You can now watch Effie Shoham-Steiner’s (Ben Gurion University, Be’er Sheva) talk at the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University, online. He speaks about his research project on the Cologne Jewish community of the high Middle Ages.
Monthly Archives: February 2022
Public Lecture: Joshua Teplitsky: “Copyists, Collectors, and Curators: Stocking the Rabbinic Bookshelf”
Thursday, March 10, 202212:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST
Standing between writers and readers is an often-overlooked ecosystem of printers, editors, and publishers: brokers who make decisions about the form and even content of the texts that spring from the pen of the scholar before they reach the eyes of a reading public. In the case of Jewish legal texts that achieved canonical status over centuries, a special role belongs not only to the printers, but to the preservers of texts before they are published: manuscript copyists, collectors, and curators. In this session we will look at some texts that were written in the Middle Ages but not widely distributed until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and see how their stories are embedded in the objects and people that carried them forward. Attention to the processes by which classical medieval writings entered into the early modern and modern curriculum will invite us into thinking about historical contingencies and the importance of the material text in the making of canons.
About the “Canon in Context” Series
Stepping back and squinting at the major works of the Jewish legal canon dotted across history, many of them appear…puzzling. Centuries of tradition treat the Mishnah, Talmud, and other texts as settled law and as contributions to rabbinic thought. But in their own times, they were outliers. Each one diverged remarkably in form and content from the Jewish writings of their time and place. So how did they get that way, and how did they become canon?
This series explores the historical context of halakhic compilations and codes: who composed them, what were they trying to achieve, and why did they choose the format and the topics they chose? Set aside what you think you know, and encounter these texts in the worlds of their creation.
Public Lecture – Elisheva Baumgarten: “Legal Knowledge and Everyday Practice in Medieval Ashkenaz”
25th Annual Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Lecture in Judaic Studies. Jewish legal texts are an important source for social history, and scholars have looked to rabbinic responsa and halakhic codes that detail how the law should be observed in order to better understand how daily life was actually lived. Yet, to what extent do these legal sources reflect the lives of all members of the communities within which they were written? Perhaps they convey only the priorities of the elite learned men who penned them. This talk will ask what kind of legal knowledge everyday Jewish men and women had, and ask to what extent the average Jew in medieval Ashkenaz attempted to observe the halakhah of the rabbinic elite.
Public Lecture – Edwin Seroussi: Dreams of Spain: Old and New Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) Songs
Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) songs are an integral feature of modern Jewish culture as it is negotiated through the mass media. However, how did the repertoire of Ladino songs performed on modern stages and distributed via commercial recordings come into being? Who are the figures involved in the process of popularizing songs in Ladino and what are their agendas? We shall explore these and other questions while listening to the greatest hits of the contemporary Ladino repertoire.
Please note: Registration will open on December 20, 2021. Enrollment is limited, first come first served. Friends of the Katz Center receive advance access to all mini-courses and waived tuition for one mini-course per year. Limited scholarships are available. Please contact Dajana Denes-Walters (dajana@upenn.edu) if cost is a barrier.
February 3, 10, 17, and 24
Registration fee: $80
“My Wine—My Religion”
Check out these Two Poems from the 14th century, edited and translated by the one and only Alan Elbaum.
Virtual Symposium. Hidden Stories: Global History, Local Networks
The virtual symposium “Hidden Stories: Global History, Local Networks” at the Aga Khan Museum has a roundtable discussion on 24 February about “Judaica”, focusing on several objects and lead by Eva Frojmovic, Sara Irwin, Dorion Liebgott, Noam Sienna, and AdamHarris Levine.
Virtual Talk by Andreas Lehnertz: “Jewish Craftspeople in Late Medieval Cities” (in German) at Universität Kassel, 16 Feb. 2022, 18:00–20:00 CET
Vortrag im Mittelalter-Kolloquium der Universität Kassel
Thema: Jüdische Handwerker in spätmittelalterlichen Städten – ein Werkstattbericht
Link: https://uni-kassel.zoom.us/j/95606984910?pwd=cW9yenVmOTZHdXJMY0JZbVNsMERYQT09
Meeting-ID: 956 0698 4910
Code: 414711
New Book About “Diversity and Rabbinization: Jewish Texts and Societies between 400 and 1000 CE”
The new book Diversity and Rabbinization: Jewish Texts and Societies between 400 and 1000 CE, ed. Gavin McDowell, Ron Naiweld and Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra and published via Open Book Publisher can be purchased and/or downloaded now.

Jewish Women’s Wills: A Premodern Collaborative Collection
by Rena N. Lauer

Jewish women in the premodern world tended to be what I call “doubly disenfranchised.” That is, being labelled female led to social and legal disabilities that left women with fewer options for overt agency over their lives. As Jews, they experienced a second layer of social, legal, and political disability, further marginalizing them. Among the many consequences of this double disenfranchisement, premodern Jewish women seem somewhat mute, a voicelessness stemming from a lack of sources that tell of female experience in women’s own voices. Scholars who aim to engage deeply with premodern gender constantly hit this apparent wall of voicelessness whenever we seek to uncover the lives, experiences, and strategies of Jewish women.
Continue reading Jewish Women’s Wills: A Premodern Collaborative CollectionJOB: Assistant Professor of German Studies (1 year), Grinnell College
The Department of GERMAN STUDIES invites applications for a 1-YEAR appointment beginning Fall 2022. Assistant Professor (Ph.D.) preferred; Instructor (ABD) or Associate Professor possible. Research and teaching interests might include but are not limited to the following areas from the German-speaking worlds: Jewish Studies, Turkish Studies, Black Studies, Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies, Transnationality or Migration Studies. Near-Native proficiency in German required.
Deadline: March 31, 2022