Workshop 2016
Eastern Jews and Christians in Interaction and Exchange in the Islamic World and Beyond. A Comparative View
Ra’anana and Jerusalem, Israel, 22-23/06/2016
The JewsEast team in the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) collaborated with the Ben-Zvi Institute (BZI) of the Hebrew University (HU) in Jerusalem and with the Center for the Study of Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations (JCMCentre) of the Open University in Ra’anana in organizing a workshop. The main objective of the workshop was to boost the JewsEast project in Israel by collaborating with the Ben-Zvi Institute which is dedicated for the purpose of studying Eastern Jewish communities from late antiquity to the present time. Indeed, some of the few experts in Jewish communities or Judaism in Eastern Christian regions have collaborated with the BZI for over five decades in research directly related with the topic examined by JewsEast.
Among the contributing scholars were HU senior scholars: Constantine Lerner (Georgia), Michael Stone (Armenia), Steven Kaplan (Ethiopia), Sarah Stroumsa (Eastern Mediterranean), Ronit Ricci (Southeast Asia) and David Shulman (South India). Among the expert scholars from other universities were Uriel Simohnson (Haifa, Eastern Mediterranenan), Menashe Anzi (Be’er Sheva, Yemen) and Mordechai Akiva Friedmann (Tel Aviv, Cairo Genizah). The workshop also attracted scholars from abroad: Scaria Zacharia from Kerala in India (Jews and Christians in South India) and Giuseppe Cecere from Bologna (Sufism). Young and brilliant scholars participated as well: Bar Kribus (Ethiopia), Moshe Yagur (Cairo Geniza) and Ofir Haim (Afghan Geniza) from the Hebrew University, Michal Ohana from Ben-Gurion University (Morocco) and Yosaif Mordechai Dobovich (Syriac and Aramaic).
Our team members Alexandra Cuffel (PI), Zara Pogossian, Sophia Dege-Müller and Ophira Gamliel (KHK) from the RUB, Istvàn Perczel from the Central European University (CEU) and Verena Krebs (Buber Fellows, HU) presented preliminary studies on the Eastern Jewish-Christian relations real, reflected upon or imaginary.
The organizers on part of the Ben-Zvi Institute (Eyal Ginio, Hebrew University) and Mustafa Kabha (JCMCentre) have expressed their interest in future collaboration. A volume of the proceedings in the open-access, online journal Entangled Religions was published.
