Monthly Archives: October 2021

New Publication: Polemical and Exegetical Polarities in Medieval Jewish Cultures: Studies in Honour of Daniel J. Lasker, eds. Ehud Krinis, Nabih Bashir, Sara Offenberg, and Shalom Sadik (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2021)

In his academic career, that by now spans six decades, Daniel J. Lasker distinguished himself by the wide range of his scholarly interests. In the field of Jewish theology and philosophy he contributed significantly to the study of Rabbinic as well as Karaite authors. In the field of Jewish polemics his studies explore Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew texts, analyzing them in the context of their Christian and Muslim backgrounds. This Festschrift for Daniel J. Lasker consists of four parts. The first highlights his academic career and scholarly achievements. In the three other parts, colleagues and students of Daniel J. Lasker offer their own findings and insights in topics strongly connected to his studies, namely, intersections of Jewish theology and Biblical exegesis with the Islamic and Christian cultures, as well as Jewish-Muslim and Jewish-Christian relations. Thus, this wide-scoped and rich volume offers significant contributions to a variety of topics in Jewish Studies.

Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures Online

Brill is about to publish this new volume, edited by E. Schrijver. According to their webpage, it “covers more than 2000 years of Jewish book cultures from all corners of the earth.
The EJBC will appear online first with full-text searchable, richly illustrated articles. The print edition will be released after all online content is complete and will include one introductory volume, dealing with the fundamental research questions in the wide field of Jewish Book History, followed by three alphabetically organized volumes, offering a classic entry-by-entry encyclopedia, with articles of greatly varying length.”

Exhibition at the Israel Museum: Painting a Pilgrimage. September 14 2021 – January 12 2022

A 14th Century Hebrew Scroll Unveiled

A unique scroll from the 14th century is displayed here to the public for the first time. Measuring almost eleven meters long, the scroll documents the pilgrimage of an Egyptian Jew to the Land of Israel. Its 130 illustrations (often accompanied by inscriptions) of sanctified places from Egypt to Lebanon offer a glimpse of what the region looked like over 700 years ago.

Researcher of the Week

Alexander Mimoun

PhD candidate
Université Littoral Côte d’Opale (2021/2022)

Supervisor: Prof. Claire Soussen

“While I was initially trained as an Engineer graduating from the French Ecole Centrale de Paris and spend my professional career in the Corporate & Investment banking sector, I have headed back into academic research in History in the last few years. My M.A. in History focused on the Jewish minority in Castille during the 13th-14th centuries. During my first year, I studied specifically the image of the Jewish minority analysing a sample of manuscripts produced at Alphonse X’s “The Learned” scriptorium – focusing more particularly on the Cantigas de Santa Maria and the legal code of the Siete Partidas.

Continue reading Researcher of the Week

An Evening to Launch the 23rd Issue of the Journal “Chidushim” Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem, 10 Oct 2021, 19:00 GMT+3

מכון ליאו בק ירושלים מזמין אתכם.ן לערב להשקת גיליון מס’ 23 של כתב העת ‘חידושים’ המציג את המחקרים האחרונים על יהדות גרמניה
ברכות: פרופ’ דורון אברהם
בהשתתפות: עודד כהן, עירית נגר, מירב ראובני, חנה שחם-רוזבי, עידו תלם

“Chidushim” Presents the Latest Research on German Jewry
Greetings: Prof. Doron Abraham (Bar Ilan University)
Participants: Oded Cohen, Irit Nagar, Meirav Reuveni, Chana Shacham-Rozby and Ido Telem

Urban Governance and Civic Participation in Words and Stone Lecture Series

This lecture series in the Fall term 2021, Thursdays 17:30–19:00 (MEST), presents “the question whether the governance and autonomy of medieval cities and the participation of their citizens in managing communal affairs may be regarded a laboratory of democracy or yet another form of the rule of the privileged has re-emerged with new answers in recent scholarship. Besides urban and legal historians and scholars of political thought, research in art history, literacy, spatial studies, and global history have provided a set of new answers. Governing bodies and institutions, with varying degree of participation by inhabitants of different social and legal standing have been examined, as well as the shaping of the physical environment, including its open spaces, buildings and ornaments.” There is also some Jewish Studies content included.