18.07.2013

Conference "Emancipation and assimilation of Jews in central-eastern Europe" will take place in Gniezno, January 2014

Department of Culture of  European Judaism

at the AMU Institute of European Culture in Gniezno,

and President of the City of Gniezno, Jacek Kowalski

 

have the honour of inviting You to take part in the

4^th National Scientific Conference dedicated to Jewish issues

entitled:

Emancipation and assimilation of Jews

in central-eastern Europe

 

The conference will be held at the Institute of European Culture in Gniezno, from  January 16^th to 17^th, 2014.

The conference is to be inaugurated by Prof. Marcin Wodziński, our guest of honour.  

The conference fee is 65 € (we ensure hotel-standard accommodation and restaurant catering).

Please send your registration (name and surname, affiliation, topic + abstract not exceeding 2000 characters with spaces) to judaica.gniezno@gmail.com Deadline for registrations is October 31^st, 2013.

Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment, was one of the key factors of social, political, cultural and religious transformation among European Jews, beginning with the late 18^th century.  The cause advanced by e.g. Moses Mendelssohn in Prussia promptly reached Central-Eastern Europe, engendering a complex process of Emancipation and Assimilation, which lasted throughout the entire 19^th century to the early 20^th century.

The aim of the conference is to attempt an outline of Emancipation (and Assimilation) as a catalyst of those multidimensional and multi-faceted changes.

The complex context and the spectrum of issues and themes that we would like to address includes the following:

Reform Judaism in Central-Eastern Europe; Lay reform movements; Emancipation and Jewish philosophy; Legal status of Jews in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the issues of Jewish citizenship on the territories of  individual partitions; The Jewish issue as a political problem; Social utility of Jews as an Enlightenment demand; Emancipation and the Maskilim versus Chassidism; the Maskilim and Jewish political activity; Jewish participation in individual uprisings; Emancipation and rapprochement with the Christian community; Lay education, social reform and modernisation; Development of Hebrew culture and constructing historical awareness; Attitudes towards the ghetto and proto-Zionist movements as a form of Emancipation; Emancipation and demography; Emancipation and economy – transformations of the social and occupational structure; Laws concerning Jewish attire (attire as reflection of changes); Acculturation of Jews and cultural challenges (Emergence of the notion of culture); Jewish art as a call for emancipation (the role of Jewish artists); Jews in European music; Jewish literature and poetry; Jewish theatre (and cinema); Emancipation of Jewish women; and others.