Sunday, July 2

9:00 a.m. INTRODUCTION

Dan Diner, Leipzig / Jerusalem

9:30–10:45 a.m.
I. FRAMING THE QUESTION

Chair: Dan Diner

David Ruderman, Philadelphia
Why Periodization Matters
On Early Modern Jewish Culture and the Haskalah

Shmuel Feiner, Ramat Gan
Discovering the Jewish New World
Haskalah and Secularization in the 18th Century

11:15 a.m.–12:45 p.m.
II. SECULARIZATION – THEORIES AND TENDENCIES

Chair: Shmuel Feiner

Susanne Zepp, Leipzig
Literary Discourse and the Modernization of the Jews
The Case of Late Medieval Spain

Andrea Schatz, Princeton
Departing from Sinai
The Language of Secularization in the Controversies of the Early Haskalah

Todd Endelman, Ann Arbor
Theories of Secularization and the Transformation of the Jews
An Overview

2:30–4:30 p.m.
III. ITALY AND SEPHARDIC AMSTERDAM: ROOTS OF JEWISH MODERNITY

Chair: David Ruderman

Adam Shear, Pittsburgh
“The Italian and Berlin Haskalah” Revisited
Thinking about the Cultural Origins of Jewish Modernity

Francesca Bregoli, Philadelphia
Jewish Modernity and the Case of Italian Jewry
A Historiographical Survey

Adam Sutcliffe, London
Seventeenth-Century Sephardic Amsterdam
On the Originary Myths of Jewish Modernity

Yosef Kaplan, Jerusalem
Secularizing the Portuguese Jews
Integration and Orthodoxy in Early Modern Judaism

5:00–6:30 p.m.
IV. THE MODERNIZATION OF ASHKENAZI JEWRY:
LANGUAGE, TEXTUALITY AND PRINT CULTURE

Chair: Todd Endelman

Shlomo Berger, Amsterdam
Yiddish on the Borderline of Modernity
Language and Literature in Early Modern Ashkenazi Culture

Pawel Maciejko, Jerusalem
Print Culture and Jewish Religious Controversy
Two Debates of the 18th Century

Elchanan Reiner, Tel Aviv
Talmud and Hermeneutics
Changing Learning Patterns in 18th Century Traditional Jewry

Monday, July 3

9:00–10:30 a.m.
V. INDICATORS OF MODERNITY

Chair: Yosef Kaplan

Michael G. Müller, Halle
Roads Towards Modernity?
The 18th Century in Central and Eastern Europe

Israel Bartal, Jerusalem
On Periodization, Mysticism and Enlightenment
The Case of RaMHa"l

Yossi Chajes, Haifa
‘Entzauberung’ of the Jewish World?
Perceiving Magic in Early Modern Judaism

11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
VI. MYSTICISM AND MODERNITY

Chair: Israel Bartal

Ada Rapoport-Albert, London
Female Liberation in Frankist Doctrine
An Anonymous Manuscript from Prague c. 1800

Jacob Barnai, Haifa
A Turning Point in Jewish History?
On Sabbatianism and its Impact

Moshe Rosman, Ramat Gan
Jewish Modernization in Traditional Guise
The Case of Hasidism

2:00–3:30 p.m.
VII. DEFINING MODERNITY – THE CASE OF POLISH JEWRY

Chair: Michael G. Müller

Gershon Hundert, Montreal
Polish Jewry and Questions of “Modernity”
On the Periodization of Jewish History

Adam Teller, Haifa
On the Threshold of Modernity
Jewish Proposals to the Four Years' Sejm

Marcin Wodziński, Wrocław
'Civilized' or 'Modernized'?
Debating the Reform of Polish Jewry, 1788–1830

4:00–5:30 p.m.
VIII. MODERNIZING MATERIAL LIFEWORLDS

Chair: Ada Rapoport-Albert

Jonathan Karp, Binghamton
Kings of the Age?
Dating Jewish Modernity in Economic History

François Guesnet, Potsdam
Guides of the Perplexed
At the Sources of Modern Jewish Politics

Dirk Sadowski, Leipzig
Diligent Children with Proper Haircuts
Disciplining Discourses in the Haskalah

5:45–6:45 p.m.
CONCLUDING DISCUSSION

Chair: Dan Diner

Israel Bartal, Shmuel Feiner, David Ruderman
and conference participants