Autonomous Non-Profit Organization For Academic Research and Humanitarian Purposes Center «Sefer»

WINTER SCHOOL ON JEWISH STUDIES 2014

Winter School on Jewish Studies organized by Sefer Center took place on 5th – 9th of February, 2014 in “Dobroe”. The school was organized in partnership with Chais Center for Jewish Studies in Russian (Hebrew University of Jerusalem). Winter School on Jewish Studies was held with financial support by Avi Chai Foundation, Genesis Philanthropy Group and Israel Cultural Center in Moscow.

55 students from Russia (Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Kazan, Nizhnekamsk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Perm, Irkutsk, Severodvinsk), Ukraine (Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Odessa, Vorzel, Zolotonosha, Lugansk, Nezhin, Shepetovka), Belarus (Minck, Grodno, Novopolotsk), Latvia (Riga), Poland (Warsaw) and Czech Republic (Prague) participated in the School. 

The lecturers were from Russia, Ukraine and Israel.

The courses were divided into 4 groups:

- classical Jewish texts and their interpretation (Mikhail Seleznyov “Jewish Bible and Its Greek Re-Interpretation”, Alexey Lyavdansky “The Prophecy As Poetical Competition” and Reuven Kipervasser “Meeting with the Angel of Death – Narrative Topos in Talmudic Literature As the Way to Impression the Talmudic Culture”);

- history of Jews in Eastern Europe (Semion Goldin “The Jews of Russia and WWI”, Dmitry Feldman “The Jews of Russian Empire in Napoleon’s Wars”, Vladimir Lyubchenko “Jews-Farmers in Eastern Europe (1780–1930)”);

- Jews on the cultural crossroads (Victor Shnirelman “Religion and Antisemitism”, Semion Parizhsky “Warrior, Wiseman, Lover: the Ideal of Masculinity in Medieval Hebrew Poetry”, Galina Zelenina “Love and Hatred under the Tribunal: Gender and Communal Relations in Marranos Community”);

- Modern Israel (Zeev Khanin “Religion, Power and Community in Israel in the Beginning of 21st Century”, Eugeny Tartakovsky “Global Migration Processes and Immigration Politics in Israel”, Stanislav Kozheurov “The Problem of Representative Democracy on the Border of the Centuries: Israel in Comparative Perspective”). 

Dr. Zeev Khanin gave the plenary lecture “The Island of Israel: between Syrian Conflict, Iran Threat and Egypt Revolution”.

The program included 2 beit-midrash: literary (Alina Polonskaya “What We Don’t Like in Them?”) and Talmudic-philosophical (Reuven Kipervasser and Sergey Stepanishchev “The Dialectics of Vision and Its Absence”). There was also the round table dedicated to the theme of Jews’ participating in Ukranian revolution. The entertainment part included 3 movie-views with the discussion leaded by Sergey Stepanishchev and Katerina Pits.

As 2014 is the year of Sefer’s 20th anniversary there was an evening dedicated to this events where students, lecturers and organizers shared their memories and experience connected with Sefer Center.

The full program (in Russian) is available here.

Photo Album is here.