"Secondary Conversions" - Transforming Religious and Ethnic Emblematics of Judaism and Jewishness

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"Secondary Conversions" - Transforming Religious and Ethnic Emblematics of Judaism and Jewishness

Veranstalter
Simon-Dubnow-Institute for Jewish History and Culture at Leipzig University
Veranstaltungsort
Simon-Dubnow-Institute for Jewish History and Culture, Goldschmidtstr. 28, 04103 Leipzig
Ort
Leipzig, Germany
Land
Deutschland
Vom - Bis
22.02.2003 - 24.02.2003
Deadline
10.02.2003
Website
www.dubnow.de
Von
Tobias Brinkmann

"'Secondary Conversions' - Transforming Religious and Ethnic Emblematics of Judaism and Jewishness"

The international conference “’Secondary Conversions’ — Transforming Religious and Ethnic Emblematics of Judaism and Jewishness” at the Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture at the University of Leipzig seeks to open new perspectives on questions of internal Jewish transformations from within the methodological dialogue between the Jewish historical sciences and approaches in cultural anthropology, ethnography and psychoanalysis. One focus is a renewed in-depth examination of the epistemic value and reach of fundamental concepts of Jewish transformation in modernity. Foregrounded here are concepts such as ‘emancipation,’ ‘assimilation’ and ‘acculturation’—notions which either describe political or cultural transformations of Jewish self-identity at the time or those which were subsequently (super)imposed on the historical phenomena at a later date. Another focus is the attempt to accentuate and bolster fresh conceptual fields in the realm of Jewish history, moored more on the cultural sciences, proceeding from a historicization of those basic concepts in terms of theory and the history of ideas.

A central epistemic construct for internal Jewish processes of transformation is the conception of ‘secondary conversion.’ Utilizing the characteristic paradoxical connotation of such a ‘secondary’ conception of conversion and its dynamics, the more circumscribed interpretive field of the traditional episteme-guiding concepts of emancipation and assimilation, usually limited to phenomena of external transformation such as legal status or habitus, is amplified, extending to encompass transformational phenomena of eminently central components of Jewish self-identity: namely the elements of religion and the validity and impact at deeper levels of emblems and symbols of the sacred, liturgical and ritual, and as well as other significant codings of religiosity.

Please note:
Places are limited, please register asap. There will be a registration fee of Euro 30 (students Euro 20) to defray light lunch and refreshments costs.

Programm


Saturday, February 22nd

18:00
Registration

18:40
Introduction:
Dan Diner - Director, Simon Dubnow Institute
Scope and Meaning of “Secondary Conversions”

19:00
Keynote Lecture:
Todd Endelman, Ann Arbor
Neither Jew nor Christian - Jewish Proposals for New Religions in Europe and America, 1815-1935

Sunday, February 23rd

9:00 – 10:30
I. CONCEPTUAL CONSIDERATIONS
Chair: Stephan Wendehorst, Simon Dubnow Institute

Sigrid Weigel, Berlin
Epistemics of "Conversion" - Conceptual Discourses in the "Kulturwissenschaften"

Amos Morris-Reich, Jerusalem / Simon Dubnow Institute
Physical Anthropology and Linguistic Paradigm -
Franz Boas' Concept of Assimilation as Conversion of Belonging

Moshe Zimmermann, Jerusalem
"Assimilation" - Reconsidered: Jewish Emancipation, Acculturation, and other Modes of Interpretation

10:30 – 11:00
Coffee Break

11:00 – 12:00
II. EARLY MODERN HYBRIDIZATIONS
Chair: Yvonne Kleinmann, Simon Dubnow Institute

Stefan Schreiner, Tübingen
Sabbatians, Dönme and Frankists: Patterns of “Secondary Conversions” within Jewish “Sects”

Pawel Maciejko, Oxford
Redefining Judaism from Within: Frankist Doctrines of Conversion in the Czech Lands

12:00 – 14:00
Lunch Break

14:00 – 15:30
III. RELIGION INTO FAITH
Chair: Dirk Sadowski, Simon Dubnow Institute

Shmuel Feiner, Ramat Gan
The Maskilic Narrative of Modernization - Cultural Conversion and Faith in Transformation

Moshe Pelli, Orlando
The Maskilim's Perception of Modern Judaism - Forming and Reforming, Vision and Revision

Carola Hilfrich, Jerusalem
Confines of Conversion: Moses Mendelssohn on Writing, Ritual, and Idolatry

15:30 – 16:00
Coffee Break

16:00 – 17:30
IV. SECULARIZED THROUGH HISTORY
Chair: Nicolas Berg, Simon Dubnow Institute

Verena Dohrn, Göttingen
Secularizing One's Own Otherness:
“Acher”- Reading within Eastern European Jewry

Nils Römer, Southampton
Paradoxes of Historical Consciousness -
German-Jewish Transformation from Wissenschaft into Faith

Michael Brenner, Munich
Secular Faith of Fallen Jews:
Rewriting Jewish History in the Early 20th Century

17:30 – 18:00
Coffee Break

18:00 – 19:00
V. COMMUNITY TRANSGRESSED
Chair: Carsten Schapkow, Simon Dubnow Institute

Andreas Brämer, Hamburg
From Synagogue to Temple - Modern Patterns of Jewish Piety in Hamburg, 1817-1933

Moshe Shokeid, Tel Aviv
Re-Invented by Sexual Orientation:
Cultural Anthropology of Jewish Gays in America

20:00
Reception by the City of Leipzig
(open only to active participants of the conference)

Welcome Addresses:
Dr. Georg Girardet
Deputy Mayor for Cultural Affairs – City of Leipzig

Professor Dr. Dan Diner
Director - Simon Dubnow Institute

Monday, February 24th

9:00 – 10:30
VI. PERCEPTIONS CONSTRUCTED
Chair: Markus Kirchhoff, Simon Dubnow Institute

Doron Mendels, Jerusalem
Challenging Max Weber: Gedaliah Alon and the Transformation of the Jews

Benjamin Harshav, New Haven
Transformation by Language - Nation-Building in Hebrew Letters

Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, Beer-Sheva / Jerusalem
"Exile" in History? Deconstructing Modern Jewish and Zionist Discourse

10:30 – 11:00
Coffee Break

11:00 – 12:30
VII. RELIGION ETHNICIZED
Chair: Tobias Brinkmann, Simon Dubnow Institute

Yaakov Ariel, Chapel Hill
Assimilated - Yet Loyal to the Tribe: Paradoxies of German-Jewish Identity in America

Till van Rahden, Cologne/Chicago
Articulating Difference, Asserting Universalism: “Germans of the Jewish Stamm”, 1850 - 1933

Katrin Steffen, Warsaw
Inventing One's Own by the Other - Jewish Polishness, 1918-1939

12:30 – 14:30
Lunch Break

14:30 – 16:00
VIII. TRANSFORMATION THROUGH LITERATURE
Chair: Grit Schorch, Simon Dubnow Institute

Barbara Harshav, New Haven
Sacred Text in Profane Tongue - Translating Jewish Languages into English

Alfred Bodenheimer, Lucerne / Basel
Emblematics of Marranism - Abravanel according to Heinrich Heine and Robert Menasse

Bettina von Jagow, Munich
Poetics and Orient-Logos: Else Lasker-Schüler's Literary Projections of Belonging

16:00 – 16:30
Coffee Break

16:30 – 17:30
IX. MODERNITY AND EXISTENTIALITY
Chair: Sharon Gordon, Simon Dubnow Institute

Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, Haifa
Between Jewishness and Judaism - Jewish Modernization Reconsidered

Paul Mendes-Flohr, Jerusalem/ Chicago
Entering the Synagogue Through the Portals of the Church:
Franz Rosenzweigs’s “Conversion” to Judaism

17:30 – 18:30
CONCLUDING PANEL
Chair: Dan Diner

Participants:

Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, Haifa
Todd Endelman, Ann Arbor
Justin Stagl, Salzburg
Alfonso de Toro, Leipzig
Sigrid Weigel, Berlin

*

Participants:

Yaakov Ariel (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi (Haifa University)
Nicolas Berg (Simon Dubnow Institute, Leipzig)
Alfred Bodenheimer (Basel University / Lucerne University)
Andreas Brämer (Institute for the History of the German Jews, Hamburg)
Michael Brenner (Munich University)
Tobias Brinkmann (Simon Dubnow Institute, Leipzig)
Dan Diner (Simon Dubnow Institute, Leipzig / The Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
Verena Dohrn (Göttingen University)
Todd Endelman (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)
Shmuel Feiner (Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan)
Sharon Gordon (Simon Dubnow Institute, Leipzig)
Barbara Harshav (Yale University, New Haven)
Benjamin Harshav (Yale University, New Haven)
Carola Hilfrich (The Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
Bettina von Jagow (Munich University)
Markus Kirchhoff (Simon Dubnow Institute, Leipzig)
Yvonne Kleinmann (Simon Dubnow Institute, Leipzig)
Pawel Maciejko (St. Hugh’s College, Oxford)
Doron Mendels (The Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
Paul Mendes-Flohr (The Hebrew University, Jerusalem / The University of Chicago)
Amos Morris-Reich (The Hebrew University, Jerusalem / Simon Dubnow Institute, Leipzig)
Moshe Pelli (University of Central Florida, Orlando)
Till van Rahden (Cologne University / The University of Chicago)
Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin (Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva / The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute)
Nils Römer (University of Southampton)
Dirk Sadowski (Simon Dubnow Institute, Leipzig)
Carsten Schapkow (Simon Dubnow Institute, Leipzig)
Grit Schorch (Simon Dubnow Institute, Leipzig)
Stefan Schreiner (Tübingen University)
Moshe Shokeid (Tel Aviv University)
Justin Stagl (Salzburg University)
Katrin Steffen (German Historical Institute Warsaw)
Alfonso de Toro (Leipzig University)
Sigrid Weigel (Centre for Literary Research, Berlin)
Stephan Wendehorst (Simon Dubnow Institute, Leipzig)
Moshe Zimmermann (The Hebrew University, Jerusalem)

Kontakt

Dirk Sadowski
Simon-Dubnow-Institut für jüdische Geschichte und Kultur
Goldschmidtstr. 28, D-04103 Leipzig
++49-341-217 35 50
++49-341-217 35 55
sadowski@dubnow.de

www.dubnow.de