New Edition of Judah Hadassi’s Sefer Eshkol ha-Kofer

Publications

You can now read Daniel J. Lasker’s edition of Sefer Eshkol Ha-Kofer (“The Book of the Cluster of Henna Blossoms”), written by the Karaite Sage Judah ben Elia Hadassi the Mourner in Constantinople in the mid-twelfth century, is unique in the annals of Hebrew literature, in terms of both content and style. The book is a monumental composition which includes more than 350,000 words, consisting of approximately 400 rhymed acrostics.

Have a look

Material Records, Digital Tools, and Analytical Methods: Rethinking History through Architecture, 15–16 September 2026, The Open University of Israel

Conferences

This international conference will explore architecture and space as sources of historical knowledge. We will examine layers of meaning in architecture through new digital methods (Day 1) and new analytical prisms (Day 2). By integrating 2D and 3D visualizations, virtual reality, and sound-based reconstructions of historic sites with academic analysis, we will reconstruct lost experiences, communities, and ritual practices through multidisciplinary approaches to architecture and space.

Many papers are relevant to medieval Jewish Studies.

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CFP: Turning the Image Around: Anti-Judaism, Antisemitism, Satire, and Cultural Resistance across the Ages (International Research Workshop) 

Call for Papers

Department of the Arts and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 14 December 2026.

Deadline: Submission deadline: 11 October 2026

The Department of the Arts and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) invite proposals for an international workshop examining anti-Judaism and antisemitism, their representations and transformations, and the diverse strategies developed to challenge, reappropriate, and resist them from antiquity to the present. We therefore welcome contributions that examine not only the differences between anti-Judaism and antisemitism but also their continuities, ruptures, transformations, and conceptual boundaries. How do medieval religious stereotypes and myths relate to modern antisemitic imagery? When does tracing continuity illuminate the history of anti-Jewish hostility, and when does it obscure historically specific phenomena? How have older motifs been reformulated in response to changing media, audiences, ideologies, and political circumstances?

Full CFP


Fellowship: From Pre-Modern to Modern Perspectives in Judaic Studies

Call for Applications

According to their call, “[t]he Volkswagen Momentum Fellowship Programme “From Pre-Modern to Modern Perspectives in Judaic Studies” invites applications from scholars whose research focuses on Judaism and Jewish communities across the Middle East, the wider Middle East and North Africa from the early modern period into the modern era.”

Munich Research Centre for Jewish-Arabic Cultures, LMU Munich.

Deadline: 2 November 2026

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