News

Russian Invasion of Ukraine

25 May 2023 by EAJS Administrator

EAJS Statement

The European Association for Jewish Studies condemns Russia’s unprecedented and barbaric aggression against Ukraine. We express solidarity with Ukraine, with its democratically-elected government and with its people. All Ukrainian academics and university students are in our thoughts and prayers. This is a critical moment for the whole civilized world and we call on all the members of our Association to consider helping Ukraine by any means that are available to them – we must not delay.

We have received messages from colleagues and students in Ukraine with whom we have worked in the past who now are defending their home and their families against the Russian aggression. We stand with them in solidarity.

Link for Message from Ukrainian Association for Jewish Studies (UAJS): https://uajs.org.ua/en/news/help-ukraine-its-struggle-freedom-uajs-statement

Membership Waiver for Scholars Based in Ukraine

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has led to significant hardship across Ukrainian society. In order to support Jewish Studies scholars based at Ukrainian institutions of higher learning who have been affected by the hostilities that began on 24 February 2022, and where possible to help them to continue their teaching and research, the EAJS has decided to waive the membership fees for Full Members (including successful new applicants for Full Membership) who are currently based in Ukraine (or who were based in Ukraine at the beginning of the invasion in February 2022). Membership fees will be waived until 31 December 2024. For more information, please contact the EAJS Administrator.

The following application form should be used by scholars based in Ukraine (this version of the form does not require a payment): https://www.eurojewishstudies.org/ukraine-membership/

PhD students in the field of Jewish Studies who are based in Ukraine are encouraged to apply for EAJS Student Membership which is free for the duration of their PhD.

Resources for Scholars in Danger (for Ukraine and elsewhere)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VPvwMzaScGbAG5sBMhFoS8RC3zZy0JbsxVK35NTuGI4/edit (Resource List for Scholars in Danger)

https://www.cara.ngo/what-we-do/a-lifeline-to-academics-at-risk/ukraine-crisis (Council for At-Risk Academics – CARA)

https://www.aseees.org/news-events/aseees-news-feed/aseees-initiatives-support-displaced-scholars-and-students-ukraine (ASEEES Initiatives to Support Displaced Scholars)

EAJS support for academic freedom and solidarity with Professor Barbara Engelking and the scholarly community in Poland

24 May 2023 by EAJS Administrator

The EAJS Executive Committee wishes to express its deep concern regarding recent statements made by the Polish minister of Education and Science directed against Professor Barbara Engelking, founder and Director of the Polish Centre of Holocaust Research at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Science, in view of her remarks in the media communicating her research results. These remarks by Professor Engelking happen not to comply with the minister’s views on how to interpret the recent Polish past, and especially the period of the Second World War and the Holocaust.

The EAJS Executive Committee considers such statements as a direct threat to academic freedom and scholarly autonomy. It wishes to express its solidarity with Professor Engelking as well as with the broader scholarly community in Poland whose work seems under a growing risk of being assessed and funded not according to academic standards, but by political views held in government departments. It therefore endorses an open letter expressing support for Professor Barbara Engelking, and welcomes members of the Association, as well as of the European scholarly community, to sign it.

Online (Zoom) event in the series ‘Migrantphobia and Antisemitism: Prejudice, Culture and Belonging’, hosted by Maynooth University, 31st May 2023, 3.30-5pm (Irish time)

12 May 2023 by kerry.maciak86453900

Online (Zoom) event in the series ‘Migrantphobia and Antisemitism: Prejudice, Culture and Belonging’, hosted by Maynooth University, 31st May 2023, 3.30-5pm (Irish time)

Please join us for the next online (Zoom) event in the series ‘Migrantphobia and Antisemitism: Prejudice, Culture and Belonging’, hosted by Maynooth University, where we will be joined by Dr Mia Spiro (University of Glasgow). An abstract is below.

The event will take place 3:30-5 pm (Irish time), 31 May. Please register here.

‘No Englishman did it’: Jews, the news, and the Whitechapel Murders of 1888

Few London-based figures have stimulated as much morbid fascination as Jack the Ripper. Media events surrounding the Whitechapel murders from 1888 to 1891, and the profusion of sensational literature that grew out of these events, point to the potency of the notion of an unknown fiend lurking the streets among immigrants, misfits, and the dispossessed. This lecture looks at popular suspicions that Jack the Ripper was a Jewish migrant and the reactions to these accusations among Jews. By looking at contemporary reportage in newspapers such as The Star, as well as the Jewish press, we will see how readers and writers used print media to draw attention to the boundaries between ‘Englishman’ and foreigner, fact and fiction, and the limits of religious certitude in the face of inexplicable evil.

Dr Mia Spiro is Senior Lecturer in Modern Jewish Culture and Holocaust Studies and Head of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Glasgow. She is the author of Anti-Nazi Modernism: The Challenges of Resistance in 1930s Fiction (Northwestern UP, 2013) and has published on Jewish representation in literature and film and the impact of the Holocaust on post-WWII Jewish culture. She is currently writing a book entitled Monsters and Jewish Migration: Golems, Dybbuks, and the Ghosts of War (to be published in 2025).

If you would like to join the Migration and Antisemitism mailing list to be notified of future events, please email edmund.chapman@mu.ie.

This event is part of the series ‘Migrantphobia and Antisemitism: Prejudice, Culture and Belonging’, part of the Irish Research Council-funded project The Language of Refuge: Transnational Writers, Antisemitism and Home.

AJS and EAJS: Programme of Cooperation in Jewish Studies

6 March 2015 by EAJS Administrator

AJS and EAJS: Programme of Cooperation in Jewish Studies

The Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) and the European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) are pleased to announce a partnership.

In the interest of promoting collaboration among scholars based at North American and European universities, the AJS will be offering reduced membership rates for Full and Student EAJS Members. Please note that this reduced AJS membership rate is only available to Full EAJS Members whose membership is not in arrears, and Student EAJS Members who have confirmed their student status. For more information, Full or Student EAJS Members interested in taking out an AJS membership should email the AJS Membership Manager, Michelle Katz, at mkatz@associationforjewishstudies.org.

Similarly, the EAJS is offering a reduced membership rate for AJS members. AJS members may become Associate members of the EAJS at the reduced rate of £25.00. To apply to the EAJS at the the reduced rate for AJS members, please click here. For more information, please contact the EAJS Administrator (link).