November 14-15 2017

Location: Main Building of the University of Vienna, Universitätsring 1

Staircase 8, 2nd floor

Tuesday, 14 November 2017

9.00 – 9.15 Welcome Remarks by Gerhard Langer and Károly Dániel Dobos

9.15 – 10.00 Keynote Address:

Jeremy Cohen (Tel Aviv University): Changing Faces of Jewish-Christian Polemics: Between History and Historiography

10.00 – 11.30 Session 1. Chair: Gerhard Langer (University of Vienna)

Ora Limor (Open University of Israel): Holy Places as Polemical Arguments

Israel Yuval (Hebrew University): The Concept of Rest in Judaism and Christianity: Sabbath Versus Sunday

12.00 – 13.30 Session 2. Chair: Israel Yuval (Hebrew University)

Philippe Bobichon (CNRS, IRHT): A Bird's Eye View on the Jewish Anti-Christian Literature in the Western Countries (10th to 17th c.) 

Daniel J. Lasker (Ben Gurion University of the Negev): Jewish Anti-Christian Polemics in Islamic Countries and the Unchanging Nature of the Jewish-Christian Debate

15.00 – 16. 30 Session 3. Chair: Daniel J. Lasker (Ben Gurion University of the Negev)

Alexandra Cuffel (Ruhr University): Eastern Encounters Beyond Byzantium: Patterns of Medieval Jewish-Christian Polemics from the Caucasus to the Indian Ocean

Yaacov Deutsch (David Yellin College): Continuity and Change in the Toledot Yeshu Traditions

17.00 – 18. 30 Session 4. Chair: Jeremy Cohen (Tel Aviv University)

Ursula Ragacs (University of Vienna): Polemics and Politics: An Example from the Middle Ages

Daniel Stein-Kokin (University of Greifswald): "Halakhicized" and "Relicized": The Transformations of the Sambatyon Legend in the Medieval and Early Modern Period

Wednesday, 15 November 2017

9.00 – 10.30 Session 5. Chair: Ram Ben-Shalom (Hebrew University)

Chaim Hames (Ben Gurion University of the Negev): Autobiography and Polemic: The Cases of Herman Judah and Anselm Turmeda

Carsten Wilke (CEU): Between Empathy and Controversy: Abraham Gómez Silveyra (1656-1741) and the Theologians of the Huguenot Exile

11.00 – 12.30 Session 6. Chair: Ora Limor (Open University of Israel)

Christiana Facchini (University of Bologna - University of Erfurt): The Critique of Christianity in the Baroque Period: Remarks on Jewish and Christian Representations in the Early Modern Period

Károly Dániel Dobos (PPCU - University of Vienna): "The Birth of Literature fromthe Spirit of Polemics": Evolution of a Close-Knit Family of Polemical Texts

14.00 – 16.15 Session 7. Chair: Philippe Bobichon (CNRS, IHT)

Regina Grundmann: (University of Münster): Humour, Satire and Polemics in Modern Parodies of the Babylonian Talmud

Ram Ben-Shalom (Hebrew University): Continuity and Change in Modern Jewish-Christian Polemics: The Treatise of Elazar Shalom of Poland

Maria Diemling (Canterbury Christ Church University): Teaching Jewish-ChristianRelations: Challenges and Opportunities

Concluding remarks by Gerhard Langer and Károly Dániel Dobos