According to their call, “[t]he Winter School focuses on handwritten text recognition (HTR) of medieval and early modern sources using HTR-Tools. A particular focus will be placed on the transcription of texts using digital tools such as Transkribus, with additional sessions introducing other platforms like e.g. eScriptorium. The course offers a combination of theoretical background and hands-on training.”
Monthly Archives: August 2025
Gerrit Bos: Abraham ben Isaac, the Unknown Translator of the Zād al-musāfir by Ibn al-Jazzār
Read now the new article by Gerrit Bos, “Abraham ben Isaac, the Unknown Translator of the Zād al-musāfir by Ibn al-Jazzār,” in Manuscripts, Plants, Remedies in the Mediterranean Traditions: Studies across Disciplines for Alain Touwaide, ed. Steven M. Oberhelman (De Gruyter, 2025), 649–60.
Meira Polliack and Orly Mizrachi: “Are You The One to Build Me a House?”
Read this new article by Meira Polliack and Orly Mizrachi: “Are You The One to Build Me a House? Interreligious Aspects of Medieval Jewish, Christian and Islamic Exegesis on David’s Role in Building the Temple,” in Religious Polemics in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, ed. Yochanan Friedmann and Christoph Markschies (De Gruyter, 2025), 37–77.
Pola of Rome: The Remarkable Story of a Medieval Jewish Scribe
Cait Stevenson explores the story of Pola of Rome.
The Jewish World Map: Global Geography in Jewish Writing and Experience, Haifa University, 1–3 September 2025
Have a look at this conference at Haifa University from 1–3 September 2025, that is also hybrid.
Book Publishing Support Grant 2025
Accordinding to their call the World Union of Jewish Studies has open its call for its “2025 book publication grant applications. Early career scholars without research funds, who are current WUJS members and who never held a tenured position at a university, and are required to fund at least part of the expenses of the publication; may apply for the book publication grant. The grants will be paid directly to the publishing houses of the successful applicants.”
Deadline: 22 October 2025.
CfA: Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Studienwerk: Promotionsstipendien
Deadline: 30 September 2025
Zum 30. September 2025 endet die nächste Frist zur Bewerbung um ein Promotionsstipendium des Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Studienwerkes (ELES). Promotionsstipendien werden für die Regelförderdauer von zwei Jahren vergeben und können in begründeten Einzelfällen um zweimal sechs Monate verlängert werden.
Das Ziel von ELES ist es, Jüdinnen und Juden finanziell und ideell zu fördern, die über die eigenen Fachkenntnisse hinaus gesellschaftliches Verantwortungsbewusstsein und Dialogfähigkeit beweisen und damit zu denjenigen gehören, die die Zukunft aktiv mitgestalten. Neben hervorragenden universitären- und Forschungsleistungen wird von den Stipendiat*innen deswegen auch gesellschaftliches Engagement in jüdischen Gemeinden, im sozialen Bereich, in der Jugendarbeit, in studentischen Organisationen oder im gesellschaftlichen Umfeld erwartet.
CfP: HBI Research Award 2026 Application Is Open
The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute (HBI) awards grants to support research or artistic projects in Jewish women’s and gender studies across a range of disciplines. Awards are made to graduate students, early career, and established researchers. The HBI Research Awards are funded by gifts from the HBI Board of Advisors and other donors.
Apply by September 2, 2025.
The purpose of the HBI Research Award is to support work that has the potential to make a significant contribution to the field of Jewish Gender Studies in one of the following ways:
- by using the lens of gender to inform the field of Jewish Studies
- by bringing insights from Jewish Studies to the field of Women’s and Gender Studies
- by exploring interreligious collaborations between Jewish women and women of other faiths
New Publication: Volume 15, issue 2 of Sephardic Horizons is now available online
CfA: Jewish City Biographies: Issues, Themes, and the Definition of a Genre
Session at the European Association for Urban History (EAUH) conference in Barcelona, Spain, 2-5 September 2026
Deadline: 22 October 2025
This session will be the first step towards establishing the historiographical genre of the Jewish city biography. The field of Jewish urban history has expanded in recent years and resulted in a steady stream of new projects and publications. Yet, academic studies focusing on the comprehensive Jewish histories of certain cities have largely remained absent. Most studies focus on specific time periods, or take a thematic angle. In the public realm, however, extensive historical portrayals of cities focusing on their Jewish past exist, although they often appear to be encyclopedic or nostalgic. The general genre of the urban or city biography, at the intersection of public history and urban studies, has been grappling with similar issues relating to the challenges of exceptionalism and urban patriotism for at least the last thirty years. How can we arrive at a critical genre of the Jewish city biography, which combines the strengths of Jewish urban history and those of the genre of urban biographies, while also bringing both towards a new phase? As such, the genre will need to question not only what urban spaces meant to their Jewish inhabitants, but also how Jews shaped the cities they lived in – also in mutual exchange with their non-Jewish counterparts. Studying this dialectical process offers the possibility to critically assess the genre of the urban biography as a whole, positioning the diverse group of Jews as another main character next to the city. Our specialist session aims to discuss the main methodologies for writing Jewish city biographies, chart the toolbox of their authors, and map the best practices of current scholars working in the field.