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EAJS Nahmanides Workshop Programme (2020-21): Call for applications opens 3 February 2020, with deadline of 5 April 2020.

January 27, 2020 by EAJS Administrator

EAJS Nahmanides Workshop Programme

Call for Applications (2020-21)

The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) invites applications to the Nahmanides Workshop Programme for the academic year 2020-21.

The Nahmanides Workshop Programme is one of the fruits of the workshop ‘E Pluribus Unum? Multidisciplinarity in Jewish Studies Programs and Teaching,’ held in Girona in May 2017. A report about the Girona workshop can be found on the EAJS website [link]. The programme is named after the medieval scholar, rabbi, kabbalist and physician, Moses ben Nahman, commonly known as Nahmanides, who lived most of his life in Girona.

The purpose of the Nahmanides workshop programme is to support focused workshops addressing specific issues and problems relating to the teaching of academic Jewish Studies in Europe. The proposed workshop must be on a clearly identified and focused topic relating to the teaching of Jewish Studies in Europe, rather than a broad-themed workshop. Academic excellence and the impact on network building in Jewish Studies across Europe will also be relevant criteria; international cooperation in the development of proposals is strongly encouraged.

One grant of up to a maximum of £6,500 will be awarded to help organise the proposed workshop. The grant may be used to fund the travel, accommodation and basic maintenance expenses (i.e. lunch and coffees) of the active participants. Proposed budgets will be assessed against the coherence and relevance of the submission as well as its expected outcomes and outputs. The exact amount awarded to the successful workshop proposal will be decided by the EAJS’s award committee. In case of an event budget exceeding the award, the applicants will need to show evidence for the ability to provide for the remaining amount.

Applications are to be submitted by one or more scholars actively involved in Jewish Studies in Europe. The main applicant (who must be based at the host institution for the workshop) needs to be a fully paid-up Full Member of the European Association for Jewish Studies. Co-applicants and the active participants are not required to be members of the EAJS, though membership is encouraged, and the active participants will all need to be involved in the teaching of Jewish Studies at European universities and academic institutions. The workshop must be hosted by a university or similar academic institution based in a European country, and the workshop must be scheduled to occur between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021.

The successful applicants will be required to produce a short academic report of the major outcomes which will be posted on the EAJS website. The academic report must be written in English.

Submission process: Applications for the Nahmanides Workshop Programme must be submitted through an online form (which must be completed in full). The form will be available on the EAJS website from 3 February 2020. The deadline for applications will be 5 April 2020. Awards will be transferred approximately four months prior to the workshop.

Enquiries about the programme should be sent to admin@eurojewishstudies.org

Please note that applicants should identify and contact the relevant cost centre at their home institution (Department, Faculty, University) in order to avoid complications in the transfer of funds in case of a successful application. Also, applicants must document sufficient institutional support for holding the event at the host institution, and for the adequate administration of the funds.

EAJS Conference Grant Programme in European Jewish Studies (2020-21): Call for applications opens 3 February 2020, with deadline of 5 April 2020.

January 27, 2020 by EAJS Administrator

EAJS Conference Grant Programme in European Jewish Studies

Call for Applications (2020-21): Opens 3 February 2020

The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) invites applications to the EAJS Conference Grant Programme in European Jewish Studies for the academic year 2020/21, funded by the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe. The purpose of this programme is twofold: to foster cooperation among scholars involved in Jewish Studies across Europe, and to support early career researchers in this field to develop a professional network.

Grants will be offered for two types of academic events, EAJS Conferences and EAJS Summer/Winter Schools. Academic excellence and the impact on network building in Jewish Studies across Europe will be key criteria, and international cooperation in the development of proposals is strongly encouraged.

EAJS Conferences and Summer/Winter Schools may be devoted to any topic of relevance in Jewish Studies, including but not limited to Jewish history, Jewish thought, Jewish languages and literatures, Jewish history of science and knowledge, Jewish material heritage, and Jewish topics in the social and political sciences.

For both EAJS Conferences and Summer/Winter Schools, a grant application must include a description of the core theme, topic or discourse to be examined, the rationale/justification for the event, the duration, the venue, and how the event will enhance international academic cooperation and networking.

The application must also outline the expected participants and explain how the proposed theme will be translated into the format of the event. For example, in the case of an EAJS Conference, this might be a discussion-focused one-day workshop or a wide-ranging synoptic conference. An application for a grant for an EAJS Conference should name scholars who have already committed to participate, although additional calls for papers and invitations to scholars in the field are possible. In the case of an EAJS Summer/Winter School, this outline should describe the faculty involved, the non-faculty participants (e.g. undergraduate/graduate students; postdocs/early-career scholars; general public), and how the theme will be translated into both lectures by faculty and active forms of involvement for the non-faculty participants (e.g. discussions, group work and presentations).

For both types of application, the applicant(s) are encouraged to invite participants from across Europe in order to allow for a broad representation of approaches and academic cultures. Cooperation between different institutions, preferably from different European countries, is encouraged. The EAJS welcomes applications that demonstrate a degree of public or Jewish communal impact.

Proposed budgets will be assessed against the academic excellence and relevance of the applications as well as its expected outcomes and outputs. Applicants may request between £1,600 and £8,000 for the travel, accommodation and basic maintenance expenses (i.e. lunch and coffees) of the active participants. Expenses for European keynote speakers may also be included. Applications that propose to assign a portion of these expenses to PhD students and early career researchers are encouraged. The exact amount awarded to the successful proposals will be decided by the EAJS’s award committee. In case of an event budget exceeding the award, the applicants must show evidence for the ability to provide for the remaining amount.

Applications are to be submitted by one or more scholars actively involved in Jewish Studies. The main applicant (who must be based at the host institution) must be a fully paid-up Full Member of the European Association for Jewish Studies. Co-applicants and the active participants are not required to be members of the EAJS, though the EAJS expects that the majority of the active participants will be involved in academic pursuits at European universities and academic institutions. The academic event must be hosted by a university or similar academic institution based in a European country and must be scheduled to occur between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021.

The successful applicants will be required to produce a short academic report of the major outcomes which will be posted on the EAJS website. English must be one of the conference languages, though it need not necessarily be the only language for the conference. The academic report must be written in English.

Submission process: Applications for the Conference Grant Programme must be submitted through an online form (which must be completed in full). The form will be available on the EAJS website from 3 February 2020. The deadline for applications will be 5 April 2020. Awards will be transferred approximately four months prior to the academic event.

Enquiries about the programme should be sent to admin@eurojewishstudies.org

Letter from the EAJS Secretary and the EAJS Administrator to EAJS Members

January 27, 2020 by EAJS Administrator

Dear members,

In these uncertain times, international communication and understanding have never been so important. Please be assured that the EAJS remains as committed as ever to the goal of fostering cooperation among scholars involved in Jewish Studies both within and outside Europe, with a particular emphasis on providing support for postgraduate students and early career researchers.

From 1 January 2020, PhD students within the field of Jewish Studies, irrespective of whether they are based within or outside Europe, are welcome to apply for free Student Membership. Any PhD students who are already Associate or Full Members of the EAJS are encouraged to contact the EAJS Administrator to arrange for their membership type to be changed to Student Membership (this change is effective from 1 January 2020).

Final year BA/BSc and MA/MSc students in a field broadly related to Jewish Studies and who are intending to go on to do a PhD may also apply for free Student Membership [Link for application page].

To encourage membership subscriptions, a new reduced rate for four years of membership is now available for all members. Full and Associate Members may now select the option to pay £100 for four years of membership rather than the annual rate of £35 per year.

As part of our continued plan to promote cooperation among scholars based at European and non-European universities, the EAJS will continue to collaborate with our colleagues in the AJS, by offering a reduced membership rate of £25 per year to members of the AJS based outside Europe, with a new option to pay only £70 for four years of membership. (The AJS also offers reduced membership rates for EAJS Members).

Please look out in the next few weeks for the announcement of a new EAJS internship position (1 Feb 2020 – 31 July 2020). The successful applicant will contribute to the activities of the EAJS Digital Forum. Applicants for the internship should be enrolled in a Jewish Studies programme at a European university or equivalent accredited centre of higher education. More details to follow soon.

The next round of the EAJS Conference Grant Programme in European Jewish Studies will open on 3 February 2020. The deadline for applications is 5 April 2020 and the funds are to cover events held in the period 1 September 2020 – 31 August 2021. The purpose of this programme is to foster cooperation among scholars involved in Jewish Studies, to assist early career researchers to develop professional networks, and to support conferences that strengthen Jewish Studies across Europe. Academic excellence and the impact on network building in Jewish Studies across Europe will be key criteria, and international cooperation in the development of proposals is strongly encouraged. Applicants are encouraged to invite participants from across Europe in order to allow for a broad representation of approaches and academic cultures. The grant awards will be for amounts between £1,600 and £8,000, and are intended to support travel expenses, accommodation and maintenance of the active participants. The main applicant for each application must be a Full Member of the EAJS. More information and an online application form will be announced on the website and via the members’ newsflash in early February 2020.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our assistant administrators, Dr. Noëmie Duhaut and Mrs Kinga Migalska, for their very effective work in helping, respectively, with the management of the conference grant programme and with membership administration.

We send best wishes to all our members for a happy and relaxing winter break and we look forward to hearing from you in 2020.

Professor Sarah Pearce (Honorary Secretary of the EAJS)

Dr Simon Mayers (The EAJS Administrator)

19 December 2019

New Book. Paul Heger. “Institutionalized Routine Prayers at Qumran: Fact or Assumption?”

January 26, 2020 by EAJS Administrator

Paul Heger, Institutionalized Routine Prayers at Qumran: Fact or Assumption?

Journal of Ancient Judaism Supplements 32

https://www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com/themen-entdecken/theologie-und-religion/judaistik/51860/institutionalized-routine-prayers-at-qumran-fact-or-assumption

This book examines the development of institutionalized prayer in ancient Israel at a crucial time in the history of Western civilization: from the period of the Qumran writings, in the last three centuries BCE, through to the rabbinic period, after 70 CE. It explores the shift from sacrificial worship by priests to abstract, unmediated, direct approaches to the deity by laypeople. It demonstrates the transition from voluntary, freely composed prayers to obligatory prayers with fixed texts. The study shows how Qumran and Samaritan prayer contrast with rabbinic prayer, shedding light on Jewish customs before the rabbinic reform.

Posthumously edited by Bernard M. Levinson, Berman Family Chair of Jewish Studies and Hebrw Bible, University of Minnesota http://levinson.umn.edu/

The author: Paul Heger (1924-2018; PhD, University of Toronto) has published extensively on Jewish law of the Second Temple period. His research examines how the vibrant religious sectarian scene of late antiquity give way to a much smaller range of possibilities by the time of the Second Temple’s destruction and its aftermath.

ISBN: 978-3-525-57131-6

Call for proposals. Jews and Quakers Conference ‘Prejudice and Privilege’. Birmingham, UK. 29-30 June 2020. Deadline for proposals: 9 March 2020.

January 26, 2020 by EAJS Administrator

29^th-30^th June 2020: Jews and Quakers Conference ‘Prejudice and Privilege’

Keynote Speakers

Professor Shirli Gilbert (Professor of Modern Jewish History, UCL, London)

Dr. Benjamin J. Wood (Woodbrooke Centre for Research in Quaker Studies, Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Religion and Public Life at the University of Leeds).

Call for proposals

In June 2020, the Centre for Research in Quaker Studies is hosting a 24-hour multidisciplinary conference on ‘Jews and Quakers: Prejudice and Privilege’, at Woodbrooke in Birmingham, UK. This follows the successful 2017 conference ‘Jews and Quakers: on the borders of acceptability’, held at the University of Sussex. We invite proposals for short papers (20 minutes paper + 10 minutes question and answer) or panels (two to four short papers) to be offered at this conference.

Religious prejudice and privilege manifest in multiple ways in our society and our lives. Antisemitism is unfortunately common in Britain today, and Quakers are not immune from it. Historically, some Quakers have experienced brief periods of persecution, but most now experience the privileges which come with being part of the majority Christian culture. Jewish and Quaker identities are intersectional – they are only one aspect of a person’s identity, and gender, class, race, age, sexuality, disability, etc. may affect what it is like to be Quaker or Jewish (or both).

We would be pleased to receive proposals for papers or panels on this theme, including but not limited to proposals on the following indicative topics:

Analysis of historical or contemporary cases of religious prejudice, against or within the Jewish and/or Quaker communities

Analysis of historical or contemporary cases of religious privilege, experienced by Quaker and/or Jewish communities, or ways in which members of those communities experience both some forms of privilege and some form of oppression at the same time

Philosophical or theoretical explorations of prejudice and/or privilege which use examples from Jewish and/or Quaker communities as case studies

Considerations of the complexity of religious identity with reference to any form of intersectional oppression or privilege (e.g. the relationship of Judaism and/or Quakerism to whiteness; feminism and/or trans rights in Quakerism and/or Judaism; class position in relation to Judaism and/or Quakerism, the effects, if any, of being identified as secular or non-theist in the context of either community)

To submit a proposal, please send a 250 word abstract of your paper or panel to rhiannon.grant@woodbrooke.org.uk by midnight on Monday 9^th March 2020.

We welcome postgraduate and early career researchers, women and gender minorities, scholars of colour, and other underrepresented groups. If you are uncertain and would like to discuss your idea before submitting, please contact us.

General bookings for the conference will open soon via https://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/ Accessibility notes: Most of Woodbrooke is accessible to wheelchair users, loop system users, and people with other disabilities, and we are happy to discuss your specific needs in advance. We may be able to provide or signpost attendees to financial support for the costs associated with attending. We are not able to provide childcare for this event.

Conference website: https://jewsandquakers.wordpress.com