Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies

The Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies is a DFG-Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe directed by Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Veltri. It opened in October 2015 and will run for nine years. The central aim of the Maimonides Centre is to explore and research scepticism in Judaism in its dual manifestation as a purely philosophical tradition and as a more general expression of sceptical strategies, concepts, and attitudes in the cultural field.

MCAS offers a senior and junior fellowship programme that allows both internationally established scholars and aspiring early career researchers to participate for either extended or shorter periods of time.

Startig from January 2024, three new senior fellows will join the MCAS team:

• Susannah Heschel (Dartmouth College / USA)
• Carlos Lévy (Université Paris-Sorbonne - Paris IV / France)
• Yair Lorberbaum (Bar-Ilan University / Israel)

The Maimonides Lectures on Scepticism are scheduled two to three times a semester. In these lectures, eminent scholars focusing on various aspects of scepticism are invited to present and discuss their research at an evening lecture.

Judaism Sola Scriptura: Tolerance, Translation, and Salvation in Eighteenth-Century Amsterdam

Rebekka Voß (Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main)

This lecture considers scepticism and intercultural exchange within the framework of the early modern Pietist mission to the Jews. In the first half of the eighteenth century, the Pietist mission prompted personal conversations between Christians and a significant number of Jews across Europe. Most Jews were surprisingly willing to speak with the missionaries, despite their evident agenda. These meetings between Pietist missionaries and Jews often resulted in an intense dialogue, entailing an intriguing cultural entanglement. In Amsterdam, the missionaries eagerly approached a number of sceptical Jews, who rejected certain rabbinic teachings about the Messiah, hoping to find these “Karaites” receptive to the Gospel. This missionary context is key to understanding spiritual unrest and debates about biblicising heresies and heterodox beliefs in Judaism in eighteenth-century Amsterdam.

I will focus on one of these scripturalists, the intellectual Eliezer Susman Rudelsum. He is otherwise known as the editor of Yiddish Bible translations and the author of two Dutch treatises on the study of the Hebrew language. Re-evaluating Susman’s oeuvre in light of his personal contacts with Pietist missionaries, Protestant Hebraists, and like-minded Jewish disbelievers sheds light on his worldview and reveals the full complexity of scepticism among Amsterdam Jewry in the eighteenth century. At a time when programmes for the unification of the monotheistic religions and universal peace were popular among Enlightenment thinkers, Eliezer Susman advanced a unique vision of coexistence. The basis of his envisioned brotherhood of Jews and Christians was a Judaism sola scriptura and the shared study of the Hebrew Bible.

Date
Tuesday, 23 January 2024, 18:00

Venue
MCAS
Please contact MCAS for further information and registration.

Contact and registration
maimonides-centre@uni-hamburg.de

The Maimonides Centre’s Summer Schools are interdisciplinary by design and are open to advanced students and graduates. The duration of the Summer School is six days, during which approximately ten lecturers and ten to twenty participants come together to present and discuss diverse approaches to the topic of Jewish scepticism and to jointly study a variety of primary sources.

<sub>The Significance of Scepticism in Philosophy, Judaism, and Culture

16–19 July 2024</sub>

Topic and Purpose

The value of scepticism in philosophy has been judged in different ways throughout history. To name but a few examples: Pyrrhonists conceived of scepticism as a means of reaching happiness, while later philosophers, especially in early modern times, came to equate a sceptical attitude with an incurable malady.

Despite their differences, however, all thinkers agreed on seeing scepticism as something deeply bound up with the human condition; that is, with the fundamental contradiction of both being finite and also having to come to terms with an infinitely complex world.

As MCAS’s research from the last years has shown, however, scepticism is also relevant beyond philosophy, in other domains of human thought and practice that are characterised by a finite nature and are therefore far from certain. In Judaism, for instance, scepticism has been considered a threat to religion because of its tendency to undermine religious beliefs, but also as a useful set of dialectical strategies to prove opponents wrong or to lead them back to (relatively) certain matters, such as the halakha. Cultural scepticism, moreover, plays an important role in questioning authoritative norms, thereby paving the way for change and renewal.

The fourth summer school convened by the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies—Jewish Scepticism will explore the varied significance of scepticism from a novel, interdisciplinary point of view, paying particular attention to Jewish thought and culture. More precisely, it will bring together philosophers, experts in religious and Jewish studies, art historians, and literary scholars, in order to investigate the multifaceted phenomenon of early modern scepticism from three perspectives:

1. The Significance of Scepticism in Philosophy: What makes scepticism such a pervasive and persistent topic in philosophy? Why did it matter to philosophy, and is it still important to it?

2. The Significance of Scepticism in Judaism: To what extent is scepticism an element of Jewish life, thought, and culture? And is there a form of scepticism that is distinctively Jewish?

3. The Significance of Scepticism in the Fine Arts: To what extent do some works of art reflect a sceptical attitude on the part of the artist and to what extent do they seek to elicit such an attitude from their audience? And what is the precise significance of the scepticism involved in the fine arts?

The aim of this summer school is to explore the various ways in which scepticism can be significant in different domains. It is intended for students and scholars from different backgrounds (ranging from history of philosophy to Jewish studies, religious studies, theatre and literary studies, and art history). MA and PhD students as well as early postdocs are invited to consider the multifaceted significance of scepticism and to share their unique views on it.

The participants will also have the opportunity to present their work at the “Significance of Scepticism in Philosophy, Judaism, and Culture” conference, which will take place after the summer school from 21 to 24 July.

Lecturer Team

The course leaders are Stephan Schmid and Giuseppe Veltri. They will be supported by an international team of experts in philosophy, religious and Jewish studies, art history, and literature—such as Daniel Boyarin, Annalisa Coliva, Michael Della Rocca, Yehuda Halper, Christine Hayes, Adi Louria-Hayon, Diego Machuca, and others.

Target Group

This summer school is intended for MA students and PhD candidates from the humanities. Depending on capacity, BA students in their last year of studies may also be accepted.

Application

Up to fifteen fully funded scholarships, covering accommodation as well as travel expenses, are available. Applicants are requested to submit the following documents in a single PDF file:

· curriculum vitae

· personal statement outlining motivation and academic background

· letter of recommendation

· copy of academic degree(s) or transcript of records

Participants can gain up to 5 ECTS credit points for successful participation in the summer school.

For further information and to apply, please contact Dr. Beniamino Fortis: beniamino.fortis@uni-hamburg.de

Applications may be submitted until 29 February 2024.

Acceptance letters will be sent out by the end of March 2024.

Academic and Professional Support for Early Career Women* in Jewish Studies and Philosophy

19–21 August 2024, Hamburg, Germany

Application Deadline: 31 January 2024

Topic and Purpose

This workshop aims to support early career women* at both the doctoral and postdoctoral levels by providing academic and professional mentoring over the course of three days. In addition to providing practical professional and career advice, we will hold sessions in which young scholars will present works in progress and receive constructive feedback from established academics. To these ends, participants will be expected to submit pre-circulated works in progress (e.g., dissertation or book chapters, unpublished articles) before arriving in Hamburg.

Mentoring Team

This workshop will be convened by Sarah Wobick-Segev and Maria Wazinski and supported by the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies. Our team of academic mentors will include Christine Hayes (Yale University), Svetlana Natkovich (University of Haifa), Julie Klein (Villanova University), and Anna Schriefl (Universität Düsseldorf).

Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies at Universität Hamburg

The Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies is a Humanities Research Institute at Universität Hamburg funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation). Its central aim is to explore and research scepticism in Judaism in its dual manifestation as a purely philosophical tradition and as a more general expression of sceptical strategies, concepts, and attitudes in the cultural field.

Target Group

This workshop is intended for PhD candidates and postdoctoral fellows in Jewish studies and philosophy.

Application

Funding to cover accommodation as well as travel expenses is available, as is funding for childcare (please note in the application whether childcare is required). Applicants are requested to submit the following documents [in one PDF file]:

– a CV

– a personal statement outlining their motivation and academic background

– an abstract of a chapter or article (in progress) that will be pre-circulated and discussed at the workshop

– a letter of recommendation

– a copy of their academic degree(s) or transcript of records

Applications may be submitted via email until 31 January 2024 to sarah.wobick@uni-hamburg.de.

Acceptance letters will be sent out by the end of February/beginning of March 2024.

For further information and questions, please email Dr Sarah Wobick-Segev.

*This workshop warmly encourages applications from CIS and trans-women as well as from non-binary individuals.

The Bucerius Institute for Research of Contemporary German History and Society, University of Haifa

Call for Applications for the Manfred Lahnstein Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in Haifa in 20th-Century German Studies for the 2024–2025 Academic Year

The Bucerius Institute for Research of Contemporary German History and Society invites applications for the Manfred Lahnstein one-year post-doctoral fellowship (lasting a minimum of 10 months). The fellowship of 90000 NIS (together with office facilities) will be granted for research at the University of Haifa.

The Lahnstein Fellowship supports innovative research on 20th-century German history, culture, and society, including its evolving national boundaries, diasporas and exiles. We are especially interested in innovative transnational research that involves the Middle East. The fellowship is designed to cover a one-year research stay in Haifa.

The Lahnstein Fellow will be committed:

1. To register as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Haifa (Faculty of Humanities).

2. To reside in Haifa and make the Bucerius Institute their main place of work during the fellowship.

3. To participate in events organized by the Bucerius Institute during the year of the fellowship.

4. To Give the annual Lahnstein Lecture at the end of the fellowship. The Lahnstein Lecture Series is a new, high-profile event at the University of Haifa.

5. To acknowledge the support of the ZEIT-Stiftung and the Bucerius Institute in any publication(s) related to the research conducted during the Lahnstein Fellowship period.

Interested applicants must have been awarded their Ph.D. no earlier than October 1, 2020, or have submitted their dissertation no later than November 1, 2023.

Applicants should submit:

• A one-page letter of application, briefly describing their research experience, their interest in the Bucerius Institute, and their proposed project
• A research proposal (up to five pages)
• A curriculum vitae
• Two letters of recommendation
• A letter of acceptance by a supervisor from the Faculty of Humanities (University of Haifa)
• An official doctoral diploma (or official recognition of the submission of their dissertation).

All materials should be written in English.

Applications should be sent to Amir Bar-On (Administrative Coordinator) at ambaron@univ.haifa.ac.il.

The deadline for submissions is March 18, 2024.

Decisions will be made by April 21, 2024.

The Bucerius Institute at the University of Haifa is a vibrant research hub that attracts promising junior and senior scholars not only from Israel and Germany, but also from across Europe and North America. The institute was founded 20 years ago by a joint initiative of the German ZEIT-Stiftung and the University of Haifa. Since then, it has been promoting research on the contemporary history and social, cultural, and political reality of Germany, embracing a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds and methodologies, and engaging with the complexity of contemporary German history in a global age.

Dr. Hanna Gentili has joined the HEPMASITE ERC project, led by Dr. Yoav Meyrav, as a research associate. Dr. Gentili (Ph.D. Warburg Institute 2021) is a researcher in the field of medieval and Renaissance Jewish thought. Her interests include medieval and Renaissance philosophy, reading and learning practices, history of the Hebrew book and digital humanities. As part of the HEPMASITE project, she will focus on the Hebrew manuscript transmission of Averroes’ Questions in Physics in the context of the study of natural philosophy between 14th-16th centuries. Before joining the HEPMASITE team, she was a researcher in the Digital Humanities Project “Ilanot” at the University of Haifa (2019-2022) and curator of the Hebrew collections at the British Library in 2023.