PhD completion

Hedva Abel on Literary Structures of the rabbinic Midrash Mekhilta. The Centre would like to congratulate Hedva Abel on the successful defence of her doctoral thesis, "Aspects of the Lemmatic Sequencing and Thematic Agenda of the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael". Her supervisor was Prof. Alex Samely and the external examiner was Dr. Willem Smelik. See the list of current PhD students in the area of Jewish Studies at Manchester.

Israel/Palestine Workshop

Social media and Political Horizons: Israel/Palestine, the Middle East and Beyond. Adi Kuntman has co-organised this event with Rebecca Stein of Duke University on 14 June 2013. At the core of this workshop is a rethinking of the so-called 'digital democracy' proposition – that is, an argument about the ways that digital technologies, chiefly social media, can advance pro-democracy politics. Registration deadline is 10 June 2013.  Further information.

British Academy Postdoc Fellowship

New Gaster Project funding. Maria Haralambakis, who is currently a fellow at New Europe College, Bucharest, will be returning to Manchester in Sept 2013 to begin a three year British Academy postdoctoral fellowship entitled 'Moses Gaster (1856–1939): Eclectic Collector'. Further information.

Debate at the House of Commons

Round Table Discussion on the Left and Israel. Jean-Marc Dreyfus contributed to a debate on the topic of "The Left and Israel: Is the debate closed?" conducted under the auspices of the Labour Friends of Israel / Institute of Ideas, which took place at the House of Commons on Wednesday 24 April.