Tag: Jewish

500 Years of Yiddish Printing: Symposium

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10/03/2026

08:47

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Around Oxford, Call for Papers

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4–6 October 2026 | University of Oxford, Oxford, UK


In celebration of the quincentenary of the first Yiddish printing (the 1526/7 Agode of Gershom ben Salomon Kohen of Prague), please join us at the University of Oxford on the 4th–6th of October for a symposium on Yiddish printing, broadly defined.

Papers and workshops will be on the topics of Yiddish printing (letterpress & otherwise), book & publishing history, type design & production, printed images, orthography & linguistics of the printed word, &c. Other topics are included as they relate to Yiddish printing history and practice.

The deadline for submissions of abstracts for papers (~20 minutes) and workshops has now passed. Any inquiries (or late submissions, within reason) may be submitted to Giovanna Truong.

A link for conference registration will be released on this page. Stay tuned!

Conference Programme:

  • Rare Yiddish Book Viewing (Weston Library) (Time TBA)
  • Hands-On Print Workshop (Time TBA)

Borders, Boundaries and Barriers: Real and Imagined in the Middle Ages

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28/02/2026

07:21

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Around Oxford, conference

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20 and 21 April 2026 in Oxford

Lineup_Borders_Boundaries_BarriersDownload
Panels_Borders_Boundaries_BarriersDownload

From the Call for Papers

Borders, Boundaries, and Barriers have become increasingly prominent themes in historical scholarship. Over the last decade, these concepts have been the focus of sustained scholarly interest, drawing especially upon theoretical frameworks and (trans-)national contexts. There is, therefore, a pressing need to examine how these constructs have shaped the lived experiences of historically marginalised groups, as well as how they were perceived, defined, and engaged with by those groups.

This conference seeks to reorient discussions around borders, boundaries, and barriers by foregrounding the experiences and perspectives of marginalised groups and considering how these divisions were perceived fromthe peripheries of societies. Rather than treating these concepts as abstract or solely geopolitical, we will explore the ways in which they have operated — both historically and historiographically — as tools of exclusion and differentiation.

Organised by Natasha Jenman (University of Oxford), Naomi Reiter (QMUL), and Dean A. Irwin (University of Lincoln/OCHJS), the conference will focus on individuals, religious groups, social groups, societal constructions, and natural phenomena. Participants are invited to explore the role played by evolving borders, boundaries, and barriers in the medieval world as part of group identities; and how groups used them to their advantage. Likewise, it will consider the extent to which borders, boundaries and barriers have been imposed upon the medieval world by modern scholars. Possible topics for consideration include, but are not limited to:

  • Legal jurisdictions
  • The natural and the supernatural worlds
  • Socio-economic strata
  • Ritual and religion
  • Space, time, and the environment
  • Gender and sexuality
  • Disability
  • Transgression, delinquency, and the grey middle space

This conference adopts a broad chronological and geographical approach with submissions from all historically-related disciplines being welcome. The conference will take place on 20 and 21 April 2026 in Oxford. To submit, please send a title, abstract (c. 250 words), and a bio (c. 100 words) to: bordersboundariesbarriers@gmail.com. Any questions should be directed to the same e-mail address.
The organisers hope to be able to offer a limited number of bursaries for students and those on low income. Please indicate in your proposal whether you would like to be considered for
one of these if this becomes possible.

Image ref: Latin Psalter (13th-15th C), f.9 – BL Add MS 28681,



Rare Jewish Languages at Oxford

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12/08/2025

11:12

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Around Oxford, opportunities

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OSRJL Applications for Michaelmas Term 2025 are now open!

As part of the Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages (OSRJL), applications for language classes beginning in Michaelmas Term 2025 are now open! The deadline to apply is 12 September at 12 noon UK time.

Classes beginning in Michaelmas Term 2025 include those on the following languages:

For more information on the programme and how to apply, please consult the OSRJL page and our News/Announcements page on our website. If you have questions, please email us at osrjl@ochjs.ac.uk.

Jewish languages are essential and incorporeal parts of Jewish history, creativity, culture and identity. Most of them are currently in danger of extinction while others are already dead, known only from early writing. Various research programmes stress the immense role of vernacular languages in Jewish life and culture as well as point to their fragility, yet universities offer very few learning opportunities for most of these rare Jewish languages. 

Created in August 2021 by the Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies (OCHJS) in collaboration with the Institut des Langues Rares (ILARA) at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), Paris, the Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages (OSRJL) offers free, online teaching of rare Jewish languages and their cultural-historical contexts—along with a public lecture series, academic blog, Visiting Fellows programme, Jewish music classes (this year focusing on the history of Yiddish music!) and language Cafés—accessible at no cost to accepted students and members of the general public around the globe. By doing so, the OSRJL aims to preserve, spark interest in, enable access to and reflect on the nature and role of Jewish languages as rich linguistic facets of Jewish life and history. It is the first school of its kind globally. 

You can read about the OSRJL’s second year, 2022–23, in the Impact Report:

COMPRESSED-OSRJL-Impact-Report-2022-23Download

In 2023–24, expanded the language offerings to include classes on 3 languages new to the programme—Haketia, Judeo-Hamadani and Kivruli, teaching a record 18 languages. Languages taught through the OSRJL in 2023–24 included:

  • Haketia    (Dr Carlos Yebra López, University College London)
  • Baghdadi Judeo-Arabic    (Dr Assaf Bar Moshe, Freie Universität Berlin)
  • Classical Judeo-Arabic    (Friederike Schmidt, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
  • Judeo-French    (Dr Sandra Hajek, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)
  • Judeo-Greek    (Dr Julia G. Krivoruchko, University of Cambridge)
  • Judeo-Hamadani    (Professor Dr Saloumeh Gholami, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)
  • Judeo-Italian    (Dr Marilena Colasuonno, University of Naples)
  • Judeo-Moroccan    (Haviva Fenton)
  • Judeo-Neo-Aramaic    (Dr Dorota Molin, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge)
  • Judeo-Persian    (Dr Ofir Haim, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, & Maximilian Kinzler)
  • Judeo-Provençal    (Dr Peter Nahon, Université de Neuchâtel)
  • Judeo-Tat    (Professor Gilles Authier & Dr Murad Suleymanov, EPHE, Paris)
  • Judeo-Turkish    (Professor Laurent Mignon, University of Oxford)
  • Karaim    (Professor Henryk Jankowski, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań)
  • Kivruli    (Dr Hélène Gérardin, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales/EPHE)
  • Ladino    (Dr Carlos Yebra López, University College London)
  • Old Yiddish    (Dr Diana Matut)
  • Yiddish    (Dr Beruriah Wiegand, OCHJS, University of Oxford)

Some of the languages we teach—such as Classical Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-French, Judeo-Provençal, Judeo-Persian and Judeo-Greek—are extinct, and our teaching is therefore based, at least in part, on medieval texts and manuscripts written in these languages.

To receive notifications about application opportunities, as well as other activities of the OSRJL, follow the Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies on social media (X: @OCHJSnews, Facebook: Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies, LinkedIn: Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies and Vimeo: OCHJS) and/or sign up to its Activities Email List by emailing academic.administrator@ochjs.ac.uk. To learn more about the OSRJL programme as a whole, please visit our website or email us at osrjl@ochjs.ac.uk.

We hope to see you in one of our classes and/or at one of our events soon!

Madeleine Trivasse (OSRJL Coordinator; Academic Registrar & Publications Officer of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies)

With: Professor Judith Olszowy-Schlanger (OSRJL Founder; President of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies; Professor of Hebrew Manuscript Studies, EPHE, PSL; Fellow, Corpus Christi College)