EAJS Conference Grant Programme 2015/16
REPORT
XXIII International Annual Conference on Jewish Studies, Moscow
Moscow, 31st January to 2nd February 2016
Co-organizers: Dr Victoria Mochalova, Sefer – the Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization, Moscow;
Ms Svetlana Amosova, Sefer – the Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization, Moscow; and
Mrs Irina Kopchenova, Sefer – the Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization, Moscow.
The 23rd International Annual Conference on Jewish Studies was held between 31st January and 2nd February in the Hotel Izmailovo in Moscow. Scholars from research centers in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Israel and the USA took part in the event.
The conference was financially supported by the Joint Committee, the Russian Jewish Congress, and the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. Funds from the European Association for Jewish Studies Conference Grant Programme were used specifically to enable junior scholars to attend the conference.
Mikhail Chlenov opened the first plenary session with the lecture “Typology of the Jewish Communities in the Contemporary World”. He was followed by Victor Shnirelman with the report “Day of Victory over Khazaria: Festival and Monument”. Then the presentation of new publications in Jewish Studies took place, where new books published by the Sefer Center were presented along with books and magazines published by our colleagues in Russia, Ukraine, Latvia and the USA.
After this the Professor Eugene Weiner grants were awarded. This year 3 people received grants: Galina Zelenina (Moscow, RSUH), Valentina Fedchenko (Saint Petersburg State University) and Alexey Lyavdansky (Moscow, RSUH).
The Conference program included 13 sessions, 2 round tables and the meeting of the Sefer Academic Board. Here are brief descriptions of each session.
Biblical and Ancient Middle-Eastern Studies session (chairpersons: Aleksey Lyavdansky, Sergey Tischenko) was dedicated to Professor Vladimir Jakobson, who passed away last year. One of the reports (made by Jakobson’s student Vladimir Emelyanov) considered the contribution of the great scientist in the development of Assyriology. This report was an example of scientific biography. The two parts of the session contained thirteen reports, and it is notable that young researchers were included as presenters of papers in the session. The most brilliant paper was considered the one by Svetlana Babkina “The Star that Had a Son: to the Meaning of Bar-Kokhba’s Name”.
Jewish Thought session (chairpersons: Mikhail Wogman, Dr Uri Gershovich) consisted of five reports connected by the common theme “The Thought – and the Commentary”. The chronological spectrum was wide: from the ancient times to the 20th century. Some of the participants shared their own experience of the translation of Jewish philosophical texts from Hebrew into Russian.
Judeo-Christian Relationships session (chairperson: Dr Maksim Khizhyi) consisted of six reports. Chronologically the subjects of the presentations ranged from the 19th to the 20th centuries, and had a wide geographical spread and diversity of themes: conflicts of Jews with Christian bishops, Jews and Cossacks, religious jokes about Jews, etc. The most vivid discussion was evoked by Nikolay Omonov’s report “Science in the Court of Amateurs: Research of Neo-Paganism in the Comprehension of Neo-Pagans”.
The session Around Yiddish (chairperson: Valery Dymshits) was one of the most interesting sessions of the conference. Six papers were presented; half of them were prepared by very young but very talented and professional researchers.
Non-Ashkenazic Jewish Communities session (chairpersons: Prof. Mikhail Chlenov, Maxim Hammal) differed from the similar session of previous years in that there were fewer reports about the Caucasian Jews and Karaites. At the same time, the report by Mikhail Chlenov “Jews in Indonesia” opened a completely new research area. The session consisted of five reports.
The session Jews in the USSR and the Post-Soviet Space (chairperson: Prof. Gennady Kostyrchenko) consisted of nine reports. Three of them were dedicated to the Jews in Belarus, and two to the anti-Jewish repressions in the 1940-1950s. The report by Prof. Victoria Romanova “The Jewish Community of Kharbin after August, 1945” evoked high interest.
Seven reports were presented in the session Jews in the Russian Empire (chairpersons: Prof. Dmitry Elyashevich, Prof. Victor Kelner). The chronological spread of the reports was wider than just of the Russian Empire, and new and interesting themes were introduced. For example, the study of the micro- history of emotions was discussed by Dr Olga Sobolevskaya.
The State of Israel session contained of three parts: From the History of Zionist Movement, The State and Society of Contemporary Israel, and Israel in International Relations. The chairpersons of all three parts were Dr Tatyana Karasova and Dr Zeev Khanin. Together with the participants who have attended the conference for many years there were young researchers who presented their first serious scientific papers. One of them was Alim Ulbashev with the paper “Theodor Herzl’s Zionist Views and the Newest Codification of Civil Law in the State of Israel”.
The session Gender Etudes (chairperson: Dr. Galina Zelenina) was included in the programme for the first time in the history of Sefer conferences. The themes of the reports were as interesting as they were diverse: rabbinical disputes about the Bat-mitzvah ritual, unusual gender metaphors in the Bible and Maimonides’ philosophy, interaction between Marranos and the inquisition in the gender dimension, the memoires of Jewish women of the 19th and 20th centuries, feminist critique of the post-Holocaust theology, and others.
The presentations in the session Jewish Material and Artistic Culture. Museums (chairperson: Dr Maria Kaspina) revealed the ambivalent situation in the evaluation of the Jewish museums’ work in Russia. While some curators speak about the crisis and the exhaustion of this field, others speak about new concepts, collaborations with other museums, and new projects. Most of the reports were of a review character. The report by Anatolyi Sinilo “Attribution of the Drawings by Moses Maimon from the Collection of the National Art Museum of Belarus” was considered one of the most interesting.
The Jewish Literature. Literary Communications session (chairperson: Leonid Katsis) consisted of seven reports. The themes were various: poetry, prose, drama. Special attention was paid to the problems of translation, to the problem of literary influences and allusions, and to the reflection of the relations between Jews and other nations in literature.
The session The Holocaust and Historical Memory (chairperson: Leonid Terushkin) served as a meeting place for senior professional researchers in this subject and young scientists. The six reports included discussions of interesting oral and written sources, and the problems of memorialization.
The seven reports in the session History of Jews in Eastern and Western Europe in Modern Times (chairpersons: Alexander Ivanov, Andrey Shpirt) considered the history of the Jews as a history of minority. The chronological spread of the talks was between 17th and 20th centuries. The problems of Jewish contacts with the regular government were discussed in the paper by Ilya Dementiev.
In the round table Khazar Studies (chairperson: Vladimir Petrukhin) the discussions were extremely interesting and vibrant, since this is not a regular theme for Sefer conferences. The participants were all aware of the limited time and large number of subject areas to discuss, and noted that there should have been more time for such an important subject. Two reports were presented, by Oleg Bubenok and Oleg Mudrak.
Finally, the round table Jewish Field Research (chairpersons: Svetlana Amosova, Olga Belova) was a work meeting of ethnographers and epigraphists where the results of previous field researches and ideas for future work were discussed. The question of development of the new project www.sfira.ru was one of the most interesting.
At the closing ceremony the chairpersons of the various sessions returned positive assessments of the content of the conference sessions and to its excellent organization.
The conference photo album is here.
Media coverage of the conference (some websites are no longer available following the end of the conference):
http://booknik.ru/today/announce/kak‐krokodil‐stal‐begemotom‐i‐chto‐takoe‐ksy/
http://stmegi.com/posts/30703/xxiii‐konferentsiya‐po‐iudaike/?sphrase_id=3013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqJCU5zvY-Y
PhD students and early career researchers who have received travel grants from the EAJS Conference Grant Programme:
- Bartnik Anna (Poland, Lublin) PhD Student
Paper: Jews in Belarus – the characteristics and examples of activity.
- Bikard Arnaud (France, Paris / Russia, Saint-Petersburg) Early Career Researchers
Paper: Immanuel of Rome’s Maḥberot
- Damian Victor (Moldova, Kishenev) Early Career Researchers
Paper: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Jewish Migration in Moldavian Principality during the Khmelnytsky’ uprising (late 40’s – early 50’s XVII century).
- Dementev Ilya (Russia, Kaliningrad) Early Career Researchers
Paper: “Unused people”: the Jewish minority in East Prussia during the stay of the Russian army at the beginning of the First World War (1914—1915).
- Fedchenko Valentina (Russia, St. Peterburg) Early Career Researchers
Paper: Is there a semelfactive aspect in Yiddish?
- Gerasimova Victoria (Russia, Omsk) Early Career Researchers
Paper: From Judaism to Orthodoxy and Back Again: Apostasy among Converted Jews in the 18th century Russia.
- Karanaev Mikhail N. (Russia, Nizhnekamsk) Early Career Researchers
Paper: Reasons for collaboration of the Jews at the beginning of the Maccabean revolt (167- 160 BC).
- Konstantin Karpekin (Belarus, Vitebsk) Early Career Researchers
- Kuznetsova Ekaterina (Israel, Jerusalem) MA Student
Paper: Translating Sholem Aleichem: the Problem of Biblical and Talmudic Quotations.
- Lyubchenko Volodimir (Ukraine, Kiev) Early Career Researchers
Paper: Caught into two inhibited lands: Was there a mutual right of residence in the Kingdom of Poland and the Jews of the Empire?
- Marchuk Volodymyr (Ukraine, Rovno) Early Career Researchers
Paper: The professional occupation of the Western Volhyn’s Jewish people during 1921 – 1939.
- Natalia Sineaeva-Pankowska (Poland / Moldova) Early Career Researchers
Paper: Holocaust and national identity in Moldova and Eastern Europe.
- Nekrasova Alesya (Russia, St. Peterburg) Early Career Researchers
Paper: Judaism in the periodical publications of the Union of the Godless. Letters to the editorial office.
- Norkina Ekaterina (Russia, St. Peterburg) Early Career Researchers
Paper: Living in neighbourhood: the Cossacks and the Jews in the villages and cities of the Kuban Cossack area in XIXth – the beginning of the XXth centuries.
- Oksana Remarovych (Ukraine, Kiev) PhD Student
Paper: The role of Judaism in the social and political life of The State of Israel in 1948-1977.
- Pogodina Svetlana (Latvia, Riga) PhD Student
Paper: Ksy!Ksy!: About Religious Jokes on Jews in the material and oral narratives, collected during the ethnographic expeditions that took place in Latgale in summer and winter 2013-2014.
- Radchenko Olga (Ukraine, Cherkassy) Early Career Researchers
Paper: Holocaust in the memories of Ukrainian children of war.
- Rebrova Irina (Germany, Berlin) PhD Student
Paper: Memory about the Holocaust in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russian Discourses on World War II (the Case of North Caucasus)
- Remarovych Oksana (Ukraina, Kiev), PhD Student
Paper: The role of Judaism in the social and political life of The State of Israel in 1948-1977.
- Salivon Oleksiy (Germany, Stuttgart) PhD Student
Paper: Body experiences of the Jewish soldiers in Russia, Germany and Austrian-Hungary in 19th and early 20th century.
- Shapovalov Mikhail (Russia, Omsk) Early Career Researchers
Paper: Representation of “Jewish” in Palestine in the eyes of Russian travellers in the late XIX – early XX centuries.
- Shumskaya Kseniya (Russia, Novosibirsk) Early Career Researchers
Paper: History of formation and development of Jewish education in Georgia: legal aspects.
- Natalia Sineaeva-Pankowska (Poland – Moldova)
Paper: Holocaust and national identity in Moldova and Eastern Europe.
- Sinilo Anatoly (Belarus, Bogushevitchy) Early Career Researchers
Paper: The attributes of the pictures the painter M. L. Maymon from the collection of the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus.
- Sobolevskaja Olga (Belarus, Grodno) Early Career Researchers
Paper: The Letters of Eugenia Ioelson (1888-1914) аs a Source for the Study of Micro-History of Emotions.
- Suchkova Olena (Ukraine, Doneck) Early Career Researchers
Paper: The Role of Jewish Women of Ukraine in the Zionist movement in 1920-s years: Rose Meltzer, BebaIdelson, Clara Klinger.
- Velichko Alena (Latvia, Daugavpils) PhD Student
- Vyatchina Maria (Russia, Kazan) PhD Student
Paper: The reconstruction of the practices of memorialisation of the victims of the Holocaust in Smolensk region.
Selective feedback from the participants:
I am very grateful to the European Association for Jewish Studies for the opportunity to participate in the Twenty-Third Annual International Conference on Jewish Studies and to give a presentation on “The Role of Jewish Women of Ukraine in the Zionist movement in the 1920: Rose Meltzer, Beba Idelson, Clara Klinger” in the section “The State of Israel: Past and Present” (sub-section “From the history of the Zionist movement”). I express my deep gratitude personally to V.V.Mochalova and to all the staff of “Sefer” for the excellent organization of the conference, held at high scientific and practical levels, and for the long-term support to a young researcher in Jewish studies (Olena Suchkova).
I have been delighted to take part in this year’s Sefer Conference. For me, as a post-doctoral student specialized in the study of Jewish literatures in Jewish languages and in Hebrew, this conference was a great opportunity to meet with Russian colleagues I did not know yet (since my academic background is rather a French one) and to present the evolution of my latest researches on the Medieval Hebrew Poet Immanuel of Rome. At this occasion, I have concentrated my attention on the different Yiddish adaptations of the poetic collections of the Hebrew poet. As a whole, I am very satisfied from the conference and I am already looking forward to next year’s conference! (Arnaud Bikard)
Our panel was devoted to the problems of representation of the history of the Holocaust and took place in the last working day. We had the opportunity to listen to and discuss six very deep and rich papers. It is very important to mention that our panel was small so the presentations could be discussed at length. Half of the panelists were young scholars, for whom it is useful to receive a clear feedback or who tried to answer provocative questions. All the papers led to a very productive discussion, which I hope, will help a deeper understanding of the sources, as well as the political and social problems in the East Europe and the history of the Holocaust itself. (Irina Rebrova)