MA Jewish Studies

Our MA Jewish Studies programme draws on the expertise of leading scholars across the Centre, with a wide variety of courses on offer. These include: Jews among Christians and Muslims; Bible and Early Judaism in context; the Holocaust in History; Darwinism in Jewish Thought; and many more including Hebrew language (both biblical and modern) and literature. Further details

Rare Jewish Text

Yaakov Wise, an honorary fellow of the CJS, has discovered a rare Jewish book in Salford. This 137-year-old text is a Poona Haggadah and was used by the Bene Israel community at Passover. Further details   

Cathy Gelbin on BBC Radio Manchester

Dr. Cathy Gelbin discusses the legend of the Golem. The Hulk, Superman and the Terminator are all modern echoes of the Golem, one of the most instantly recognisable icons of Jewish popular culture. Dr Cathy Gelbin has recently published The Golem Returns and on Monday 18 July she will speak to Nigel Soni on BBC Radio Manchester's 'Jewish Citizen Manchester' (95.1 FM / DAB) to explain more about the legend of the Golem.

Francesca Frazer on BBC Radio Manchester

Francesca Frazer discusses the Council of Christians and Jews. On Monday 18 July at 7pm, CJS co-administrator and current PhD student, Francesca Frazer will be interviewed by Basil Herwald on BBC Radio Manchester's 'Jewish Citizen Manchester' (95.1FM / DAB). Also a committee member of Manchester's Council of Christians and Jews, she will be interviewed about CCJ Manchester’s activities, her recent trip, with co-chairs David and Steve, to the ICCJ conference in Cracow and her visit to Auschwitz at the beginning of this month.

Recent Publication

Cathy Gelbin, 'The Golem Returns'. Cathy Gelbin, The Golem Returns: From German Romantic Literature to Global Jewish Culture, 1808-2008 (Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2010). Further details

The Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society Summer Lecture

The Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society, Manchester Lectures Series, Summer 2011. The Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society will be holding its Manchester summer lecture on Thursday 26 May. The lecture will be presented by Dr. Walter Houston, and is entitled “Some thoughts on the Bible’s Buried Secrets”:

“The talk will briefly address questions raised by the BBC2 television series 'The Bible's Buried Secrets', and examine its effectiveness and reliability as a popular introduction to current scholarship on the history of ancient Israel and Judah and its possible theological implications.”

The lecture will take place in room A202, Samuel Alexander Building (building 67 on the Campus Map), 2:00pm-3:30pm, followed by light refreshments. All are welcome, and there is no charge to attend. If you would like to attend the lecture, kindly contact Dr. Adrian Curtis (adrian.curtis@manchester.ac.uk) to indicate your interest. Please see the event poster for more information about the lecture and the speaker.

First Annual Makin Lecture in Jewish Studies

The First Annual Makin Lecture in Jewish Studies will be delivered by Professor Guy Stroumsa (Jerusalem, Oxford). It will take place on Wednesday May 25th, at 5.30 p.m. in Lecture Theatre L in the World of Difference Lecture Block, Liverpool Hope University, on "Teaching the Abrahamic Religions: a Subversive Enterprise".

Professor Stroumsa has provided the following abstract: "I wish to call attention to the great complexity of the comparative study of the monotheistic religions. I seek, moreover, to highlight the distinction between the comparative study, a scholarly enterprise, and the interfaith approach, whose goals are highly different. I also propose a new, integrative approach, and lay out the inevitable tensions between traditional religious orthodoxies and the new approach to the Abrahamic religions."

There will also be an informal seminar on Jewish-Christian Relations (ancient and modern) at 3.00 p.m. (until about 4.30) in Room FML 058.  A cup of tea will be available in the foyer outside the lecture theatre from 5.00 p.m.

Guy G. Stroumsa is Professor of the Study of the Abrahamic Religions and Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, and Martin Buber Professor of Comparative Religion Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Born in Paris, Professor Stroumsa studied in France and Israel and has a Ph.D. (with distinction) from Harvard. He is a Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Zurich, and a Member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before moving to Oxford in 2009.  Most of his ten authored books focus on the cultural origins of early Christianity, in relation to Gnosticism, Judaism and Paganism, and include The End of Sacrifice: Religious Transformations of Late Antiquity and La formazione dell'identita cristiana. His most recent book is A New Science: The Discovery of Religion in the Age of Reason (Harvard University Press, 2010).

Rev. Roger Tomes

We note with sadness the passing of CJS fellow Rev. F. Roger Tomes on 03 April. Roger was very committed to the interfaith aspect of CJS's profile and we include here his article on liturgical collaboration between Jews and Christians. On Friday 17 June there will be a Service of Thanksgiving for Roger's life and work at Wilbraham St. Ninian's United Reformed Church. This service is open to all, including colleagues, friends and former students. If you wish to attend please contact Chris Tomes.  

Holocaust Workshop

Holocaust Workshop at the Imperial War Museum North, 13 May 2011. The Centre for Jewish Studies and the Department of Religions and Theology at the University of Manchester together with the Imperial War Museum North are presenting a free one-day conference on Friday 13 May entitled "Teaching the Holocaust in 21st Century Britain". The conference is aimed at Secondary and Primary school teachers, BA/MA Education and PGCE students. You are welcome to peruse a poster advertising the conference, and further details regarding the conference programme. If you would like to book a place, please get in contact with Amy Ryall, Professional Development Manager, at aryall@iwm.org.uk. 

Recent Publication

Jewish Readings of Paul. Daniel Langton, 'Jewish Readings of Paul' in Blackwell Companion to Paul, ed., Stephen Westerholm (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2011), 55-72. Further details

Sherman Lectures 2011: 'Toleration within Judaism'

The Centre for Jewish Studies would like to invite you to this year’s Sherman Lectures, Mon 16 - Thurs 19 May 2011, 5.15pm, featuring Martin Goodman of the University of Oxford. The daily venue is Room A101 in the Samuel Alexander Building, University of Manchester (Building 67 on Campus Map). All are welcome to attend, and all events are free of charge. If you would like to help publicise this event, please download the poster. 
 

Series Abstract: Varied forms of Judaism have coexisted throughout most of Jewish history. Religious differences have sometimes led to conflict, but at other times Jews have tolerated different practices and beliefs within their communities. The lectures seek to trace and explain some cases of toleration within Judaism from the period of the Second Temple to the present.

1. Monday 16 May: ‘The Study of Toleration within Judaism’ (Also the Sherman Community Lecture, in conjunction with the Jewish Representative Council and ZCC). Followed by CJS kosher reception.

The lecture will investigate when and why Jews have tolerated within their communities religious practices and beliefs to which they object, examining what we mean by ‘toleration’ and how Jews have expressed notions of toleration in different periods. The lecture will propose procedures for discovering cases of toleration in practice despite the concentration of so much of the surviving evidence on conflict and division within Judaism.

2. Tuesday 17 May: ‘Toleration in late Second Temple Judaism: Sadducees, Pharisees and others’

Jews in the first century CE interpreted the Torah in varied fashions, resulting in disparate lifestyles and theologies, but almost all of them shared allegiance to a single Temple which was administered by a hierarchy appointed from within a hereditary caste of priests. The lecture will examine how these Jews accommodated themselves to the inevitability that the Temple was run by the priests in a way that must always have seemed to one group of Jews or another to be an infringement of the requirements of the Torah as they interpreted it.

3. Wednesday 18 May: ‘The Houses of Hillel and Shammai in rabbinic tradition’ 

The Mishnah refers to a series of halakhic disputes between the House of Hillel and the House of Shammai. The lecture will investigate why these disputes were recorded and how the attitude of the editor of the Mishnah to these disagreements differed from that attested in other rabbinic traditions.

4. Thursday 19 May: ‘Reasons for toleration within Judaism (from antiquity to now)’

The lecture will investigate why differences in theology and practice sometimes lead to conflict and sometimes seem unimportant, examining different explanations for toleration in specific case studies in the history of Judaism from the Second Temple period to now.

Masterclass
There will be a Masterclass for Postgraduate Students on Research Methods with Prof. Goodman on Thursday 19 May at 10:00am in Room A116 of the Samuel Alexander Building. The Masterclass will be chaired by Prof. Philip Alexander. Any postgraduate students who wish to attend are welcome to email cjs@manchester.ac.uk, in order to allow us to know how many plan on joining the session. All are welcome.

Martin Goodman is Professor of Jewish Studies and Fellow of Wolfson College, University of Oxford. His research interests are primarily in the political, social and religious history of the Jews in the Roman empire. He has focussed in particular on the relationship of the Jews to the wider Roman world in which they lived. Publications