Many images created and used in Jewish contexts visualize aspects
of food and cultures of eating in medieval and early modern Jewish
communities throughout Europe and beyond. The surviving material
culture includes artifacts associated with eating practices and
ritual foods, and textual sources, including exegetical literature and
Responsa, refer to rituals that involve food, the dietary laws, and
various other features related to eating practices.

The workshop is designed to bring together researchers with
different areas of expertise who are interested in ritual foods and
the rituals of eating to discuss various methodologies and to allow
for interdisciplinary work on such questions as:

- How did the ideas concerned with ritual foods and rituals of
eating discussed in ancient literature find their way into medieval
culture and to their eventual depiction in Jewish works of art?
- To what degree did medieval Christian and Jewish cultures have
elements of ritual and mundane eating practices in common?
- In what ways did material culture inform the images conveyed
in Jewish art and the interpretation of these medieval depictions, and what do these portrayals tell us about the contemporary material culture?
- Do food-related aspects in Jewish visual and textual culture
offer clues relevant to the study of social behavior, social
stratification, and social gaps?

If you are interested in participating in this workshop, please
submit a short CV and a one-page proposal describing the
research you wish to present to Claudia Bergmann
(claudia.bergmann@uni-erfurt.de) or to Katrin Kogman-Appel
(kogman@uni-muenster.de) by January 31, 2019.