Conference: Can Polemics Innovate? Change and Continuity in Jewish–Christian Polemics from Late Antiquity to the Modernity

Can Polemics Innovate?”
Change and Continuity in Jewish–Christian
Polemics from Late Antiquity to the Modernity

November 14-15 2017

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

Staircase 8, 2nd floor

Organised by the University of Vienna
with the cooperation and co-sponsoring by:
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Spalding Trust
The CEU Center for Religious Studies 
Pázmány Péter Catholic University of Hungary
Gesellschaft der Freunde der Universität Tel Aviv
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Program

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