Moscow Summer School in Judaic Studies
«Beyond the Pale»
June, 27 – July, 1, 2021.
Center "Sefer" in collaboration with the International Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) held the Summer School in Jewish Studies "Beyond the Pale"
(June 27 - July 1, 2021).
The school was organized with the support of Genesis Philanthropy Group, Russian Jewish Congress, Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, Claims Conference. The project is being implemented by the winner of the “Common Cause” competition organized by “Effective Philanthropy” charity program of the Vladimir Potanin Foundation. The school was attended by 12 teachers (from Russia and Poland), 53 students from Russia (geography of participants from Kaliningrad to Kemerovo) and Belarus. Unfortunately, participants from other countries were unable to join us due to pandemic restrictions.
The Pandemic of 2020-2021 put the whole world into the limits of a kind of “Pale of Settlement”. Our boundaries, internal and external, physical and symbolic, are constantly being verified and transformed. Within the framework of this summer school, we will consider the idea of being "beyond the pale" within the variety of its meanings. We will understand it as something that steps over the boundaries, something unusual, as well as something that falls outside the scope of rational thinking. For example, the ideas about miracles, that spring up because of trauma. We can discuss boundaries while defining categories and classifications, which became subject of revision in new conditions. The tragedy of the Holocaust became such a bifurcation point in the process of defining and verification of categories and stereotypes.
The school opened with a plenary lecture by prof. Mikhail Krutikov "Vilnius: the border between East and West, past and present." On the very first evening of the school, a round table "Who owns the" Jewish "memory" was held with following speakers: Svetlana Bardina, Valery Dymshits, Mikhail Krutikov and Victoria Mochalova.
Following topics were presented at three parallel study tracks:
· the evolution of anthropologically oriented history from the French history of mentalities to microhistory, history of everyday life and new cultural history;
· the construction of the idea of “shtetl”, its economic, social, "spatial organization and internal policy;
· historical study of urban Jewish communities on the former territories of Rzeczpospolita and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania using the methods of micro-history, histories of everyday life and mentality;
· transformation mechanisms of the Holocaust memory in the stories of survivors and subsequent generations;
· American Jewry’s perception of two central events in the Jewish history in the 20th century: the Holocaust and the creation of the Israel State;
· the process of creation, changing and disappearing of categories that determine our worldview as well as perception of other people and their actions;
· links between Nazi eugenics and the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question"
· understanding of gender issues, and, particularly, gender relations in Talmudic literature.
In addition to lecturing courses, the school program included 2 seminars:
1) Victoria Gerasimova "Laboratory of Familial History"
2) Valery Dymshits "Close reading of three texts on the shtetl"
The evening program of the school was very busy. Uri Gershovich discussed with the school participants the film "The Fourth Man" (directed by P. Verhoeven, 1982). The second film evening was devoted to the discussion with Svetlana Pakhomova about the film "Persian Lessons" (directed by V. Perelman, 2020). At the end of the school, students were able to take part in the Quiz game organized by Dmitry Maryasis and his team. 6 teams of students participated.
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Center “Sefer” in collaboration with International Centre for University Teaching of Jewish Civilisation (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) are going to hold the Summer School in Judaic Studies (June, 27 – July, 1, 2021). School is organized with the support of Genesis Philantrophy Group, Russian Jewish Congress, Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and Claims Conference.
The Pandemic of 2020-2021 put the whole world into the limits of a kind of “Pale of Settlement”. Our boundaries, internal and external, physical and symbolic, are constantly being verified and transformed. Within the framework of this summer school, we will consider the idea of being "beyond the pale" within the variety of its meanings. We will understand it as something that steps over the boundaries, something unusual, as well as something that falls outside the scope of rational thinking. For example, the ideas about miracles, that spring up because of trauma. We can discuss boundaries while defining categories and classifications, which became subject of revision in new conditions. The tragedy of the Holocaust became such a bifurcation point in the process of defining and verification of categories and stereotypes.
The Summer School Courses and Learning Tracks:
|
Learning Tracks |
1 lecture |
2 lecture |
3 lecture |
|
Historical Anthropology |
Mikhail Krom
|
Valery Dymshits Historical Anthropology of Shtetl |
Viktoria Mochalova and Arthur Markovsky Historical Anthropology: Jewish Life in Cities |
|
Holocaust:
|
Maria Kaspina and Svetlana Amosova Transformation of the Holocaust Narratives:
|
Irina Adelheim Strategies of Auto psychotherapy and Succession: Holocaust in Polish Prose of 2000–2010. |
Maksim Gammal Holocaust, American Jewry and Formation of the Israel State. |
|
Thought and Ideology |
Svetlana Bardina Beyond Classification: How Categories Emerge, Change and Disappear |
Ksenia Krimer From Eugenics to Holocaust: the Role of Science in Preconditioning of the Nazi Genocide |
Uri Gershovitch Regarding Gender Relations in Talmudic Literature: Sources and their Interpretation |
The deadline for applications is 20.05.2021. The working language of the summer school is Russian. Please, fill in the form if you would like to apply.
