Challenging Judaica Objects: The Ambiguity of Jewish Material Culture

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Challenging Judaica Objects: The Ambiguity of Jewish Material Culture

Veranstalter
Sigi Feigel-Gastprofessur für Jüdische Studien an der Universität Zürich
Veranstaltungsort
June 12: Kantonsschulstrasse 3 (Room KAB-G-01); June 13/14: Rämistrasse 59 (Room RAA-G-01))
Ort
Zürich
Land
Switzerland
Vom - Bis
12.06.2017 - 14.06.2017
Deadline
05.06.2017
Website
http://www.religionswissenschaft.uzh.ch/de/tagungen/judaica.html
Von
Sarah Werren

The heterogeneity of Jewish communities through time and space is mirrored by theequally heterogeneous appearance of their religion-related material culture. This is dueto the entanglements and interactions of Jewish with regional cultures, of context-specific religious content with general art and aesthetics, of Jewish life and customs in various socio-political settings. Jewish religious material culture thus not only reflects internal Jewish perspectives, but also the coexistence of Jews with people from various backgrounds; furthermore, it may reflect tension and rupture among various factions within the community as well as of Jewish communities vis-à-vis surrounding societies.
This conference will focus on Judaica, i.e. objects required for Jewish religious practice. It will cover the period from the Middle Ages until the present, post-modern times and deal with Jewish material cultural expressions in a variety of non-Jewish societies. Since Judaica are multi-dimensional objects, the conference aims to reveal and discuss their inherent challenges and ambiguities. Judaica have to be interpreted not only as vehicles of religious significance but also as media of transcultural, transsocial, economic, historical and political meaning.
Specific and challenging issues we shall address start with fundamental questions regarding literary and empirical evidence for Judaica objects, the role of aesthetics in synagogue interiors, the role of women in service as well as in the beautification of the mitzvah (divine commandment) and the development of custom-related Jewish material culture.
We shall further examine how everyday material culture could be transferred into a ritual context, the denial of iconic representations on objects that were thus transformed into Judaica, and those objects which could easily cross over from secular to ritual (but not back, although this will require further examination).
The misinterpretation of certain artifacts as Judaica objects and the rise of fake objects in the Judaica field has overshadowed the market, collections and research from the late 19th century up until the present time, a topic that will thus have to be addressedas well.
An imperative and complex issue refers to the fate of Judaica collections during and after World War II, provenance research on Judaica objects and the question of ownership respectively stewardship. Last but not least the conference shall deal with the challenge of exhibiting Judaica objects in core and temporary exhibitions, and the challenge of contextualizing them in a meaningful way for an increasingly multi-ethnicand multi-religious (or culturally interested though religiously indifferent) audience.

Programm

Monday, June 12

17:00 Welcome

Session A: Introducing the Challenges

17:15 – 18:00 Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek (University of Zurich): What about Judaica?

18:00 – 19:45 Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (Polin. Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw): Interpreting Judaica: Prismatic Approaches

19:45 – 20:15 Discussion
20:15 Apéro riche

Tuesday, June 13
Session B: Early Literary and Material Evidence

9:00 – 9:45 Vivian Mann (The Jewish Theological Seminary, New York): The Role of Texts in Interpreting the Ambiguous and The Challenging. The Ezrat Nashim and Aesthetics in The Synagogue

9:45 – 10:30 Annette Weber (Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg): A Bond between Jews and Christians? Ashkenazic Torah-Binders and Christian Complements

10:45 – 11:00 Coffee/Tea Break

11:00 – 11:30 Martha Keil (Institute for Jewish History in Austria, Vienna/St. Pölten): “Sidel” and “Hadass”: Ritual Objects in Medieval Ashkenazic Sources

11:30 – 12:30 Response and Discussion

12:30 Lunch

Session C: The Transformative Character of Judaica

14:00 – 14:45 Dana Veselská (Jewish Museum in Prague): Ready-Made? Contextual Transformation of Jewish Ritual Objects Based on Examples from the Collection of the Jewish Museum in Prague

14:45 – 15:30 Daniela Schmid (Curator of the Private Muzicant Collection, Vienna): Blossoming Phantasies. Hanukkah Chimeras of Eastern Europe

15:30 – 15:45 Coffee/Tea Break

15:45 – 16:30 Sharon Weiser-Ferguson (The Israel Museum, Jerusalem): When the Old Becomes New and the New Becomes Old: Contemporary Questions for Contemporary Judaica

16:30 – 17:15 Michal Friedlander (Jewish Museum Berlin): Looking forward—The Design and Manufacture of Jewish Ritual Objects in Post-War Bremen

17:15 – 18:00 Response and Discussion

20:00 Conference Dinner

Wednesday, June 14
Session D: Judaica: Personal Life Stories and Jewish History

8:30 – 9:15 Cilly Kugelmann (Jewish Museum Berlin): Judaica and Audience: Core Task and Frustration of Jewish Museums
9:15 – 10:00 Hanno Loewy (Jewish Museum Hohenems/Austria): With a Janus-Face. Objects of Everyday Life Between Biography and History
10:00 – 10:30 Discussion and Response
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee/Tea Break
11:00 – 12:00 Student Presentations and Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek (Universities of Zurich/Basel)
12:00 Lunch

Session E: Provenance Research and World War II

13:00 – 13:45 Julie-Marthe Cohen (Jewish Historical Museum Amsterdam): Tracing Paths of Fate. Provenance and Quovadience Research of Judaica Looted During WWII
13:45 – 14:30 Emile Schrijver (Jewish Historical Museum and the Jewish Cultural Quarter Amsterdam): Identifying Jewish Books from Pre-War Collections in Post-War Collections: Methodological Challenges and Practical Impossibilities
14:30 – 15:00 Response and Discussion
15:00 – 15:15 Coffee/Tea Break

Session F: Terminology and Documentation

15:15 – 16:00 Bernhard Purin (Jewish Museum Munich): “Probably Augsburg or Nuremberg…” The Southern German Landscape of Jewish Ritual Art and Its Surroundings
16:00 – 16:45 Magda Veselská (Jewish Museum in Prague): Taxonomy of Judaica Collections: The Collections of the Jewish Museum in Prague Sorted Out
16:45 – 17:30 Response, Discussion
Concluding Words (Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek)

Kontakt

Sarah Werren

Religionswissenschaftliches Seminar
Kantonsschulstrasse 1, 8001 Zürich
+41 44 634 09 33

sarah.werren@uzh.ch

http://www.religionswissenschaft.uzh.ch/de/tagungen/judaica.html
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