Monthly Archives: November 2021

New Article on Imprisoned Jews and Their Release From Prison in the Medieval Holy Roman Empire

Andreas Lehnertz and Birgit Wiedl have published a new article about “How to Get Out of Prison. Imprisoned Jews and Their Hafturfehden from the Medieval and Early Modern Holy Roman Empire (Fourteenth through Sixteenth Centuries)” in the volume Incarceration and Slavery in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age. A Cultural-Historical Investigation of the Dark Side in the Pre-Modern World, ed. Albrecht Classen (Lanham et al.: Lexington, 2021), 361–413.

Investigation of the Medieval Jewish Cemetery in Erfurt

by Karin Sczech

City of Erfurt
Thüringisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie in Weimar

(English/Deutsch)

The first written mention of the Jewish cemetery in Erfurt dates to 1287 and the oldest known gravestones from Erfurt date back to the 1240s. Still, it must have existed for some time before, as the Erfurt synagogue was built around 1100 and there was no community with a proven cemetery in the wider area. After the termination of protection (and thus de facto expulsion) of the Jews from Erfurt in 1453, the city first built a barn on the cemetery grounds and then a very large granary between 1464 and 1472.

Continue reading Investigation of the Medieval Jewish Cemetery in Erfurt

Lecture and workshop: PD Dr. Annett Martini and Mordechai Tauber “Jewish Scriptural Culture” (in German), December 15, 2021, 6 p.m.

The Torah (Hebrew for “teaching”, “law”) is the Holy Scripture of Judaism. It has been copied by specially trained scribes since ancient times and thus forms a central constant in the Jewish religion. The sofer (scribe) is subject to a number of strict rules – this is the only way in which the writing and text of the Torah have remained the same over thousands of years and throughout the world. In her lecture, PD Dr. Annett Martini (FU Berlin) will shed light on the significance of ritual copying and writing itself in Judaism.

Continue reading Lecture and workshop: PD Dr. Annett Martini and Mordechai Tauber “Jewish Scriptural Culture” (in German), December 15, 2021, 6 p.m.

Call for Applications: Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe Grants for Academic Jewish Studies

“We provide funding to individual scholars and to university departments to undertake innovative Jewish Studies research and to train the next generation of scholars. We also prioritise the teaching and learning of Jewish languages.”

Funding is offered for:

  • Doctoral Fellowships
  • Post-Doctoral Fellowships
  • Research Consortia
  • Jewish Language Teaching Fellowships
  • Sustainability and Enhancement Grants for Jewish Studies Departments
  • Academic Language Grants

Mazel Tov to Emile Schrijver, the recipient of the 2021 Narkiss prize for excellence in the research of Jewish Art, presented by the Center for Jewish Art at Hebrew University

Emile Schrijver Photo: Monique Kooijmans/AEJM

Mazel tov to Dr. Emile Schrijver, the recipient of the 2021 Bezalel, Mordechai, and Nessa Narkiss prize for excellence in the research of Jewish Art,  presented by the Center for Jewish Art at Hebrew University!

Emile is the General Director Jewish Historical Museum and Jewish Cultural Quarter, Amsterdam (since 2015); Professor of Jewish Book History, University of Amsterdam; curator of the private Braginsky collection in Zurich; from 1986-2015 curator of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana.

He is also the chair of the Association of European Jewish Museums (and in addition he has just published a novel, a literary thriller titled “De Hillel Codex” — which we really hope comes out soon in English translation).

The award will be presented at an online ceremony November 29, at 19:00 CET — at which time Emile will give a lecture titled “Jewish art history and Jewish book history meet for the last time: The end of Hebrew manuscript decoration in Western Europe.”

You can attend the ceremony and talk via this Zoom link: https://tinyurl.com/NarkissPrize

Click here to see the list of previous Narkiss prize winners, going back to 1988

Click here to read an article that Emile wrote for JHE in June 2020 about the post-pandemic future of European Jewish museumsShare