From 15 September 2021 to 15 August 2022 visitors of Cologne can see the exhibition “Into the Expanse. Aspects of Jewish Life in Germany.” The MiQua and Kolumba, Art Museum of the Archdiocese of Cologne, set up this exhibition showing “works from Kolumba’s collection as well as around 100 objects from German museums and international loans. They will enter into dialogue with Kolumba’s artworks in a unique experiment. Among the objects are such high-ranking pieces as the oldest surviving copy of the law of 321, made available by the Vatican Library (on view only until 11th October!). In addition, the Amsterdam Machsor, one of the highlight exhibits in the future MiQua, will be on display. The former synagogue in Niederzissen with its completely preserved genizah, i.e. a room for the storage of Jewish liturgical writings, will be our guest for the entire exhibition time. This is the first time that the genizah is presented in a museum.”
Monthly Archives: September 2021
Public Lecture: Medieval Lincoln Jewry
On 31 January 2022, Dean A. Irwin will be giving a talk to the Lincoln branch of the Historical Association entitled: ‘Neither a lender nor a borrower be’: Christian Debtors and Jewish Creditors in thirteenth century Lincolnshire’. Registration for the event is now open.
Visiting Research Fellowship Program of the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow
The Simon Dubnow Insitute has opened a call for visiting fellowships offering up to five fellowships during the academic year 2022/23.
Deadline: December 15, 2021
YouTube Lecture – The Cloisters and the Jews in Medieval Spain: A Conversation on Art, Literature, and History
Julia Perratore the curator of the new exhibit at the Cloisters Spain, 1000-1200: Art at the Frontiers of Faith leads a conversation about the history and cultures of Jews in medieval Iberia, contextualizing the exhibit. Katrin Kogman-Appel discusses medieval art and architecture from this period, Jonathan Ray the social and cultural contexts of different strata of Jewish society, and Peter Cole shares his insights into literary culture, reading also several poems from Iberia he translated.
The Lowe Family Conference: Jewish-Muslim Relations Through the Ages. Co-Existence and Conflict
This conference will take place on 17 October 2021 via Zoom and has also medieval content.
New Webpage Invisible East
This new webpage Invisible East at the University of Oxford’s Oriental Institute offers new insights into the history of the medieval Islamicate East. Among the most important sources are those from the Afghan Genizah dating from the 9th to the 11th centuries and mostly written by Jewish merchants.
Art Installations in the Medieval Mikveh and Old Synagogue of Erfurt
Veit Goßler, „Reflektionen“ (Reflections), September 19 to October 15, 2021.
(English/German)
For the 10th anniversary of the public presentation of the medieval mikveh in Erfurt, art moves into medieval buildings. Starting on September 19, 2021, Erfurt artist Veit Goßler is presenting his installations “Reflektionen” (Reflections), created especially for this occasion, in the mikveh and Old Synagogue.
They directly refer to each architectural element: Through the elements of water and light, the mikveh, once fed by living water, is revived. The central location of the Old Synagogue, the bima, the place of the Torah reading, is marked and reinterpreted by the light installation.
Continue reading Art Installations in the Medieval Mikveh and Old Synagogue of ErfurtUri Zvi Shachar, A Pious Belligerence: Dialogical Warfare and the Rhetoric of Righteousness in the Crusading Near East (University of Pennsylvania Press, September 2021)
In A Pious Belligerence Uri Zvi Shachar examines one of the most contested and ideologically loaded issues in medieval history, the clash between Christians, Muslims, and Jews that we call the Crusades. Shachar demonstrates how in chronicles, apocalyptic treatises, and a variety of literary texts in Latin, French, Arabic, Hebrew, and Judeo-Arabic holy warriors are increasingly presented as having been rhetorically and anthropologically shaped through their contacts with their neighbors and adversaries.
Petition Against Selling The Luzzato Mahzor
The Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) is putting the Luzzato Mahzor, an Ashkenazi manuscript copied c. 1270-1300 in southern Germany, on sale at Sotheby’s in New York on October 19. Now, there is a petition against this sale, so that it may be classified as a work of major patrimonial interest to France.
Spotlighting Sukkot: Publication on the architectural history of the sukkah by Shulamit Laderman (2019)
© British Library Board, London, ms or. 5024 fol. 70v.
Decorated initial-word panel accompanied with a partial foliate border with an illustration of the sukkah (booth for Sukkot) and a man holding a lulav branch and an etrog (a species of citrus).
“The architectural history of the sukkah awaits full exposition. The present article focuses on the earliest images of sukkot in medieval Hebrew manuscripts from Europe, which I set within the context of rabbinic tradition up to that time…
The sukkah’s distinctive characteristics are clearly evident in images found in liturgical manuscript codices (mahzorim, plural of mahzor, the Hebrew word for “cycles” – prayer books with the special liturgy for the festivals) from the thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries. These illuminated manuscripts include legal guidance for the construction of the sukkah and special piyyutim, liturgical poems, written for the holiday, as well as illustrations decorating the texts.”
Shulamit Laderman, “The Sukkah as Sacred Architecture” in Jewish Religious Architecture: From Biblical Israel to Modern Judaism, ed. Steven Fine (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2019), 352–368. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004370098_021
Moadim LeSimcha!