Bulletin 2021 Message from the BAJS President July 2021 by Helen Spurling (University of Southampton) It has been a busy year for us all, with new opportunities but also considerable disruption and challenge. Within BAJS, we have Message from the BAJS President 1 continued to work on your behalf to advance Prizes and Prize-winners 4 teaching and research in Jewish culture and Student Essay Prize 4 history. This year’s annual Bulletin provides The 2021 BAJS Book Prize 4 me with a welcome opportunity to give an Jewish Studies Highlights: from A to Z – including: 5 overview of what the Association has achieved The blossoming of Jewish Studies at the University of Chester 5 for its members over the last twelve months. I Edinburgh Jewish Studies Network 7 hope that you will agree that the Association The Selig Brodetsky Memorial Lecture at Leeds 8 Sephardi Thought and Modernity webinar series, KCL 11 goes from strength to strength, and, Northern UK and Dublin Jewish Studies Partnership 14 importantly, engages with the issues that really News from Archives, Libraries and Museums – including: 17 matter to our members. The Hidden Treasures Covid-19 Community Archive Project 17 Cecil Roth’s rare book collection 18 A core part of the work of BAJS is to hold an annual conference, which this Manchester Jewish Museum Re-opens 18 year was on the theme: ‘World in Crisis: Reflections and Responses from Book-launch of the Palgrave Handbook of Britain and the 19 Antiquity to the Present’ (5-7 July 2021). The theme was chosen well before Holocaust recent events, but even three years ago it felt timely and an opportunity to News from Parkes Library and Anglo-Jewish Archive 20 explore significant, long-standing or contemporary issues of crisis and News from the British Library’s Hebrew Section 21 response, and the place of Jews, Judaism and Jewish Studies within this. We Letter from Spain 24 postponed the 2020 conference in the hopes that we could resume with an in- Remembering Colleagues 25 person event this year. This was not to be, but there were some positive BAJS Outreach Project: Resources for Teaching Jewish Studies in 26 aspects to holding the conference online. We were able to reach wider and Schools and Colleges more diverse audiences, and colleagues were able to participate that would PGR/ECR Network: News and Updates 26 normally find the travel difficult or expensive. We welcomed around 180 Selected Publications of BAJS Members 27 speakers this year, complemented by the participation of even more friends The BAJS Committee 30 and colleagues in Jewish Studies in attendance. Inclusivity was a foundational principle in the planning of the conference. The intention was to have mixed gender panels throughout. The range of paper proposals meant that mixed panels were possible in the vast majority of cases, but we still had 1 a number of single gender panels (11 all women panels, and 6 all men panels anthropological approaches to Jewishness, as well as assess representation of out of 62 panels in total). It is essential that we work on improving these Jews in art, film, television and other visual media. We noted that colleagues statistics in future years, but it may be of interest to note that the majority of in Jewish Studies are represented in a very wide range of HE institutions and all men panels were in the pre-modern sessions, and the majority of all departments across the UK and that it is important to acknowledge that those women panels were in the modern sessions. Our two keynote speakers were working in Jewish Studies may have different methodological issues and women with deeply impressive research profiles and outstanding records in theoretical approaches from those commonly taken within the departments of academic leadership – special thanks to Hindy Najman and Stefanie Schüler- which they are a part. We also emphasised that research in Jewish Studies Springorum. Our final plenary panel was mixed gender and represented a often requires work in specialist languages such as Classical Hebrew and range of institutions involved in Jewish Studies – many thanks to Maria Aramaic or Modern Hebrew and Yiddish. These are crucial messages to Diemling, Hannah Ewence, Charlotte Hempel and Adam Sutcliffe. We also communicate, but further work needs to be done to gain representation for had a large number of PGRs and ECRs presenting, and had a dedicated the whole range of Jewish Studies beyond religion and the ancient world. session for PGR/ECR support led by Katharina Keim (PGR/ECR BAJS will continue its work in advocating for representation in the REF from Representative), which really furthered our priority to nurture the next the earliest stages of a REF cycle and before sub-panel requirements become generation in Jewish Studies. fixed. Our members and colleagues in Jewish Studies also have a significant role to play. In REF 2021, the ‘survey of submission intentions’ was a key Advancing and promoting Jewish Studies is also vital in other aspects of factor in determining what sub-panel expertise was deemed necessary. When research activity. This year marked the culmination of several years of universities receive the next iteration of this survey in the next REF cycle, it advocacy by the BAJS committee to secure representation for Jewish Studies is essential that our members and colleagues come forward and ask that in the Research Excellence Framework (REF). We are pleased that our Jewish Studies be included – otherwise there is no evidence that Jewish interventions led to the appointment of Professor Philip Alexander to sub- Studies representation is needed. BAJS will continue to notify members when panel 31 (Theology and Religious Studies). This was a significant such matters arise and keep you informed of what we are doing to advocate achievement for the Association and we are hugely grateful to Philip on behalf of our community. What our experiences over the last few years Alexander for taking on this enormous workload and ensuring that Jewish have shown is that we can act and make a difference in these matters. Studies has a representative. Engagement with the REF process shows that Jewish Studies is often difficult for those outside the field to define and that It is a fundamental priority for BAJS to protect our field, which means Jewish Studies is frequently associated with antiquity and religion, which are thinking long-term about its future. We are all aware of the difficulties facing of course major areas of Jewish Studies but in no sense representative of the the humanities in the UK but also around the world, with increasing pressures entirety of our field. As such, in communications with REF panel and sub- on student recruitment in much of the sector, and discussions around the value panel chairs, we emphasised that Jewish Studies is an interdisciplinary field of humanities prominent in the media. Jewish Studies is of course broader that stretches from antiquity to the present day and is studied in different than the humanities, but frequently sits within it and faces the same global contexts. We stressed that research is conducted regularly into challenges. This makes it especially vital to work to protect the long-term questions of Jewish culture and identity in addition to or instead of questions future of the field, and demonstrate the value of Jewish Studies. We already around Judaism as a religion, which also has chronological and global breadth have a number of initiatives in place to support our postgraduate and early- and is a major subject area in its own right. We pointed out that Jewish career community and to encourage and develop the next generation of Studies may take historical, literary, sociological, philosophical or scholars: we have a dedicated PG/ECR Representative on the BAJS 2 Committee (a position currently held by Dr Katharina Keim, Manchester and for confidential advice on individual circumstances through 1-1 meetings; Lund); financial support for PGRs and ECRs to attend the annual BAJS advice on written drafts of policy documents, institutional statements, or conference (this year it was free to all PGRs and academics not currently in responses requested by institutions; advice on antisemitism in matters of a full-time permanent academic post); and our mentoring scheme. BAJS also education, including decolonising the curriculum; support regarding offers an annual PGR studentship (currently held by Susannah Rees, King’s marginalisation or exclusion of Jewish experience or expertise in Jewish College London). As studentship holder, Susannah also sits on the BAJS Studies in institutional discussions; and the possibility of speaking to Committee and contributes to the projects developed by the Association. An institutional management (only at the request of a member and with important current project is to think beyond UG and PG support, and reach demonstrable wider support from their colleagues). The AWG will act in pre-university audiences. As such, Susannah Rees, Lindsey Askin and David accordance with the wishes of our members, and we are here to support and Tollerton have been working on identifying pathways to support school and not intrude. One of the first initiatives from the AWG was a dedicated session college students to engage with Jewish Studies courses at university. In order in the annual conference for informal discussion and support around dealing to facilitate this, a scoping exercise was conducted by Susannah, who with antisemitism in an HE setting. The session was facilitated by members contacted organisations such as professional associations of teachers (e.g., of the BAJS committee and AWG, and was led by the concerns of attendees, SACRE and NATRE) and institutions in the culture and heritage sector (e.g., ranging from experiences on campus to questions around teaching on the Jewish Museum London and the CCJ).