Melilah 2015

New volume (12) on the theme of 'Atheism, Scepticism and Challenges to Monotheism'. Announcing the online publication of the latest volume of the Centre's Open Access journal Melilah. This volume, edited by Daniel Langton, is the Proceedings of the British Association for Jewish Studies (BAJS) conference 2015. Contributors include Kenneth Seeskin, Joshua Moss, David Ruderman, Benjamin Williams, Károly Dániel Dobos, Jeremy Fogel, Michael Miller, Federico Dal Bo, Norman Solomon, Melissa Raphael, Daniel Langton, Avner Dinur, and Khayke Beruriah Wiegand. Further information.

Research program, Pennsylvania University

Call for fellowship applications. The Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at Pennsylvania University has issued a call for applications for (funded) fellowships for their one-year research programme for 2017-18 'Nature between Science and Religion: Jewish Culture and the Natural World' designed by Daniel Langton (Manchester) and David Shyowitz (Northwestern). Further information.

New publication

Gaster studies. Maria Cioată, 'Moses Gaster, Friedrich Horn and the Background to the Settlement of Samarin,' Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 92.1 (2016): 27-51. Further information.

Research seminars in Israel Studies 2016

Israel Studies. This year's University of Manchester research seminar programme in Israel Studies is now listed online; the first seminar will take place in October 2016. If you missed them, you can watch podcasts of last year's research seminars online.

Bogdanow lectures 2017

The Church and the Holocaust. We are delighted to announce that the speaker for the Bogdanow Lectures in Holocaust Studies for 2017 is Dr Vicki Barnett, director of the Programs on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust at the Washington Holocaust Memorial Museum. The series is entitled 'The Church and the Holocaust' and she will give lectures on 'The Unfinished Hero: Dietrich Bonhoeffer in History' and 'International Responses from Catholics, Jews and Protestants'. 30 and 31 January 2017.  Further details.

BAJS student essay prize 2016

Manchester award winner. The annual national postgraduate Student Essay prize offered by the British Association for Jewish Studies was awarded to a Manchester student this year: Miruna Belea, 'The Magical Use of Religious Texts: A Cognitive Approach to Religious and Cultural Textual Elements on an Amulet from Gaster's Collection at the John Rylands Library' (supervised by Todd Klutz). Further information.

Conference contributors, BAHS 2016

Holocaust Studies. Contributors from Manchester at the forthcoming BAHS Conference 2016, which has as its theme 'The presence of the Holocaust in society, politics and culture, c.1970–2015’, include the Kagan Fellow Ion Popa, 'Communist/Post-Communist Official Remembrance of the Local Involvement in the Holocaust: a comparison between Poland and Romania' and an MA student Caroline Kaye, '"The Wicker Man" (1973): Film Reflecting the Holocaust'  UCL, London: 19-21 July 2016. Further information.

Bles student prize 2016

Undergraduate student prizes in Hebrew Studies. The Bles Hebrew Prizes are awarded annually for 'the encouragement of Hebrew studies' at the University of Manchester. These prizes are usually awarded for performance in the Hebrew Language course units taught by Sophie Garside and Malka Hodgson. For 2016 a prize of £100 was awarded to Jake Herman (level 3). Further information.

New publication

Jews and Cosmopolitanism. Cathy Gelbin, ’Nomadic Cosmopolitanism: Jewish Prototypes of the Cosmopolitan in the Writings of Stefan Zweig, Joseph Roth and Lion Feuchtwanger, 1918-1933' in Journal for Jewish Culture and History 16/02 (2015), 157-177. Further information.

New publication

German-Jewish History and Culture. Cathy Gelbin is co-editor of Leo Baeck Institute Year Book. The Journal for German-Jewish History and Culture (OUP) No 60 / 2015. Further information.

Philip Alexander student essay prize 2016

Undergraduate student prize in Jewish Studies. The winner for 2016 is Chloe Fullerton for her dissertation entitled 'To what extent is colonialism, through the British Mandate legislation in Palestine, still existent?' (supervised by Moshe Behar). This £100 prize is awarded annually to the student with 'the highest grade in a Jewish Studies-related module or dissertation' at the University of Manchester. It honours the Centre's first co-director Philip Alexander, FBA. Further information.

New lecturer position in Religions and Theology, Manchester

3 year post at University of Manchester, suitable for specialist in Jewish-Christian relations. "You will hold a good first degree and a completed or near-completed PhD in Theology, Biblical Studies, Religious Studies, or a related discipline, have broad expertise in Religious Studies (especially in the Christian tradition), and be flexible and adaptable, including being willing to teach outside your own research area." Period of post: 1 September 2016 to 31 August 2019. Deadline for application: 22 July 2016. Further information.

Conference contributors, BAJS 2016

The Texture of Jewish Tradition: Investigations in Textuality. Contributors from Manchester to the BAJS Conference 2016 include Dr Maria Cioată, 'Medieval  Hebrew Tellings of Tobit: Versions of the Book of Tobit, or New Texts?', and Prof. Philip Alexander, 'Written v. Oral Texts in Jewish Tradition Illustrated from the Toledot Yeshu', and Prof. Daniel Langton, 'Rethinking Reform Judaism as ‘a Response to Modernity’: Nineteenth-Century North American Jews and the Discourse of Doubt', and Dr Simon Mayers, 'Merely Murdered in Odium Fidei: Jewish and Catholic Responses to Herbert Thurston’s “Defence” of the Jews (1898 - 1913)', and Dr Katharina Keim, 'The Samaritan Collections of Moses Gaster: Material and Text'. Birmingham, 10-12 July 2016. Further information.

Antisemitism workshop, Berlin

Antisemitism and sociology. With Michal Bodemann, Eva-Maria Ziege, Werner Bergmann and others, Marcel Stoetzler will present at a public workshop on 'Antisemitism and the Constitution of Sociology' at the Berlin Technical University, Centre for Antisemitism Research, Tue 5 July, 4-8pm. Further information.