Colloquium: "The Turn of the 1990s and its Impact upon the Study of Jewish Cultures and Arts"

Venue: Faculty of Jewish Studies, Bar-Ilan University, Bldg. 410, Room 312 (Israel) and online by Zoom (link)

With the participation of Katja Smid (ILC-CSIC): "Novelties in Ladino Studies over the Last Decades (1992-2023)", on wednesday 24th, panel 3 (zoom) (12.15-14.15 hrs.)

Organizers: Center for Jewish Studies (University of Graz) and Department of Jewish Art, Bar-Ilan University

Description: The devastating war raging in Ukraine affects our consciousness and poses unanswered questions. Are we once again losing the ability to move freely between the “West” and the “East”? Can we view the Jewish past and present in Europe in its full complexity and interconnectivity? The past year felt like being caught in a historical limbo, not knowing what the future will bring, how it will affect our lives or what our future intellectual landscapes will look like… Precisely this current uncertainty presents an opportune moment for reflection on past decades. In this spirit, our colloquium plans to retrospect and examine changes that took place from the 1990s on in the field of Jewish studies.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and with it of communist societies, the unification of Europe, the globalization of the Holocaust, and other events of this era shape our research, knowledge and interpretation. Along with the rise of the digital age, identity politics, and postmodern questions concerning race, gender and ethnicity, academic fields focusing on Jewish cultures and arts experienced significant turns. We plan to address these developments through a series of panels, lectures and discussions.