In this conference about the languages of Medievel Jews in Ashkenaz, we heard four lectures that discussed various aspects of Jews' use of language in the Middle-Ages. The speakers were Prof. Judith Olszovy-Schlanger (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes), Dr. Micah Perry (Haifa University), Dr. Peter Lenhardt (Ben-Gurion University) and Prof. Chava Turniansky (The Hebrew University).

On April 9 and 11, Dr. Rainer Barzen of the University of Münster conducted a workshop for members of the 'Beyond the Elite' research group. The workshop focused on the political and cultural geography and topography of Jews and Christian in the medieval German lands, and included four sections. The first discussed general regional distinctions and cultural development in the medieval German lands, without focusing on Jews in particular. The second section studied local and regional politics in the area, with more emphasis on the role that Jews played in these political dynamic. The third section was dedicated to the relations between Jews and Christians in the German urban space, and the last section focused on buildings, inscriptions, and the internal dynamics of Jewish communities. Dr. Barzen's impressive knowledge of the Latin, vernacular and Hebrew primary sources allowed him to present a fascinating discussion of these issues.

Prof. Boto Varelo from the University of Girona has conducted a workshop discussing the development of cathedral cities during the Middle-Ages.

In the first session (05/03/18), we studied the impact of cathedrals on urban planning and development – through the prisms of architecture, institutions and people. Since cathedrals have been a monumental aspect of European urban landscape and for centuries, we tried to understand how church has marked the city and shaped the public space. 

In the second session (07/03/18), Prof. Boto Varela presented Tarragona as an unusual case study of medieval urban settlements, while comparing it to other medieval European cathedral cities. He showed that while the Roman past of Tarragona influenced the layout of medieval settlement, citizens organized the new city according to new ideas and needs.

We also toured the old city of Jerusalem, visited the Holy Sepulcher, Church of the Redeemer and the Cardo, learning about the relationship between cathedrals, the space surrounding them and urban activities. 

On the final day of the workshop (08/03/18), Prof. Boto Varela gave a public lecture titled "Effective Acoustics in Iberian High-Medieval Architecture".  

During the conference, dealing with Jewish material culture in Medievel Ashkenaz, the five speakers raised various aspects of Jews' use and understanding of material culture and objects in the Middle-Ages. The speakers were Prof. Paola Tartakoff (Rutgers University), Pro. Sarah-Grace Heller (Ohio State University), Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Prof. David Shyovitz (Northwestern University) and Tanja Potthoff (MiQua, Cologne).

The international conference "Jewish Women’s Cultural Capital under Islam" was held in Israel Institute for Advanced Studies on Givat Ram in Jerusalem on 12 to 14 June 2017.

The objective of this conference was to place center stage the cultural status of Jewish women in societies characterized by Islamic dominance, or a significant Muslim presence. By examining the lives of Jewish women across the Muslim world, from Afghanistan to Morocco, from Yemen to Ottoman Europe and from the Middle Ages until the modern period, we focused attention on varieties of women's cultural capital and offer comparative perspectives.

What were the types of cultural capital available for women? How might women leverage cultural capital into improved social status? What was the relationship between Muslim standards of accepted female behaviors and Jewish ones? How did Jewish society respond to fashions and trends set by their Muslim neighbors? How did Jewish women's behavior affect Muslim society? What were the politics of family life in the differential cultural and social settings?  How important was religion as a vehicle both for maintaining gender relations and for altering them?  What different kinds of circumstances fostered crossing gender boundaries and what were the methods for doing so?

Always hovering was the question of the differences and similarities between Jewish and non-Jewish cultures. Jewish women in many ways serve as a test case. For example, what connected minority and majority cultures and what separated them? By analyzing Jewish women's lives discover a shared band of culture and determine its strengths and widths alongside its absences. On the other hand we examined to what degree cultural accommodation combined with social alienation typify Jewish women's lives wherever they lived.

We also questioned how strong a factor the cultural construction of gender was in determining the social order. Did Jews' minority status necessitate adjustments in gender hierarchies that non-Jews were exempt from? Or was gender so fundamental that economics, law, politics and sociology were usually in its service?

In relations with non-Jews, how did gender tropes and Jewish stereotypes interact? Did anti-Judaism and Jew-hatred trump gender, or perhaps reinforce it?

With respect to the comparative dimension, we encouraged comparison of the cultural circumstances of Jewish women in a variety of Muslim societies. In addition we compared Jewish women's cultural capital under Islam with that of Jewish women in Christian-dominated societies in Ashkenaz, modern European states and elsewhere. Such comparisons can help assess those aspects of women's cultural experience that derive from Jewish culture, and connections with other Jews, and how they are affected by the hegemonic culture.

On 13 May, members of "Beyond the Elite" research group went on a five-day research trip to Germany. This visit allowed us to study the archaeological sites that contain evidence of Jewish existence from the Middle Ages, and meet some of the leading scholars of the field. On each of the days we visited different cities:

13 May - Erfurt

14 May - Trier

15 May - Worms and Speyer

16 May - Cologne

17 May - Friedberg in Hesse

Greetings: 

Elisheva Baumgarten (on behalf of the committee)

Elchanan Reiner (The National Library)

Katrin Kogman Appel (University of Munster)  - "איורי מחזור לייפציג ועולמו של ר' אלעזר מוורמס" 

Round table: Research on Sefer Hasidim, Present and Future Directions

Participants:

Elisheva Baumgarten (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Elizabeth Hollander ( Goethe University, Frankfurt), Ephraim Shoham-Steiner (Ben-Gurion University)

Session 1: Sefer Hasidim as a Compiled Text

Chair: Ephraim Shoham Steiner (Ben Gurion University)

Participants:

Ivan Marcus (Yale University) - "Sefer Hasidim, its Author, and Hasidei Ashkenaz in Historical context"

Saskia Donitz (Goethe University, Frankfurt) - "Sefer Hasidim in Manuscripts- Transmissions and Compliation: A response"

David Shyowitz (Northwestern University) - Response

Session 2: Sefer Hasidim as a Halakhic Text 

Chair: David Shyowitz (Northwestern University)

Participants:

Avraham (Rami) Reiner ( Ben-Gurion University) - "Halakha and Practice in Sefer Hasidim" 

Pinhas Roth (Bar Ilan University) - "Halakha in Sefer Hasidim: A Response"

Judah Galinsky (Bar Ilan University) - "R. Issac heHasid of Corbeil and R. Judah heHasid of Regensburg: A Response"   

Session 3: Sefer Hasidim as Narrative Text

Participants:

Eli Yassif (Tel Aviv University) - "The Tension between Learned Judaism and European Folk-Culture as Reflected in Sefer Hasidim

David Rothman (Achva Academic College and Tel-Aviv University) - "Neither Folk-Literature nor Belles-Lettres: Social Tensions and Literary Genres in the stories of Sefer Hasidim: A Response"

Talya Fishman (University of Pennsylvania) - A Response

Session 4: Sefer Hasidim and its Local Context

Participants:

Ahuva Liberales Noiman (Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Center for the Study of Conversion) - "Concepts of Localization in the Writings of Rabbi Judah heHasid"

Adam Cohen (University of Toronto) - "Imitator of the Old Law/ Advocate of Revealed Grace: Visualizing Jews and Christians in the Twelfth Century Regensburg"

Ephraim Kanarfogel (Yeshiva University) - "R. Judah heHasid and the Tosafists of Northern France: Points of Similarity and Divergence"

Session 5: Hasidei Ashkenaz: Crossing Borders

Chair: Joseph Issac Lifshitz

Simcha Emanual (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) - "From Joshua b. Nun Until R. Moses of Lucca: R. Judah heHasid's Attempts to Identifuy the Stratification of the Prayer Book"

Rainer Josef Barzen (University of Munster) - West and East in Ashkenaz in the Time of Judah heHasid"

Moshe David Chechik (Henrew University of Jerusalem) - "From Regensburg to Cracow: Rabbi Michel Moravchik and the Legacy of Hasidei Ashkenaz"

Session 6: Sefer Hasidim: Reception in the Early Modern Judaism

Chair: Debra Kaplan (Bar Ilan University)

Lucia Raspe (Goethe University, Frankfurt and the Jewish Museum, Berlin) - "Between ShUM and Regensburg: Space and Place in the Early Modern Narrative Traditions about R. Judah heHasid"

Yaakob Dweck (Princeton University) - "Sefer Hasidim in Early Modern Europe"

Session 7: Sefer Hasidim: Reception in Halakha and Literature

Chair: Chava Turniansky (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Elisabeth Hollander (Goethe University, Frankfurt) - "Piyyut Commentary as Ethical Literature among Hasidei Ashkenaz"

Rella Kushelevsky (Bar Ilan University) - Traces of Hasidut Ashkenaz in Medieval Collections of Tales"

Yakov Elbaum (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) - Traces of Sefer Hasidim within the Literature of Early Modern Polish and Ashkenazi Jews"    

Session 8: Sefer Hasidim and Social History

Chair: Micha Perry (Haifa University)

Eyal Levinson (Bar Ilan University, ERC Hebrew University of Jerusalem) - "The Friend Visits him Frequently and Reveals his Secret: Hasidei Ashkenaz and Male Friendship"

Susan Weissman (Touro College) - "Prayer for the Dead in Sefer Hasidim"

Judith Baskin (University of Oregon) - "Representations of Biblical Women in Sefer Hasidim"

Session 9: Sefer Hasidim and Mysticism 

Chair: Elisabeth Hollander (Goethe University, Frankfurt)

Inbal Gur (Bar Ilan University) - "The Complexity of the Book of Angels in Various Manuscripts"

Sarah Offenberg (Ben Gurion University) - "Hasidic Ideals as Expressed in Medieval Jewish Art"

Daniel Abrams (Bar Ilan University) - "An Unknown Manuscript Source of the Hermeneutic Gates by Rabbi Elazar of Worms: a Response to the Death of Rabbi Judah heHasid"   

Session 10: Roundtable, Conclusions

Chair: Elisheva Baumgarten (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Participants:

Elisheva Karlebach (Columbia University)

Micha Perry (Haifa University)

Ephraim Shoham Steiner (Ben Gurion University)

The workshop "Visual and Material in Medieval and Early Modern Jewish Culture" was organized by the Institute for Jewish Studies and the Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics" of the University of Münster, in cooperation with the ERC "Beyond the Elite" Project. The workshop was held at the University of Münster on 17-20 July, 2017.

The workshop brought together scholars from various fields of Jewish studies to discuss issues of the visual, visualization, material culture and the mediation of sight from a variety of view points: legal texts and responsa, philosophy, science, mysticism, exegesis, poetics, and others. They presented insights into questions of idolatry, iconoclasm, beauty, local culture, of possible didactic functions of images and objects, of their reception and rejection.

Members of "Beyond the Elite" project presented three of the lectures:

Elisheva Baumgarten's talk, "Marked Identity: Clothes and Creating Religious Belonging", discussed the importance of understanding what clothes Jews wore and their visibility as both an internal Jewish code and an external message to Christian neighbors. Her talk focused on two issues: how Jews marked their identity in subtle ways seen only by those who were familiar with these internal codes and what clothes Jews wore as part of internal events and rituals and the meanings they imparted. All in all the talk sought to outline the importance of investigating these matters as part of creating a better understanding of medieval every day life.

Neta Bodner's talk "Design and Material of Medieval Mikvaot in Ashkenaz", discussed the architecture on monumental Mikvaot in medieval Germany, and their cultural and ritual meaning.

Tzafrir Barzilay's talk, "How to Poison a Well: Water and Danger in 14th Century Jewish sources", discussed the material aspects of well-poisoning accusations. It showed that both Jews and Christians tended to present water poisoning in symbolic terms, rather than in sharp medical or empirical language.  However, while Christian sources contain some evidance of this new empirical terminology starting at the mid- 14th century, Jewish sources do so only at the Early Modern Period.

On 27 March 2017, Prof. Judith Baskin of the University of Oregon, Prof. Eva Haverkamp of the Ludwig-Maximilians University and Dr. Ephraim Shoham-Steiner of Ben-Gurion University joined us for a workshop focusing on Water in medieval Ashkenaz. Dr. Neta Bodner presented a paper titled "Monumental Architecture Underground: The Friedberg Jewish Ritual Bath (1260) as Case Study". She showed how the architecture of the Mikveh of the city of Friedberg could teach us about the social life of the local Jewish community.

Dr. Tzafrir Barzilay Presented a paper titled "The Well-Poisoning Conspiracy of 1390: A Political Attack?". He argued that well-poisoning accusations presented in France against paupers and beggars in 1390 were used by the Crown to fortify royal authority and undermine its political opposition.  

The guest researchers and members of the team commented on these papers, and discussed aspects of the social history of water and its use in medieval Ashkenaz.