Research Groups:Jewish Women’s Cultural Capital from the Late Middle Ages Through the Early Twentieth Century

 

[RG # 158]  Jewish Women’s Cultural Capital from the Late Middle Ages Through the Early Twentieth Century

September 1, 2016- July 1, 2017

Organizer:
Moshe Rosman (Bar Ilan University)

Throughout Western history women have been assigned a status as cultural observers and social facilitators to men's roles as cultural performers and social actors. This status however, was not fixed, and cultural-social gender barriers could be crossed. Authority in the family, responsibilities in the public sphere, communal activism, economic productivity, education, ritual religious roles, literary and artistic creativity were all forms of cultural capital which could position women at intersections of power and privilege and challenge gender hierarchies. Recent decades have witnessed a revolution in the scholarship of women's history, uncovering trends that complicate accounts of the possibilities for women. However, these investigations into women’s social and cultural roles have been based predominantly on the lives of Christian women, in Europe west of the Oder, and in North America. A primary research objective of our group is to turn to communities that, both geographically and culturally, have not been properly attended to by the existing scholarship. By bringing together a group of scholars who specialize in a range of periods and locations, our research will create a framework for exploring these issues in Jewish history and their implications for other histories of women.

 

Members

fellow

Elisheva Baumgarten

FELLOW
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Elisheva is a professor in the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry, and the Department of History at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research interests are the Jewish communities of medieval Germany and northern France, the daily life of medieval Jews within their Christian s
fellow

Ruth M. Karras

FELLOW
University of Minnesota
Ruth is a professor in the Department of History at the University of Minnesota. Her research interests are the history of women, gender and sexuality in medieval Western Europe and constructions of masculinity in Christian and Jewish contexts.
fellow

Claudia Rosenzweig

FELLOW
Bar-Ilan University
Claudia is a Professor in the Department of Literature of the Jewish People at Bar-Ilan University. Her research interests are old Yiddish Literature, Yiddish culture, philology, reception-theories and Judaeo-Italian languages.
fellow

Moshe Rosman

FELLOW
Bar-Ilan University
Moshe is a professor in the Department of Jewish History at Bar-Ilan University. His research interests are: history of the Jews in early modern Poland, Hasidism, gender history, and historiography.
fellow

Jonathan D. Sarna

FELLOW
Brandeis University
Jonathan is a professor in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. He focuses his research on the American Jewish history, religion and life.
fellow

Paola Tartakoff

FELLOW
Rutgers University
Paola is a professor in the Department of Jewish Studies and the Department of History at Rutgers University. Her research interests are the social and cultural history of Jews and Christians in medieval and early modern Europe, conversion to and from Judaism, the medieval and Spanish inquisitions a
fellow

Shira Wolosky

FELLOW
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Shira is a professor in the Department of English, Department of American Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research interests are feminism, American studies, religion, aesthetics and contemporary theory.
fellow

Oded Zinger

FELLOW
Duke University
Oded is a Perilman Postdoctoral Fellow at Duke University Center for Jewish Studies. His research interests are the social and cultural history of Jewish communities in the medieval Islamic world with a focus on the interaction of gender and law through the documents of the Cairo Geniza.

Dvar Nashim

Dvar Nashim (Closed):

September 22, 2016, 13:30-15:30- Moshe Rosman

November 03, 2016, 13:30-14:00- Claudia Rosenzweig

December 1, 2016, 13:30-14:00- TBA

December 15, 2016, 13:30-14:00- TBA

December 29, 2016, 13:30-14:00- TBA

Group Seminars

TitleState of the Field

Date: 15/09/216 13:30 -15:30

Time And Speaker :Elisheva Baumgarten

TYPEOpen with previous reservation

 

Organizational Meeting

Organizational Meeting (Closed):

July 20, 2016, 10:00-11:00

September 8, 2016, 11:30-12:30

September 18, 2016, 11:30-12:30

December 1, 2016, 14:00-15:00

Long-Term Visiting Scholars

Long-Term Visiting Scholars:

Efrat E. Aviv, Bar-Ilan University

Eve Krakowski, Princeton University

Frances Malino, Wellesley College

Renee Levine Melammed, Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies

Method/Theory Reading Group

Method/Theory Reading Group (Closed):

September 19, 2016, 13:30-15:30- Shira Wolosky

November 03, 2016, 14:00-15:30- Ruth Karras 

December 15, 2016, 14:00-15:30- Oded Zinger

Events