20th Annual Gruss Colloquium in Judaic Studies: Transformations of Jewish Culture in Early Modern Europe

Transformations of Jewish Culture in Early Modern Europe

20th Annual Gruss Colloquium in Judaic Studies, April 29–May 1, 2014

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Class of ’55 Terrace Room, Claudia Cohen Hall
, 249 S. 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

9:00 am Coffee and Light Breakfast

9:30 am Greetings

David B. Ruderman, Ella Darivoff Director, Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies

Steven J. Fluharty, Dean, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania

9:45 am Session I: The Recovery of the Ancient World: The Mishnah and Rabbinic Law

Chair: Joseph R. Hacker, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Katz Center

Moshe Idel, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Katz Center
The Mishnah and the Kabbalists of Safed

Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
The Bible and the Mishnah: Two Modes of Historical Memory and Their Early Modern Sources

Nina Cohen, University of Pennsylvania
Menasseh Ben Israel’s Pointed Mishnah Edition in Its Cultural Context

Maoz Kahana, Tel Aviv University/Katz Center
The Function of the Sacred Space in the Halakhic Thought of Joseph Karo and Shabbetai Zevi

Respondent: Elchanan Reiner, Tel Aviv University/Katz Center

12:15 pm Lunch Break

1:30 pm Session II: Dialogues between Jews and Christians

Chair: Ann E. Moyer, University of Pennsylvania

Joanna Weinberg, University of Oxford/Katz Center
A Humanist in the Klaus: New Perspectives on the Maharal of Prague

J. H. (Yossi) Chajes, University of Haifa/Katz Center
Beyond Borders: The Divinity Maps of Kabbala Denudata

Pawel Maciejko, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Katz Center
The Rabbi and the Jesuit: On the Collaborations between Rabbi Jonathan Eibeschütz and Father Franciscus Haselbauer SJ 

Respondent: Peter N. Miller, Bard Graduate Center

3:30 pm Coffee Break

4:00 pm Session III: Jews Encountering Other Jews

Chair: Gershon David Hundert, McGill University (Montreal)/Katz Center

Adam Teller, Brown University/Katz Center
Over the Border: Psychological, Social, and Cultural Experiences of Polish Jewish Refugees in the Holy Roman Empire after 1648

Yaacob Dweck, Princeton University/Katz Center
Hakham Jacob Sasportas and the Ashkenazi Supporters of Shabbetai Zevi in Hamburg

Andrea Schatz, King’s College London
The World As Seen from Amsterdam: Europe and “the East” in Early Modern Yiddish Literature

Respondent: François Guesnet, University College London/Katz Center

6:15 pm Dinner (by invitation)
Hall of Flags, Houston Hall
3417 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
 

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Class of ’55 Terrace Room, Claudia Cohen Hall
, 249 S. 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

9:30 am Coffee and Light Breakfast

10:00 am Session IV: Hebrew Texts: Publishers, Censors, Readers

Chair: Rebekka Voss, Goethe University (Frankfurt am Main)/Katz Center

Jesús de Prado Plumed, École Pratique des Hautes Études and Universidad Complutense de Madrid/Katz Center
A Miscellaneous Serendipity: Researching the Personal Journal of a Castilian Converso Hebraist

Michela Andreatta, University of Rochester/Katz Center
The Scholar and the Censor: Marco Marini and Church Control of Hebrew Books

Adam Shear, University of Pittsburgh/Katz Center
Jacob Marcaria and the Riva del Garda Press: Printing for Multiple Audiences

Respondent: Piet van Boxel, University of Oxford/Katz Center

12:00 pm Lunch Break

1:15 pm Session V: On the Borderlines between Early Modernity and the Enlightenment

Chair: Matt Goldish, The Ohio State University/Katz Center

Yael Sela-Teichler, Max Planck Institute for Human Development (Berlin)/Katz Center
Revelation, Interpretation, Sensation: Moses Mendelssohn's Musical Judaism

Francesca Bregoli, Queens College-CUNY/Katz Center
A Different Enlightenment: Livornese Jews and 18th-Century Tuscan Culture

Israel Bartal, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Katz Center
A Missing Link? The Polish-Lithuanian Background of Early “Maskilim” in 18th-Century Eastern Europe

Respondent: Shmuel Feiner, Bar-Ilan University

3:15 pm Coffee Break

3:45 pm Session VI: Concluding Roundtable

Chair: David B. Ruderman, University of Pennsylvania/Katz Center

Participants:

Elisheva Carlebach, Columbia University/Katz Center
Roger Chartier, University of Pennsylvania and Collège de France
Richard I. Cohen, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Katz Center
Anthony Grafton, Princeton University/Katz Center

5:30 pm Cocktails and Dinner (by invitation)
Penn Law School , Silverman Hall, Levy Conference Center

Thursday, May 1, 2014,

10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

University of Penn Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, 
Widener Lecture Hall, 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

10:15 am A Roundtable Discussion—Taking Note: 20 Years of Scholars and Scholarship at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, 1993-2014

Please join us to celebrate and reflect on two decades of learning as conducted at the Katz Center. We have convened a lively, interactive panel of thought-provoking scholars to contemplate the impact and meaning of the academic enterprise of Jewish Studies, its relevance to the Jewish world, the University, and beyond. What has been achieved? What are the stakes and import of the secular Torah of academic Jewish scholarship? And what is yet to be accomplished?

Moderator: Benjamin Nathans, University of Pennsylvania

Panelists:

David N. Myers, University of California, Los Angeles
Annette Yoshiko Reed, University of Pennsylvania
Peter Stallybrass, University of Pennsylvania
Elsie R. Stern, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Piet van Boxel, University of Oxford

12:15 pm Luncheon (by invitation) 
Class of ’55 Terrace Room, Claudia Cohen Hall
,249 S. 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104