Order, Reorder, and Disorder: Jews and Muslims Encountering the Modern Era

May 5–6, 2019

This colloquium seeks to re-envision the circumstances of Jews and Muslims living in the modern era by reconstructing the myriad ways that social, cultural, political, and economic relationships were ordered, and by shedding light on their “reordering” in modernity. 

The Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies’ 2018–19 fellowship year has been focused on Jewish life in modern Islamic contexts and culminates by welcoming this interdisciplinary group of scholars to examine these themes while deliberately “disordering” prevailing paradigms, geographies, and categories that have governed the study of Jews in the modern Middle East and North Africa and beyond. 

Registration is appreciated.

SUNDAY, MAY 5

11:30 am–12:45 pm | WELCOME LUNCH
For participants and invited guests only
Golkin Room, Houston Hall
 

1:00–1:15 pm | INTRODUCTION
Please note that all panels will take place in Houston Hall’s Ben Franklin Room unless otherwise indicated
Steven Weitzman, Ella Darivoff Director, Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies

1:15–2:30 pm | OPENING PANEL
Chair & Moderator: Alan Verksin, University of Rhode Island*

Norman Stillman, University of Oklahoma, Emeritus
Edwin Seroussi, Hebrew University of Jerusalem*
Orit Bashkin, University of Chicago*

2:30–3:00 pm | COFFEE BREAK

3:00–5:00 pm | PANEL 1: LAW & ORDER
Chair: Joseph E. Lowry, University of Pennsylvania

Zvi Zohar, Bar Ilan University
Giyyur and Dissimulation: The Sensational Case of Latifa and the Muslim Convert  

Kerstin Hünefeld, Free University of Berlin*
“Dhimma Space” and Beyond: Reordering the Relationship between Jews and Muslims under Sharia Rule as a Socio-Political Field

Bernard Haykel, Princeton University
Reflections on the Relationship between the Jews and the Zaydis in Yemen

Respondent: Lawrence Rosen, Princeton University and Columbia University

5:00–8:00 pm | RECEPTION, DINNER, & MUSICAL PERFORMANCE BY DAVID'S HARP
For participants and invited guests only
Hall of Flags, Houston Hall 

MONDAY, MAY 6

9:00–9:30 am | COFFEE & LIGHT BREAKFAST 

9:30–11:30 am | PANEL 2: COEXISTENCE & CONFLICT
Chair: Heather J. Sharkey, University of Pennsylvania

Annie Greene, University of Chicago*
Investing in Empire: Ottoman-Iraqi Jews as Imperial Subjects

Sarah Frances Levin, University of California, Berkeley* 
Affinity and Differentiation: The Role of Language among Jews and Muslims in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains

Marc David Baer, London School of Economics and Political Science 
Turkish Jews and Armenian Genocide Denial: The Long View

Respondent: Bedross Der Matossian, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 

11:30 am–1:00 pm | LUNCH

1:00–3:00 pm | PANEL 3: BOUNDARIES & NETWORKS
Chair: Oscar Aguirre-Mandujano, University of Pennsylvania

Matthias Lehmann, University of California, Irvine
Borderline Beneficence: The Politics of Jewish Philanthropy in the Late Ottoman Period

Hadar Feldman-Samet, Hebrew University of Jerusalem*
On the Margins: Text, Paratext, and Context in Ottoman Sabbatian Sources 

Bat-Zion Eraqi Klorman, Open University of Israel
Jewish Migration Trends from South Arabia during the Ottoman Era, 1870–1914

Respondent: Francesca Trivellato, Institute for Advanced Studies
 

3:00–3:15 pm | COFFEE BREAK 

3:15–5:15 pm | Panel 4: MEMORY & LITERATURE
Chair: Nancy E. Berg, Washington University in St. Louis*

Mark Wagner, Louisiana State University*   
“An Ape Man in the Dark Mountains”: A Picaresque Novella from 20th-Century Yemen and 21st-Century Israel

Esra Almas, Istanbul Şehir University*
Longing without Belonging: Sounds and Spaces of Sephardi Istanbul

Keren Dotan, Open University of Israel*
Arab Modernisms through Mizrahi Eyes in Early 20th-Century Eretz Yisrael

Respondent: Huda J. Fakhreddine, University of Pennsylvania

5:15–6:00 pm | CONCLUDING DISCUSSION

6:00 pm | CLOSING RECEPTION
Arthur Ross Gallery, Fisher Fine Arts Library
220 South 34th Street, Penn Campus

*Current Katz Center Fellow

Photo art: Yigal S. Nizri, “Boulevard Mohammed V, Casablanca,” February 2019