Workshop „Rethinking Jewish Cultures beyond Europe“

This workshop is organized within the framework of the Volkswagen Momentum Fellowship Programme “From Pre-Modern to Modern Perspectives in Judaic Studies,” which seeks to bridge the traditionally segmented fields of pre-modern and modern Jewish history in the Near East through an integrated, interdisciplinary approach. By encouraging the study of Jewish histories across temporal boundaries, the programme highlights the mutual entanglement of pre-modern developments and modern contexts.

In this spirit, the workshop brings together scholars working across different media, geographies, and methodological approaches to explore how Jewish pasts beyond Europe are narrated, mediated, and transformed into cultural heritage. Particular attention is given to challenging Eurocentric and Ashkenazi-centered paradigms in Judaic Studies by foregrounding Jewish cultural production in Arabic-speaking and other non-European contexts.

Moving from textual and historical analysis to sound archives, visual practices, and participatory methods, the program examines how meanings of the past are negotiated in relation to present-day political, social, and cultural contexts. Cultural production, historical narratives, and heritage practices emerge here as key sites in which competing understandings of the past are articulated and contested.

The workshop is structured in three parts. The opening day introduces different modes of narrating the past across media and disciplines, framing key questions about authority, representation, and cultural translation. The following two-day masterclass led by Rudy Kisler focuses on the politics and semiotics of cultural heritage, combining theoretical reflection with participatory methods such as photovoice. The final day turns to contemporary artistic practices in the exhibition “Yalla: Arab-Jewish Encounters” at the Jewish Museum Munich, where participants reflect on how these questions are negotiated in curatorial and visual form.