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IMC 2024: Sessions

Session 1036: Beyond Crises in Jewish Medieval Studies

Wednesday 3 July 2024, 09:00-10:30

Sponsor:Real Federación Hípica Española (RFHE) / Between Encyclopaedia & Epitome / Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen / University College London / Freie Universität Berlin
Organisers:Shamma Boyarin, Department of English, University of Victoria, British Columbia
Lennart Lehmhaus, Seminar für Religionswissenschaft und Judaistik / Institutum Judaicum, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
Moderator/Chair:Claire Burridge, Institutt for arkeologi, konservering og historie, Universitetet i Oslo
Paper 1036-aBeyond Crises: The Jewish Middle Ages
(Language: English)
Shamma Boyarin, Department of English, University of Victoria, British Columbia
Index terms: Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Other and Religious Life
Paper 1036-bCaring for the (Jewish) Community's Health in Challenging Times
(Language: English)
Carmen Caballero Navas, Departamento de Estudios Semíticos, Universidad de Granada
Index terms: Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Local History and Medicine
Paper 1036-cAvoiding Danger, Navigating Crisis: Rabbinic Approaches to Illness
(Language: English)
Lennart Lehmhaus, Seminar für Religionswissenschaft und Judaistik / Institutum Judaicum, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
Index terms: Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Language and Literature - Other, Medicine and Religious Life
Abstract

The study of the Jewish past is deeply intertwined with various aspects that might be termed crises. On the one hand, these are crises faced by the historical communities being studied, such as persecutions, hate and discrimination, Jews as scapegoats in the context of larger crises or internal conflicts and cultural challenges. On the other, more contemporary feelings of crises have motivated scholars and the broader public to turn to investigating these historical frameworks. In earlier scholarship, crises, catastrophes and suffering have often been focal points of interest and served as influential explanatory paradigms.

As such, this year’s theme for IMC Leeds conference, ‘Crisis’, with all its various, seems both particularly relevant but also not new to those looking at premodern Jewish history and culture(s). This session builds on the special relationship Jewish Studies has with the theme, and going beyond crises seeks to reflect on challenges and prospects of such a framing. The three papers offer fresh explorations of this topic: modern historiography and Jewish history as crisis (Boyarin); Jewish marginalization in 15th c. Iberia as a crisis of public health and medical care (Caballero Navas); the appropriation of medical epistemic categories of 'crisis' and 'danger' in Talmudic-rabbinic literature (Lehmhaus).