Research project, BRIC-19
Prayer in the age of COVID. Dr Katja Stuerzenhofecker's investigation of Jewish Orthodox female-only online prayer groups has brought to light important insights into the religious and quotidian motivations and needs of women and girls. Some of the findings are specific to current conditions under the pandemic, but many concern perennial issues that will live on in the after-times such as accessibility, participation and leadership. Research participants who attend the prayer groups are invited to learn more about the findings and give their feedback on 11 July. This is part of the research project 'Social Distance, Digital Congregation: British Ritual Innovation under Covid-19'. Further information.
Teaching presentation, Jerusalem
Holocaust Studies. Ion Popa will give an online presentation at the Yad Vashem International Institute for Holocaust Research entitled "Destruction, Survival, Dissidence: Jewish Life in Romania in the context of the Holocaust." The presentation is organised as part of a partnership between Yad Vashem and Haifa University and aimed at MA students. Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, 20 July 2021.
New publication
History of Atheism. Daniel Langton, "Atheism" in Encyclopedia of Jewish-Christian Relations Online, edited by Martin Thurner, Peter Schäfer, Christoph Markschies, Amy-Jill Levine, Rainer Kampling and Walter Homolka. (Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2021). Author-submitted manuscript and online.
Call for papers
Holocaust Studies. Jean-Marc Dreyfus is on the scientific committee for the conference 'The spoliation of musical instruments in Europe 1933-1945'. 7, 8 and 9 April 2022 - Philharmonie de Paris. This conference can be seen as part of the ongoing studies of despoiled cultural property (by way of seizures, looting, forced sales, etc.). A great deal of work has been carried out in various institutions, including museums, on despoiled works of art, and more recently on despoiled books. The Philharmonie de Paris and more particularly the Musée de la Musique and its Conservation & Research team, wish to play their part in research on looting in the musical field: provenance research, market and circulation of musical instruments, stakeholders and their networks, etc. Call for papers (English). Call for papers (French).
Author's Foundation grant
50 Jewish Objects Poems. Rabbi Dr. Atar Hadari was awarded a £3000 Author's Foundation grant to complete 'Gethsemane', the book of poetic monologues drawn from the New Testament which grew out of his 50 Jewish Objects audio-drama artistic commission on a fragment of the gospel of John in the John Rylands Library, 'Gethsemane Suite'.
Conference paper, international
Dead Sea Scrolls. George Brooke presented on 'The Dead Sea Scrolls and Authorship'. Dead Sea Scrolls: Second Public Conference, under the auspices of NYU Skirball Department of Hebrew & Judaic Studies and the Israel Antiquities Authority. 6-9 June 2021. Further information.
BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour
Jewish Studies. Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe Post-Doctoral Fellow Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz is used to writing about women in Judaism. Now, following her ordination as a female Orthodox rabbi, she has become part of the story; see the Jewish Chronicle (17 June), Times of Israel (17 June), and listen again to Woman's Hour (17 June).
Conference contributors, BAJS 2021
Jewish Studies. Staff and honorary fellows who are contributing to the BAJS2021 conference on 'World in Crisis: Reflections and Responses from Antiquity to the Present' include: Katja Stuerzenhofecker: 'Revisiting Kurt Lewin's action research for a world in crisis'; Katharina Keim: 'Apocalypticism at the Emergence of Islam'; Marcel Stoetzler: 'What is 'left-wing' about 'left-wing antisemitism'?'; Avishalom Westreich: 'Religious Identity, Law and Politics: The Challenge of Reproductive Technologies', and Stefania Silvestri will contribute to a panel discussion on 'Jewish Heritage in/and Crisis VI: Libraries/archives and Crisis'. Further information.