Podcast, Sherman Community Lecture 2022

Modern Jewish Studies. We are delighted to announce that the podcast of Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz's Sherman Community Lecture, entitled "A Jewel in the Crown of Anglo-Jewry? History of Limmud", is now available to view. View again.

Yom Hashoah Manchester 2023

Holocaust Studies. Yom Hashoah Manchester is one of the largest annual Jewish commemorations of the Holocaust in the UK.  This year the event will be held at the Bridgewater Hall on Monday 17 April. Professor Rebecca Clifford will be the guest speaker.  Doors open 7.15pm. Event starts 7.45pm.  Tickets are free and can be booked here.  Further information.

Traces of Displacement

Whitworth exhibition.  This exhibition uses the Whitworth’s collection to address one of the major humanitarian concerns of the 20th and 21st centuries – forced displacement.  Traces of Displacement uncovers stories of persecution, creativity, and resilience, and the experiences of artists and makers who were displaced in their homelands, forced to flee, survived, and even thrived in exile.  Part of this exhibition is dedicated to Jewish refugees. 7 April 2023 – 7 January 2024.  Further information.

MA fees bursaries in Jewish Studies

Masters degree studies at the University of Manchester, 2023-24. This is a home fees bursary for MA students who make Jewish Studies topics their main study focus in their MA in Religions and Theology. This bursary will be awarded on a competitive basis. There are no eligibility criteria based on nationality, but please note that the bursary is restricted to the maximum cost of home fees. Deadline: 23 June 2023. Further information.

New post: Language Tutor in Modern Hebrew (part time)

Language Experience for All Programme (LEAP). The further particulars specify, among other requirements, that applicants "must possess near-native command of both Hebrew and English; demonstrate excellent language-teaching skills; and have an educational background appropriate to the delivery of the specified duties. Experience of teaching and assessing advanced Hebrew language skills at tertiary level, in person and online, are essential. Experience teaching in UK higher education and a track record in curriculum development are highly desirable..." Deadline: 29 March 2023.

Employment type: Fixed Term
Hours Per Week: 4.86
Contract Duration: from 1 September 2023 to 30 June 2024
Salary: £35,308 to £43,155 pro rata depending on relevant experience
Further information.

Funding, postdoctorate

Holocaust Studies and Jewish-Christian Relations. Congratulations to CJS honorary research fellow Ion Popa for the renewal of his Gerda Henkel Scholarship (2023-2024) on the topic 'The Holy War: Churches' Counter-Secularism and the Destruction of European Jewry'. He will continue to be based in Manchester for the next year.

Sherman Conversation

Jewish Studies. The Centre for Jewish Studies is pleased to announce the Sherman Conversation 2023: ‘Encountering Others, Encountering Ourselves’: Reflexivity and the Jewish Studies Researcher, 4 September 2023.

This workshop seeks to explore collaboratively and reflexively our positions as Jewish Studies researchers in relation to the Jewish subjects we study. We invite applications from researchers at all career stages working in Jewish Studies, broadly defined as scholarly engagement with Jewish subjects, past and present.  Further information.

Screen & Talk

Jewish Studies. The Centre for Jewish Studies in collaboration with the Department of Drama and Manchester Reform Synagogue are pleased to announce the next Screen & Talk event for Holocaust Memorial Day 2023: Jews, Gay People and the Holocaust, an online film series and live-streamed panel discussion with public Q&A, 2-8 February 2023.

Chiming with the 25th anniversary of the release of the controversial landmark film Bent (UK / Japan 1997), the five films in this online series explore the predicaments of gay people and Jews during the Holocaust and its aftermath among the postwar generation. The concluding panel discussion with public Q&A brings together researchers with Jewish and LGBTQ community and cultural practitioners who will consider the distinct Holocaust histories and partly clashing cultural memories at hand. Further information.

Inaugural public lecture, Durham University

Jewish History. Daniel Langton will give the inaugural annual Sweeting Judeo-Christian History Lecture, organized by the university’s Centre for Catholic Studies. The topic will be 'Darwin's Jews: Evolutionary Theory, Jewish Thought, and Interfaith Relations.' Ushaw College, 6pm on Tue 21 Feb 2023.

Bernard Jackson Prize 2022

Postgraduate prize. This prize of £100 is awarded annually to the student with 'the highest grade for a master's dissertation in Jewish Studies' at the University of Manchester. It honours the Centre's second co-director Bernard Jackson. For 2022 it was awarded to Kerry McCall (MA in History) for a thesis on 'Negotiating Antisemitism and Philosemitism in Victorian Britain: Case studies in wider literature and the press' (supervisor: Daniel Langton)

Limmud Festival 2022

Jewish Studies. The University of Manchester is well represented at Limmud Festival 2022, the volunteer-run Jewish learning event running from 23–28 December. Katja Stuerzenhofecker will participate in the panel discussion ‘The UK Jewish community in the age of Covid: What changed and what didn't?.' Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz will lead several sessions including a presentation of her recent research as CJS Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Also presenting are CJS and R&T alumni/ae Ariel Abel and Sarah McCulloch, and SALC colleague Noelle Dückmann Gallagher.

Klezmer accompaniment

Klezmorim of Manchester have played an accompaniment to a short film about life on Bury New Road as seen through the eyes of ten women from the Jewish women's group, Alevai.  Further information. 

Klemperer Online database

The University Library has purchased access to the Klemperer Online: Tagebücher 1918-1959 database, offering the complete and unabridged diaries of Victor Klemper, which are among the most important sources of 20th century German history.  The German texts feature an extensive commentary and contain over a third more material than the print editions, which were bestsellers at the time of publication.  Further information.

Klezmer performance

Klezmorim of Manchester.  Richard Fay's Klezmorim will perform at the Klezmer Evening at Hallé at St. Michael's.  7pm - 9pm, Monday 14 November 2022.  Further Information.

Sherman Community Lecture 2022

Jewish Studies.  Rabba Dr Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz (University of Manchester) will give the next Sherman Community Lecture entitled "The Jewel in the Crown of Anglo-Jewry? A History of Limmud".  Thursday 6 December 2022 8pm (via Zoom). Further information.

PGR and Postdoc group, JHSE

Jewish Studies.  The Jewish Historical Society of England have set up a Jewish history and Jewish studies PGR/Postdoc group, offering a peer group with events including discussions with authors of new history books, reading groups and methodological workshops.  PGRs and Postdocs interested in joining the group should email Sophie Wilson (sophie.wilson@qmul.ac.uk).     

Klezmer, Manchester Culture Awards

Jewish and Irish Music.   ‘Amid the Mirk Over the Irk: When Irish Meets Klezmer’ is an imagined musical meeting of two of Manchester’s longest-established and prominent immigrant communities: the Irish and the Jewish.  The film of the overture (co-produced by Richard Fay) is a finalist in the ‘Made in Manchester’ category of the Manchester Culture Awards. The awards ceremony will take place on 24 November 2022.  Watch the film on YouTube.  Further information. 

Panel, British Library

Holocaust Libraries. Professor Dreyfus will participate in a panel conversation with experts from Lithuania and the Head of the Bodleian Library Oxford about the history of libraries, lives and narratives in European cityscapes of the Holocaust. The in-person event is hosted by the British Library on 11 October 2022. Further information

Biblical Hebrew Reading Group

Biblical and Jewish Studies.  Phillip Alexander will lead a reading group to provide students at BA, MA or PhD levels who have done some Hebrew with the opportunity to advance their knowledge.  The first meeting will be on Monday 3rd October at 11am on Zoom, with an initial focus on Ruth.

Podcast, The Poet of Whitechapel

Yiddish Poetry. Podcast presented by Rachel Lichtenstein now available on Mixcloud.  'A programme about the extraordinary life and work of the Yiddish poet Avram Nachum Stencl who went from an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community in southern Poland to the bohemian cafés of pre-war Berlin before finally escaping Nazi Germany to arrive in Whitechapel, the heart of the Jewish East End. He soon became London’s foremost Yiddish poet, founding the literary journal 'Loshn un Lebn' and the weekly 'Friends of Yiddish' meetings at Toynbee Hall with its lively mixture of poetry, politics, literature and song, all part of his mission to keep the Yiddish language alive.' Further information.