Bogdanow student report

Educational visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau. A recipient of a Bogdanow student travel grant, Zoe Van Schoor, MA, Humanitarianism and Conflict Response, has written about her visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau. Further information.

Screen & Talk

Sacred Sperm. The Centre's next Screen & Talk event includes the screening of 'Sacred Sperm' followed by a Q&A panel with Philip Alexander. It takes place in Manchester's new cultural venue HOME at 8.20pm on Weds 5 July. An eye-opening documentary explores one of the biggest taboos in Judaism. It offers daring exposure of the way parents and rabbis within the Orthodox Jewish community educate their male children to avoid spilling their sperm. Throughout the film, the director seeks a proper way to explain to his teenage son why he should keep this commandment perceived by many as unreasonable and even impossible to fulfill. The event also forms part of the Northern UK Jewish Studies Partnership's annual research collaboration and postgraduate training workshop. Further information.

Research Guide, Anglo-Israel collections

Anglo-Israel relations. We are delighted to announce the availability of Azriel Bermant's Guide to the Anglo-Israel Collections (pdf) at the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester. The research guide covers, among others, the papers of W.P. Crozier (editor of the Manchester Guardian between 1932 and 1944), Lewis Namier (the noted historian and leading supporter of a Jewish homeland), the correspondence of C.P. Scott (editor of the Manchester Guardian between 1872 and 1929) with Zionist leaders and the papers of the Zionist statesman and future president of the State of Israel, Chaim Weizmann. The material here sheds a unique light on the Manchester Guardian’s support for the Balfour Declaration and the Zionist Movement, and will be of interest to scholars working on research projects reappraising the relationship between the Zionist leadership and the British Government in the years leading up to the establishment of the State of Israel. Further information.

Bogdanow student report

Educational visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau. A recipient of a Bogdanow student travel grant, Amy Wisenfeld, MA Peace and Conflict studies, has written about her visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau. Further information.

Postgraduate and Early Career Workshop

For UK-based Jewish Studies research postgraduates and early career researchers. The Centre for Jewish Studies at Manchester University is pleased to announce the second postgraduate research training event of the Northern UK Jewish Studies Partnership. PhD students and post-doctoral researchers from the Jewish Studies Partnership institutions and other universities in the UK are invited to participate in a range of training and information sessions on 4-6 July 2017 at the University of Manchester. The event will include advice sessions on funding applications, public engagement and REF2021, career planning for library, museum and publishing sectors, tips for submitting for publication, as well as a series of sessions on Current Trends in Jewish Studies and, for example, Cultural Studies, Israel Studies, Social Science, and Holocaust Studies. For details including the registration form (deadline: 22 June 2017), funding assistance, accommodation options, and the provisional programme, see further information.

New publication

Festschrift for George Brooke. The Centre is delighted to report the publication of Is There a Text in this Cave? Studies in the Textuality of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Honour of George J. Brooke, edited by Ariel Feldman, Maria Cioată, Charlotte Hempel (Leiden: Brill, 2017). The presentation to George Brooke took place on 11 May, and was followed by a reception sponsored by Brill. Further information.

Paper, University of Oxford

Israel/Palestine studies. Moshe Behar will present a paper titled 'Partition and the Study of Israel/Palestine' at the Israel Studies as a Global Discipline Conference, 28-29 May 2017, University of Oxford. Further information.

Paper, Birkbeck College

Zionism and Antisemitism. Moshe Behar will be presenting a paper on 'Ottoman Jewish views on nominal semitism' at the international conference 'Zionism and Antisemitism,' organised by the Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism,  24-26 May 2017, University of London. Further information.

Modern Hebrew Course

Modern Hebrew course 2017. There are 3 levels of Hebrew courses currently available at the University of Manchester. The cost is £550 to audit these courses (i.e. to participate without formal assessment). The courses will be taught in a mixed teaching environment for classroom-based students alongside distance-learning students (via a swivl robot and video-conferencing link). Further information.

New publication

Migration and Nationality. Lauren Banko, 'Claiming identities in Palestine: Migration and Nationality under the Mandate,' Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. 46, Winter 2017, 26-43. Further information.

Bogdanow student report

Educational visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau. A recipient of a Bogdanow student travel grant, Caitlin Touhey, BA Hons History, has written about her visit to Krakow and Auschwitz. Further information.

Postgraduate Study Day lecture, Manchester

Jewish Engagement with Atheism. Daniel Langton will give a presentation on 'Atheism, Scepticism and the Judeo-Christian Tradition' at the annual Religions & Theology Postgraduate Study Day. 9 June 2017, 6.207 University Place.

Public lecture, Manchester Jewish Museum

Biblical archaeology. In collaboration with the CJS and the Jewish Historical Society of England, the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society presents Yosef Garfinkel (Hebrew University), 'The Quest for the Historical King David: New Light from Khirbet Qeiyafa and Khirbet El Rai'. 7.00-9.30pm, Mon 22 May 2017, Manchester Jewish Museum. Further information.

New publication

Anti-Judaism in Methodism. Simon Mayers, '"Monuments" to the Truth of Christianity: Anti-Judaism in the Works of Adam Clarke', Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 93:1 (Spring 2017). Further information. See also Dr Mayers' recent Research Guide to Jews and Methodism in the Rylands Library.

New publication

Eastern Jewish thought in Palestine. Moshe Behar, '1911: The Birth of the Mizrahi–Ashkenazi Controversy' in Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 16:2 (2017), 312-331. This was published in the special section, guest-edited by Dr Behar, entitled 'Fusing Arab Nahda, European Haskalah and Euro-Zionism: Eastern Jewish thought in late-Ottoman and post-Ottoman Palestine'. Further information.

New publication

Dead Sea Scrolls. George J. Brooke, 'Choosing between Papyrus and Skin: Cultural Complexity and Multiple Identities in the Qumran Library' in Mladen Popović, Myles Schoonover and Marijn Vandenberghe, eds., Jewish Cultural Encounters in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern World (Leiden: Brill, 2017). Further information.

Research Guide, Haskalah collection

The Jewish Enlightenment. We are delighted to announce the availability of Rebecca Wolpe's Guide to the Haskalah Collection (pdf) at the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, which complements the library's catalogue description (online).

Paper, Ben Gurion University

Israel/Palestine studies. Moshe Behar will be giving a paper at Ben Gurion University on a debate between the Marxists of Israel/Palestine following the 1967 war. 4 April 2017. Further information.

Bogdanow student report

Auschwitz and Commemoration. A recipient of a Bogdanow student travel grant, Ellie Stenson, BA Hons English Literature, has written about her visit to Krakow and Auschwitz. Further information.

New publication, blog

Fragments of ordinary lives. Bill Williams and PhD student Tereza Ward have established a new blog called 'Fragments', featuring the historical miscellania left behind by everyday people living in Manchester, including Jews. Further information.