars’ workshop, under a title חידושים בחקר יהדות אשכנז בימי הביניים , at Bar-Ilan University, Monday, March 9. See the program below:

Medicine, sciences and ‘popularization of knowledge’ – EABS Annual Conference 2026

Here is the call for the EABS Annual Conference 2026 at KU Leuven, Belgium, 20–23 July 2026: “For our annual focus area “Popularization of Knowledge”, we invite scholars to comparatively explore the diffusion of medicine, sciences and other (scientific) knowledge (including magic, divination, dream interpretation etc.) beyond the confines of technical texts or groups of experts, with a specific focus on its applicability and socio-cultural utility in Jewish (also in Judeo-Arabic, Ladino or Yiddish), (early) Christian (in Greek, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, Latin etc.) and Islamic(ate) (con)texts as well as in ancient Egyptian, Babylonian and other cultures (Syriac, Persian, Mandean, South-Asian, East-Asian etc.). Scholars may address – with a focus on a single text/tradition or a comparative approach, synchronic and/or diachronic – the diffusion of (expert) knowledge into the non-technical discourse (e.g. literature, epistles, political, religious or legal writings) of other learned circles (political, or other elites), religious traditions (e.g. rabbinic texts; the Persian Denkard/Bundahisn; early Christian authors, Islamic texts, Vedic traditions etc.) as well as into wider areas of society. Such a ‘popularization’ of expert knowledge might include the appropriation of concepts about the body, the world/nature and the cosmos/creation or  practices (e.g. healing; ritual action, examinations, incantations, divination).”

Wisdom from the Middle Ages: Philosophical Contributions from the Abrahamic Traditions

According ot their call, “The University of New Brunswick’s Department of Philosophy invites scholars to submit abstracts for an international conference on “Wisdom from the Middle Ages: Philosophical Contributions from the Abrahamic Traditions.” This conference will highlight the important philosophical contributions made by Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thinkers in the Middle Ages. A secondary goal of the conference is to encourage dialogue and collaboration among researchers who work in different Abrahamic traditions, as well as to prompt new comparative studies among these traditions.”

Deadline: 30 January 2026.