Jews and Law in the Middle Ages and Early Modernity
Online
Zoom link to be provided
Password required
SPRING COLLOQUIUM — RSVP here
In this two-day online colloquium, the Katz Center brings together distinguished international scholars to consider the various and complex ways Jews lived law in Muslim and Christian contexts in the Middle Ages and Early Modernity. Jews lived law as a negotiation between their authoritative legal sources and the realities of their time and place. Among the many cases to be examined are Jewish litigation in non-Jewish courts, Jewish women as legal actors, the impact of non-Jewish law on Jewish communal legislation, and modes of transnational Jewish legal enforcement. The interdisciplinary panels will focus on questions of method, context, and comparison.
Registration is required.
Please RSVP to Dajana Denes Walters at dajana@upenn.edu by April 22, 2022.
EVENT PROGRAM
MONDAY, APRIL 25
11:15–11:30 am ET | WELCOME
Natalie Dohrmann, Katz Center Associate Director
Alyssa M. Gray, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion | Katz Center
11:30 am–1:00pm ET | PANEL 1: WOMEN IN COURT
Chair & Moderator: Micha J. Perry, University of Haifa | Katz Center
Eve Krakowski, Princeton University
A Jewish Marriage Gone Awry in the 10th-Century Fayyum: What Were the Legal Options?
Rachel Furst, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich | Katz Center
Prenuptial Agreements, Postnuptial Disputes: Marriage and Documentary Practice in Medieval Ashkenaz
Sarah Ifft Decker, Rhodes College
“As in the Hebrew Contract”: Jewish Law, Christian Notaries, and Documentary Culture in Medieval Catalonia
Verena Kasper-Marienberg, North Carolina State University
Navigating Legal Pluralism as a Jewish Woman in 18th-Century Frankfurt
1:00–1:30 pm ET | BREAK
1:30–3:15 pm ET | PANEL 2: BORDERS, ALTERNATIVES, AND IDENTITY
Chair & Moderator: Zvi Stampfer, Orot Israel College | Katz Center
Marina Rustow, Princeton University
How to Define Yourself and Defend Your Property as a Medieval Islamicate Jew
Moshe Yagur, Bar-Ilan University
Contesting Religious Identity in Muslim Courts
Elisha Russ-Fishbane, New York University
Judeo-Islam and the Doctrine of Abrogation (Naskh)
TUESDAY, APRIL 26
11:30 am–1:15 pm ET | PANEL 3: INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN JEWISH AND NON-JEWISH LAW
Chair & Moderator: Louise Hecht, University of Potsdam | Katz Center
Gregor Schwarb, LMU Munich
According to the Conclusion of My Own Interpretive Effort (ḥasab mā addā ilayhi ijtihādunā)
Martin Borýsek, University of Potsdam
Living with the Serenissima: The Impact of Venetian State Law on the Jewish Communal Bylaws as Reflected in Late Medieval Cretan Takkanot
Tamar Menashe, Columbia University | Katz Center
“And against Your Rabbis’ Ban!”: Navigating Jewish and Non-Jewish Law and Judiciaries at the German Supreme Court (1511–1600)
Respondent: François Guesnet, University College London
1:15–1:30 pm ET | BREAK
1:30–3:00 pm ET | PANEL 4: MODES OF ENFORCEMENT
Chair & Moderator: Daniel Strum, University of São Paulo | Katz Center
Rena Lauer, Oregon State University
Dying for Control: Enforcing Social Goals in Late Medieval Last Wills
Tirza Y. Kelman, Ben Gurion University | Katz Center
Authority, Enforcement, Atonement: The Discourse about Judicial Flogging during the 1538 Smicha Controversy
Evelyne Oliel-Grausz, University of Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne | Katz Center
Enforcing Jewish Justice beyond Borders: The Livorno Court of the Massari (18th Century)
3:00–3:30 pm ET | CONCLUDING DISCUSSION
Moderator: Daniel Strum | Katz Center
