Gender in Jewish Studies: Re-Evaluations of Jewish Everyday History and Culture in Central and Eastern Europe
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The scholarly workshop "Gender in Jewish Studies: Re-Evaluations of Jewish Everyday History and Culture in Central and Eastern Europe" was held at POLIN Museum on June 25-26.
This was the second edition of workshops, the first of which had convened at a partner institution – the University of Graz – in November 2023. For two days, researchers from Israel, Germany, Austria, France, and Poland discussed various topics in the modern history of Central and Eastern European Jewry through the lens of gender: Jewish-non-Jewish encounters, antisemitism, Jewish identity, and survival strategies during the Holocaust.
Program
Day 1: 25 June (Tuesday)
12:00-12:15 Opening remarks
12:15-13:45 Panel 1: Imperial Russia
- Ela Bauer (Kibbutzim College, Tel Aviv)
The Couresityot and The Big City; The Encounter of Femail Students at Hebrew Froebel Courses in 31 Leszno St. With The Everyday Life of Warsaw Before First World War - Julija Levin (Tel Aviv University)
Sexual Violence Against Jewish Women in Jewish Homes in 19th Century Vilna
13:45 Lunch break
14:45-16:45 Panel 2: Central Europe
- Michael L. Miller (Central European University, Vienna)
Morality, Modesty and "Jewish" Mores in Interwar Hungary - Martina Niedhammer (Collegium Carolinum, Munich)
(Why) Does Female Authorship Matter? Possibilities and Boundaries of Jewish Cookbook Writing in Central Europe during the Late 19th and the Early 20th Century - Susanne Korbel (University of Graz/Central European University, Vienna)
Re-Thinking Intimacies between Jews and non-Jews: A Gendered Approach to Living in Budapest and Vienna 1900-1930
16:45 Coffee break
17:00-18:30 Panel 3: Southeast Europe
- Katarzyna Taczyńska (Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences/University College Dublin)
Jewish, Yugoslav, Woman: Meaning-Creation Practices in Identity Building. The Case of Ženi Lebl - Sylvia Hershcovitz (Bar Ilan University) Re-Constructing the Romanian Jewry Narrative by including Her Story: The Activity of Jewish Women and their Organizations in Romania during the First Half of the 20th Century
18:30 Reception
Day 2: 26 June (Wednesday)
9:15-11:15 Panel 4: Poland
- Emma Zohar (University of Haifa)
Extramarital Sexual Relations Within the Jewish Community in Independent Poland - Agnieszka Jagodzińska (University of Wrocław)
(R)evolution: Describing Marriage and Romance in Jewish Autobiographies, 1800-1939 - Aleksandra Jakubczak (POLIN Museum/History Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Ksuves and Visas: Marital Strategies of Polish Jewish Women in the Era of Global Immigration Restrictions
11:15 Coffee break
11:30-13:00 Panel 5: The Holocaust
- Mariusz Kalczewiak (University of Los Angeles)
Impaired Providers and Weakened Protectors: Negotiating Jewish Masculinities in Occupied Warsaw (1939-1942) - Justina Smalkyte (Science Po, Paris)
Stealing, Shearing, Exchanging: Material Encounters between Jewish and non-Jewish Soviet Partisans in German-occupied Lithuania
13:00 Lunch
Organizers:
The workshop was organized within the Global Education Outreach program, supported by Taube Philanthropies, the William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation, Libitzky Family Foundation and the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland, and with the support of the World Union of Jewish Studies.
This workshop is organized within the Austrian Science Fund Project "Entanglements of Jews and non-Jews in Private Spaces" (FWF ESP120) and National Science Center, Poland, grant no. 2022/45/N/HS3/01014