Priority Announcements

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.

EAJS Digital Forum: EAJS Digital jour fixe and DH Tutorials

6 March 2023 by EAJS Administrator

NEW! DH tutorials at the congress of the EAJS in Frankfurt 2023

At the 12th EAJS Congress “Branching Out. Diversity of Jewish Studies”, the EAJS Digital Forum will offer three tutorials over several days on topics in the digital humanities:

Handwritten Text Recognition with eScriptorium (Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra, EPHE, PSL, F)
Digital Editing with the Text Encoding Initiative (Thomas Kollatz, Academy of Sciences, Mainz, D)
Text Analysis and Visualisation with [http://CATMA / vis-À-vis]CATMA / vis-À-vis (Ophir Münz-Manor, Open University of Israel)

All tutorials start with an introduction in the afternoon of the opening day (Sunday 12:00-16:00). In early bird sessions on the following four days (Monday-Thursday 7:45-8:45), the topics of the tutorial will be deepened.

No previous knowledge is required. The number of places is limited. Participants are asked to bring their own devices and to sign up here . Further information is given at the registration form.

EAJS Digital jour fixe 24 March 2023

The EAJS Digital jour fixe is organized by the Digital Forum of the European Association of Jewish Studies. Its aim is to present the use of larger digital methods, techniques and / or infrastructure websites for Jewish Studies. The next meeting will take place virtually on Friday, March 24, between 10 and 11h30 CET.

Ophir Münz-Manor (Open University of Israel) will present on ” Text Analysis and visualisation with CATMA / vis-À-vis “

In the presentation he will showcase the main features of CATMA (Computer Assisted Text Markup and Analysis), a web-based annotation tool and demonstrate how scholars of Judaic Studies might take advantage of it in their research. In addition, he will present vis-À-vis, a web-based visualisation tool that he has recently launched, which import data from CATMA and uses sophisticated visualizations that help exploring the (annotated) text.

For receiving a zoom-invitation please register here.