Blog entry, 50 Jewish Objects
50 Jewish Objects Artwork. Juliet Goodden is the new artist commissioned by the Centre to respond with her art and creative practice to the 50 Jewish Objects project and to one or more items held at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library. In her third and final blogpost she leads us through her journey of discovery of the collection. Further information.
Scriptural Encounters
Reading challenging sacred texts. Scriptural Encounters bring together different faiths to debate and discuss controversial topics. This is a new series on Gender Diversity. This session will be led by Rabbi Ariel Abel as the presenter of Jewish texts. 1200-13:30 hybrid event, on campus (University Place 4.214) and on zoom. Thu 28 Oct 2021. Further information.
Public lectures, Judaism and Islam a Shared History
Jewish Studies. CJS Hon. Research Fellow Michael Hilton announces a new course 'Judaism and Islam: A shared history' that he is leading with Dr Harith Ramli of Edge Hill University. The first lecture 'The story of Joseph in the Bible and the Quran: the most beautiful of stories', 12th October 2021, 8.10 – 9.30 pm, hybrid (on Zoom and in-person). Further information.
Screen & Talk
Jewish Studies. The Centre for Jewish Studies at Manchester University is pleased to announce that the next Screen & Talk event will be the streaming of ‘The Black Book’ (2019) by Guillaume Ribot. Drafted while the Second World War was still raging, the Black Book contained numerous testimonies of the atrocities committed by the Nazis against Jews in the Soviet Union. Featuring a wealth of archival footage and told through the voices of the Jewish-Soviet intellectuals who gathered the testimonies, this important documentary sheds new light on the operations of two abhorrent totalitarian regimes, driven by blind hatred and prejudice. 10 – 14 Nov 2021, online as part of the UK Jewish Film Festival 2021. Further information.
Moses Gaster Seminars
Jewish Studies. This academic year (2021-22) the John Rylands Research Institute will complete the online cataloguing of the codices in Hebrew script in the Rylands Library Manchester. Most of these manuscripts once belonged to Moses Gaster, who, with modest resources, assembled one of the most remarkable collections of Hebrew manuscripts of the 20th century. To mark the occasion the John Rylands Research Institute and the Manchester University Centre for Jewish Studies are hosting a series of seminars in autumn 2021 and spring 2022 which will explore aspects of the Rylands Gaster collection, and related collections. The first seminar will be Dr Zsofia Buda “The Rylands Gaster Codices and the problems of cataloguing them” and Dr Maria Cioata,“Moses Gaster: The Man and His Collections”. 2 - 3.30pm 19 Oct 2021, online. Further information.
Blog entry, 50 Jewish Objects
50 Jewish Objects Artwork. Juliet Goodden is the new artist commissioned by the Centre to respond with her art and creative practice to the 50 Jewish Objects project and to one or more items held at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library. In her second blogpost she leads us through her journey of discovery of the collection. Further information.
Research project, BRIC-19
Prayer in the age of COVID. The BRIC-19 project report British Ritual Innovation under COVID-19 is now available to download at (www.tinyurl.com/bric19). It includes Dr Katja Stuerzenhofecker’s case study of two online prayer groups by Orthodox Jewish women and girls that are attracting a global following. The project report aims to share best practice of digital solutions across religious communities that are useful for the duration of the pandemic and beyond.
A Buried Synagogue on Campus
Joint R&T and Archaeology on-campus tour. 'Walk & Talk: A Buried Synagogue on Campus’ with John Piprani (Archaeology) and Tereza Ward (R&T). Organised as part of Welcome Week on Fri 24 Sept 2021. Further information.
New publication
Jewish Studies. Philip Alexander, “‘If they are not Prophets, they are Sons of Prophets’. Folk Religion (Minhag) as a Source of Law in Rabbinic Judaism,” in: The Use and Dissemination of Religious Knowledge in Antiquity, ed. Catherine Hezser and Diana Edelman (Sheffield: Equinox, 2021), 122-144. Further information.
New publication
Jewish Studies. Philip Alexander, “Eschatology in the apocalyptic revival in Judaism (sixth to ninth centuries CE) in its historical context,” in: Eschatology in Antiquity: Forms and Functions, ed. Hilary Marlow, Karla Pollmann, and Helen van Noorden (Routledge: London and New York, 2021), 576-588. Further information.