2019 The British Association for Jewish Studies (BAJS) was founded in 1975 as a learned society and professional organization on a non-profit-making basis. Its aims are to nurture, cultivate and advance the teaching and research in Jewish culture and history in all its aspects within Higher Education in the British Isles. Contact: BAJS Secretary Helen Spurling The Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations University of Southampton Southampton SO17 1BF Email: [email protected] Bulletin Editors: Yulia Egorova Email: [email protected] Hannah Ewence Email: [email protected] 1 Contents Jewish Studies in Oxford Jewish Studies in Oxford 2 News and Successes from our Members 7 BAJS bursaries recipients 2019 12 BAJS essay prize winners 12 Lucille Cairns Memorial Lecture 13 Obituary: Andrea Reiter 14 Research Projects and Grants 15 BAJS Conference 2020 Announcement 19 BAJS Members’ Publications 20 Ongoing and Completed PhD Students 26 BAJS 2019 Conference Programme 29 BAJS Committee 44 Dear BAJS members, We are delighted to present the annual BAJS Bulletin to our members. BAJS as a learned society aims to raise the profile of Jewish Studies as an academic discipline in the UK and Ireland. The Bulletin is one way of advertising and celebrating our members’ achievements. The BAJS conference 2019 is being held in Oxford under the leadership of BAJS President Professor Hindy Najman. This offers a wonderful Hindy Najman, President of BAJS and the Oriel opportunity to showcase the excellent work done and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy in Jewish Studies by colleagues at Oxford. We Scripture are also excited to celebrate on-going successes in the field as well as introducing you to This past year has been an important and exciting emerging scholars who have been the recipients year for Biblical Studies in Oxford. I have of a BAJS bursary, a BAJS essay prize, or officially launched the new Centre for the Study participants in postgraduate conferences. of the Bible in the Humanities with a dynamic international conference that hosted many We hope that you will enjoy reading this year’s renowned speakers from across the globe and an edition of the BAJS Bulletin. We rely on your audience of 150 people. All of our activities are contributions – please get in touch if you have posted on our website: https://www.oriel. suggestions for what you would like to read ox.ac.uk/cbh about and let us know about your research and teaching. The Centre for the Study of the Bible in the Hannah Ewence, Chester Humanities (CBH) revitalizes engagement with biblical texts and traditions across the Arts and Yulia Egorova, Durham Humanities. Based in Oriel College and in partnership with the Faculty of Theology and Religion, the Centre hosts research projects, postgraduate research seminars, workshops, and conferences that study the ongoing vitality of scripture. The Centre also facilitates collaborative relationships with leading academic institutions across the globe. With these activities, the Centre encourages cutting- edge research, trains graduate students, and builds an international and interdisciplinary network of scholarship reintegrating Biblical Studies into the Humanities based in Oxford. 2 Feb 11: Anselm Hagedorn (Osnabrück) – I am the founder and director of the Centre. I am Habakkuk: From Persia to Pesher joined by a Programme Coordinator, Arjen Bakker, Postdoctoral Researcher, Yael Fisch, Feb 18: Noam Mizrahi (Tel Aviv) – Prophetic and my Assistant, Stefania Beitia. The Centre Interpretation and Poetic (Re-)Structuring: also has an Advisory Board and a Programme Zechariah Reads Jeremiah Committee. Feb 25: Friedhelm Hartenstein (Munich) – The Seminars End of Judah and the Persistence of Cosmic Order: Understanding History in the Light of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Seminar (average Creation in Psalms and Prophetic Books attendance: 40 people) Mar 4: Ronnie Goldstein (Hebrew University) – This weekly seminar hosts prominent The Search for Context in the Book of Isaiah international scholars to discuss central topics in the study of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. In May 6: Aulikki Nahkola (Wolfson) – Orality and Michaelmas 2018 the theme was The Dead Sea Genre: Issues of Method and Interpretation Scrolls, in Hilary 2019 the theme was the Textualization of Prophecy and in Trinity 2019 May 13: John Day (LMH) – The Serpent in the the seminar was devoted to a variety of topics. In Garden of Eden: Its Background and Role the 2019/2020 academic year the seminar will focus on Rethinking Intertextuality and on May 20: Sandra Jacobs (King’s College London) Hebrew Philology and Interpretation. – Slave Trading (Judaean) Women in Neo- Babylonian and Persian Records Oct 15: Hindy Najman (Oriel) – Poetic Processes and Non-Redemptive Reading: The Hodayot as June 3: Eva Mroczek (UC Davis) – King Collection Hezekiah and Precritical Histories of Scripture Oct 22: Eibert Tigchelaar (Leuven) – Palaeography and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Early Biblical Interpretation Seminar (average Scrolls as Scribal Artifacts attendance: 25 people) Oct 29: Jonathan Ben-Dov, Eshbal Ratson, and The Early Biblical Interpretation seminar is Asaf Gayer (Haifa) – Digital Reconstructions of focused on the study of texts and considers the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Methodology and its vitality of biblical texts, traditions, and themes Future Prospects across the ancient world. In 2018/2019 the seminar was devoted to reading the Dead Sea Nov 12: Reinhard Kratz (Göttingen) – Isaiah in Scrolls in the light of the celebration of the the Scrolls seventieth year of their discovery. In 2019/2020 the seminar will focus on the reading of Rabbinic Nov 26: Jutta Jokiranta (Helsinki) – Can I Trust literature. You? Cooperation and Ritual Behaviour in the Qumran Movement Oct 11: Eibert Tigchelaar – Introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Electronic Resources Jan 14: Madhavi Nevader (St. Andrews) – Textualisation and the Creation of Culture: Oct 25: Dead Sea Scrolls Reading Session: Ezekiel as Test Case Hodayot (Thanksgiving Hymns), 1QHa IX Jan 28: John Goldingay (Fuller) – Canonical Nov 1: Dead Sea Scrolls Reading Session: Readings of Isaiah Hodayot (Thanksgiving Hymns), 1QHa IX Feb 4: Armin Lange (Vienna) – Jeremiah in Nov 8: Sean Adams (Glasgow) – Philo and the Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Dead Sea Scrolls, Biographical Tradition Jerusalem Priests, and Ptolemaic Egypt 3 Nov 15: Dead Sea Scrolls Reading Session: will be ‘Authenticity’ and in 2021 ‘The Hodayot (Thanksgiving Hymns), 1QHa IX Fragment’. Nov 29: Crispin Fletcher-Louis (University of 16 Jan: Hindy Najman (Oriel) and Tobias Gloucestershire) – The Self-Glorification Hymn Reinhardt (Corpus Christi) – Exemplarity and Its (1QHaa 26 and parallels), Ben Sira 50 and Discontents Liturgical Theology’s Response to Ruler Cult 23 Jan: Constanze Güthenke (Corpus Christi) – Jan 17: Dead Sea Scrolls Reading Session: “For Time / is nothing if not amenable”: Time, Hodayot (Thanksgiving Hymns), 1QHa IX Exemplarity, and Reception Jan 24: Dead Sea Scrolls Reading Session: 30 Jan: Simon Goldhill (University of Serekh (Rule of the Community), 1QS XI Cambridge) – Exemplarity and the Case Study Jan 31: Dead Sea Scrolls Reading Session: 6 Feb: Rebecca Langlands (University of Exeter) Serekh (Rule of the Community), 1QS XI – Critical Thinking and Exemplary Ethics Feb 7: Dead Sea Scrolls Reading Session: Serekh 13 Feb: Panel discussion, chairs: Constanze (Rule of the Community), 1QS XI Güthenke (Corpus Christi) and Hindy Najman (Oriel) Feb 14: Hindy Najman (Oriel) – Practices of Reading and Modes of Interpretation 20 Feb: Glenn Most (University of Chicago) – Weeping Heraclitus and Laughing Democritus: Feb 21: Noam Mizrahi (Tel Aviv University) – A Couple of Exemplary Pre-Socratics Cursing Belial: From The Priestly Blessing to the Apotropaic Curses in the Dead Sea Scrolls 27 Feb: Jaś Elsner (Corpus Christi) – Visual Epitome in Late Antique Art Feb 28: Menahem Kister (Hebrew University) – The Damascus Document, Columns IV and V 6 Mar: Melanie Möller (FU Berlin) – Beyond Exemplarity? On Ethics in Roman Philology Mar 7: Bradley Marsh (Oriental Institute) – The ‘Harklean’ Version of Susanna: A Jewish or Christian Revision Biblical Hebrew Reading Group (average attendance 20 people) May 2: Tessa Rajak (Somerville) – The Torah of 4 Maccabees The reading group is led by speakers of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Seminar. This is an May 9: Barry Hartog (Protestant Theological opportunity to read a biblical text under the University, Groningen) – Pesher in Context guidance of our faculty and occasionally visiting scholars as linked to their formal guest lecture. May 23: Loren Stuckenbruck (Munich) – 1 Enoch and the Interpretation of the Psalms Workshops and Conferences Ethical Reading Seminar (average attendance: 40 Wisdom and Ethics Workshop (7th June 2018) people) Conveners: John Barton (Oriel & Campion Hall) and Hindy Najman (Oriel) This seminar primarily brings together biblical Supported by Theology and Religion, and CBH scholars and classicists (but other disciplines are (Oriel College) welcome) who study a particular topic through a variety of disciplines and approaches. In 2018, Launch Conference: The Bible and the this seminar focused on the theme of Humanities (17th – 18th October 2018) ‘Exemplarity’ in biblical and classical texts, with Convener: Hindy Najman (Oriel) a concluding graduate workshop on this theme Supported by John Fell Fund, Theology and with Yale University students. In 2020 the theme Religion,