Research seminar, History Dept
31 Jan 2024. Dr. Nina Valbousquet will present a paper to the Humanitarian History Dept Seminar on ‘Catholic Humanitarianism through War and Genocide: the Vatican, the Holocaust and Jewish Refugees (1930s-1950s)’. This event will run from 4-5pm and will be held in C1.18 (Ellen Wilkinson). All are welcome to attend.
Bogdanow Lectures in Holocaust Studies 2024
Online Lectures in Holocaust Studies. Prof. Omer Bartov (Brown University), ‘The Return of the Repressed: Ukraine's Unresolved Pasts’, 6pm GMT, 30 and 31 Jan 2024. For zoom links see further information.
Sherman Community Lecture 2023
Annual lecture in Jewish Studies. Prof Hava Tirosh-Samuelson (Arizona State University) gave this year's lecture, co-hosted with the Jewish Rep Council, on "Judaism and Climate Change: Religious Responses to the Eco-Crisis." Mon 27 Nov. Watch again.
The Megillah at the Rylands
Rachel Lichtenstein has been working with the Rothschild Foundation Haanadiv Europe for the relaunch of their Hidden Treasures website. Read her blog post here.
Appointment, Office for Students
Consultant role. Daniel Langton has been appointed as the lead assessor for Jewish Studies for the Office for Students (OfS), the independent regulator of Higher Education in England.
Teaching
UK Jewish Film Festival. Students taking RELT20121 Religion, Culture and Gender can look forward to a gender-themed evening at Cineworld Parrs Wood on 15 November 2023 at 19:00. Katja Stuerzenhofecker is organizing free tickets for the course group to watch the comedy Matchmaking (2022) with support from the Student Enhancement Fund.
Conference paper
Jewish Studies. Alex Samely delivered a paper at the 12th congress of the European Association for Jewish Studies in Frankfurt on 19 July 2023, on the topic "Experiencing the Mishnah as an Open or Controlling Text in Antiquity". Further information.
New publication
Jewish studies. The Prophets edited by Rabbi Michael Hilton and Alasdair Nisbet, published by Liberal Jewish Synagogue London, 2023. Further information.
New publication
Religion and Science. Daniel R. Langton, 'An Historical Overview of Jewish Theological Responses to Evolution', Theology and Science (2023) e-pub, 1-25. Further information.
New publication
Ancient Judaism. Alex Samely, “The Use of Genre for Many Text Meanings: Apocalypse and 1 Enoch”, in Lorenzo DiTommaso and Matthew Goff (eds.), Reimagining Apocalypticism: Apocalyptic Literature in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Writings (Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature Press), pp. 157–196. Further information.
New publication
Religion and Science. Daniel R. Langton, 'Naphtali Levy's Divine World: Jewish Tradition, Panentheism and Darwinism', Theology and Science 23:1 (2023), 1-19. Further information.
Klezmer performance and video recording
Forthcoming event. Klezmer Klassica will perform as part of Sacred Music at the Bradford Literature Festival. 2 July 2023, 6.30-8.15pm. Further information.
A video recording of Klezmer Klassica's performance of Joseph Achron's 'Hebrew Luluby & Melody' from earlier this year is now available to watch on YouTube.
Book talk, History Dept
Natalie Zemon Davis (Professor Emerita, University of Toronto and Princeton University) will join via Zoom to discuss her scholarship and latest book, Listening to the Languages of the People (Central European Press, 2022). Ranging from Romania to France at the turn of the twentieth century, this is story of migration that partakes of biography, linguistics, and Jewish studies. Jean-Marc Dreyfus will be one of the responders. 4pm, Samuel Alexander Bldg Room, A7.
New publication
Science and Religion. Daniel Langton, "Evolution" 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, 2023). Manuscript and online.
Webinar, Jewish cemeteries as visitor destinations
Jewish studies. Hosted by The Foundation for Jewish Heritage for those leading work with Jewish heritage, heritage industry experts and an invited audience, this webinar explores how and to what extent Jewish cemeteries are currently being used as visitor destinations across seven countries in Europe, and how current initiatives might contribute to the sustaining and promotion of more historic Jewish cemeteries. 24 May, 9.30am-5pm CET. Further information and registration details are available here.
Research seminar, History Dept
Holocaust Studies. Anne Knowles, the Col. James C. McBride Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Maine, will present a paper entitled "How Can We Map the Holocaust." 4:15pm on 18 May 2023. Join Zoom webinar here.
Klezmer performances
Upcoming concerts. A Klezmer Klassica performance will take place as part of Chorlton Arts Festival on 20 May at Chorlton Unitarian Church, 3:30-4:30pm. Tickets and further information are available here. The Klezmer Tune Club will play at the Manchester Jewish Museum on 21 May, 2:30-4pm. Tickets and further information are available here.
BBC Radio 4, ‘In Our Time’
Dead Sea Scrolls and Jewish Studies. George Brooke was a contributor to In Our Time on the topic of ‘The Dead Sea Scrolls’, the revelatory collection of Biblical texts and other documents dating from around 250 BC to AD 68, which were first rediscovered in a cave in 1946. Thu 4 May. Listen Again.
Research seminar
Jewish & French Studies. Julia Elsky (Loyola University, Chicago) will discuss her book, Writing Occupation: Jewish Émigré Voices and Wartime France (2020), paying particular attention to Benjamin Fondane's rewriting of his poetry during the war. 4pm Zoom webinar.
Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/94407197096
Book launch
Italian Studies. Professor Robert Gordon (Cambridge). Book Launch: Modern Luck: Narratives of Fortune in the Long Twentieth Century (UCL, 2023). Modern Luck sets out to explore the enigma of luck’s presence in modernity, examining the hybrid forms it has taken on in the modern imagination, and in particular in the field of modern stories. Analysing a rich and unusually eclectic range of narrative taken from literature, film, music, television and theatre, it lays out first the usages and meanings of the language of luck, and then the key figures, patterns and motifs that govern the stories told about it, from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Among other things this book considers the survival narrative of Primo Levi. 24 April, 5pm GMT.
The event will take place in person in Samuel Alexander A7 and will be live-streamed on Zoom. To register for this event, either in person or online, please visit our Eventbrite page. For further information, please contact Mara Josi (mara.josi@manchester.ac.uk).