Hannah Peaceman presents a workshop paper on 'the impossibility of Jewish-Germany unity: Negative dialectic as method of its development'

This project aims to tackle the universality, secularity and practice of Jewish Political Philosophy in the 19th century and until the Shoah. Reference-points are Jewish-German perspectives that were involved in political debates until the Shoah. They have not been systematically accounted on since then from a philosophical perspective. The focus lies around the debates on the “Jewish Question”. Jewish perspectives provided important ideas on political emancipation and societal alternatives in the 19th century

Portrait of Italian Jewish Life (1800s-1930s) - edited and published by edited by Tullia Catalan, Cristiana Facchini

Cristiana Facchini also published in the recent issue of Quest the article:

Six Authors in Search of a Narrative

Luigi Luzzatti (1841-1927)
Fondazione CDEC, Photographic Archive, Giorgio Sacerdoti’s Collection.

“Few Italian political men are so well known, at least outside the Peninsula, as Luigi Luzzatti. At home his untiring political, economic and scientific activity and his long parliamentary career have kept him constantly in the public eye. Abroad he is known because he negotiated important commercial treatises and represented Italy at international congresses, while his writings have had the honor of being translated into several languages. […] He is the most encyclopedic man of the Kingdom.” more here

New Research Centre for the Study of Ritual Practices in Judaism at the Max-Weber-Centre, Erfurt University

The new research centre at the Max-Weber-Centre, University of Erfurt, will address the dynamics of ritual practices in Judaism. The research project is funded by the Federal Ministry of education and research with over a million euros and will run for five years. The project is run by religion and cultural theorists, theologian and musicologists, Prof. Dr. Benedikt Kranemann, Prof. Dr. Jörg Rüpke, and Prof. Dr. Martin Mulsow, all of the University of Erfurt, and Professor Dr. Jascha Nemtsov from the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar.

"The project enables new trajectories for the study of religious practices and a more intensive international networking for theology and religious studies. The approval of the project is a push to expand the religion-related research in Erfurt even further, explains Prof. Kranemann who is the spokesman of the University’s focus research cluster on religion. Collaboration with institutions for the study of Judaism in Germany and abroad will be expanded in the course of the centre’s work. The project is located at the Max-Weber-Centre in collaboration with the Theological Faculty and the Centre of research at Gotha, University of Erfurt.

Participating scientists and scholars from home and abroad will examine rituals in religious or culturally pluralistic contexts. Also, practice, history, and the interpretation of such rituals will be explored. Liturgies, other rituals such as reading and learning religious texts or dealing with calendars will be available in the Centre. In addition to texts, in particular rituals, music, space and images will be looked at. An innovative edge is given through continuous comparison with other religious traditions present in the groups and institutions. Erfurt scholars expect to discover more than just new insights for their own areas of research, and to broaden the existing interdisciplinarity of the Max-Weber-Centre. Thematic focusses are late antiquity, the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as the period from the nineteenth century to the present, where Jewish rituals, sociology and economics will be studied. A goal of the project is to scholarly reflection upon ritual and religious practice of Judaism, a topic that is often marginalized in the study of religions.

Internationally renowned scientists and scholars will be ask to cooperate as Fellows, interacting with existing and new doctoral students in Erfurt. The participating scholars will publish their research results and also make it available for the broader public. Networking with the various Jewish institutions and facilities in Erfurt is also planned.

More information / contact:

Prof. Dr. Benedikt Kranemann

+ 49 361 737-2566

Benedikt.kranemann(at)uni-Erfurt.de