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The scholars could choose from 22 divisions on topics including the Bible, Rabbinic Literature, Ancient, Medieval and Modern Jewish History and Literature, Mysticism, Art, Gender and more. Special sessions were devoted to the rising role of Digital Jewish Studies, to the opening keynote lecture on Jewish bibliophilia by Judith Olszowy-Schlanger (OCHS, EPHE), and to a public dialogue between Richard I. Cohen (Hebrew University) and David B. Ruderman (University of Pennsylvania), on the past and future of Jewish studies.

Daniel R. Schwartz, a member of our executive board, greeted the congress participants on behalf of the World Union at the opening event and pointed out the long-standing partnership between the two organizations.

The sessions included the sources of cultural heritage, such as archives, museums, and libraries; the role of poetry, music, and dance for identity formation and memory, and the impact of networks and publications in the Sephardi diaspora.

At the festive opening session, Prof. Haviva Pedaya presented her keynote lecture “Looking east and west: Memory and identity in literature and history.” Another festive evening featured the concert “A living memory from the outskirts of the Sahara,” performed by the Piyyut Ensemble.

A special session presented the work of the research and study centers at the Ben-Zvi institute, their achievements and challenges.
Heated debates emerged during the closing session about the changing role of the study of Jewish communities in the Muslim world, particularly within the field of Jewish Studies, as well as the recognition of disciplines such as ethnography and folklore as part of that research over time.
The conference was a particularly fascinating celebration of the Ben-Zvi Institute’s important work during the last 75 years for the study of Jewish communities in the Muslim world.

For the recorded lectures click here.

The conference displayed original research in many fields of Jewish Studies, and invited for the second time participants from different universities. The two-day conference included a large number of lectures in diverse fields: Bible and the Ancient East, Rabbinic Literature, Talmud, Jewish Philosophy, The History of the Jewish People, Literature and Folklore, Zohar and Kabbalah, Arts and Languages.

The fruitful gathering of doctoral students from different Israeli universities is an opportunity for early career scholars to learn about the trends in Jewish Studies in Israel and gives them a chance to present their work to junior as well as senior scholars.

This year’s organizing committee included representatives from various fields of research at the Institute of Jewish Studies: Shir Twerski, Lotem Romano, Elyashiv Cherlow, Hananel Shapira, Tal Henia and Nocham Baitner, supported by the head of the Institute Prof. Noah Hacham and the Secretaries Anat Jani and Adva Cohen.

Professors Michael Segal (Hebrew University) and Olivier Munnich (Sorbonne) gave the main papers, which set out provocatively different reconstructions of both the growth of the story through (or into) the Old Geek and Theodotionic versions, and the manner in which the story came to be attached to the Greek Daniel. The respondents reacted to diverse aspects of the main papers, reflecting different theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. Dr. Naama Golan (Kibbutzim College and Bar-Ilan University) commented on the theological dimension of the speakers’ approaches and developed further a literary reading of their seminal observations. Professor Reinhard Kratz (Göttingen) discussed the literary-historical aspects of the various models, and their implications for the task of constructing a critical edition of the text. Dr. Orit Malka (Hebrew University) discussed connections (or the lack thereof) between legal aspects of the Susanna scene and currents in Second Temple practice. One of many significant elements that emerged from the discussion was the importance of taking into account the history of the manuscript evidence in reconstructing the literary development of the text(s); Papyrus 967, the only source for a pre-Hexaplaric Greek Susanna, figured prominently in both of the primary papers.

It was followed by a tour of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Scrolls Laboratory (where reconstruction and preservation of the scrolls are carried out) and the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book (where the bulk of the Dead Sea Scrolls are displayed); guided by Prof. Noam Mizrahi, Head of the Orion Center at the Hebrew University. In addition to seeing some of the scrolls themselves, this gave participants the opportunity to meet some of the scrolls’ conservators and have a glimpse of their work in progress—a fitting closure to the intensive learning of the workshop itself.

The goal was to establish familiarity with the tools and methodology used in digital reconstruction and to provide the practical tools for the independent continuation of such work. Twelve participants from five countries, from diverse scholarly fields, and with different levels of digital expertise, were introduced to relevant software and various digital techniques. The workshop began with a broad survey of the finds from the Judean desert; of the history of their sorting, cataloging, and preservation; and finally, of their recent digitalization. The participants were then introduced to the graphic software GIMP and to the process of preparing the images of a fragment for the reconstruction process. The third session focused on digital paleography and font design; the principles of digital font preparation were discussed and practiced. The final sessions introduced the concept of the digital canvas; that is, the digital platform on which the scroll is recreated. Using Adobe InDesign, the participants recreated three columns of a scroll from Qumran. Thus, the workshop was not merely theoretical but included the hands-on practice of methods and procedures required for digital reconstruction of scroll fragments, using participants’ personal computers, and aimed at their scholarly interests.