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Jewish Studies

SJAS Conference to be held at Vanderbilt University

Posted by on Monday, June 27, 2016 in Past Events.

The 17th International Conference of the Society for Judaeo-Arabic Studies will be held at Vanderbilt from 15-18 August. The conference will feature world-renowned scholars speaking on all issues of Judaeo-Arabic language, literature, philosophy, society, and culture. The conference will begin with an opening banquet and plenary at the Nashville Gordon Jewish Community Center on 15 August, and will continue through mid-day on 18 August on the Vanderbilt campus. The conference is free and open to the Vanderbilt community and the Nashville community at large.

Schedule of events:

Monday 15 August

5:30-6:00 Registration for the Conference at the Gordon Jewish Community Center

Words of Welcome from Mark Freedman, Executive Director, Jewish Federation of Nashvile; Professor Aharon Maman, President, SJAS; Provost Susan Wente, Vanderbilt University; Nashville City Council Person Burkley Allen

6:00-7:30 Panel: Maimonides and His Family I

Panel Chair: Prof. Phil Lieberman, Vanderbilt University

  • Prof. Mark Cohen, Princeton University
    • Maimonides’ fatwās on Commercial Collaboration
  • Prof. Nahem Ilan, Ono Academic College
    • Reflection of Rabbi Abraham Maimuni’s Attitude to Christians Based on his Genesis 36 Commentary
  • Prof. Lenn Goodman, Vanderbilt University
    • Clearing up Three Needless Obscurities about Maimonides’ Guide to the Perplexed

Tuesday 16 August

8:30-10:30 Panel: Linguistic Sciences and Translations, Divinity School G23

Panel Chair: Dr. Miriam Goldstein, Hebrew University

  • Prof. Aharon Maman, Hebrew University
    • In the Footsteps of Ibn Quraysh’s Lost Book, Sefer Av vaEm
  • Dr. Moshe Kahan, Hebrew University
    • Hebrew’s Verbal Stems – from Sibawayh to Abraham ibn Ezra
  • Prof. Jonathan Decter, Brandeis University
    • Judah al-Harizi as a Bilingual Author
  • Mohamed Hamed, David Yellin College of Education, Hebrew University
    • `Faṣāḥa` according to David Ben Abraham al-Fāsi in Comparison with other Hebrew & Arabic Philologists
  • 10:30 Coffee break

11:00-1:00 Panel: Theology I, Divinity School G23

Panel Chair: Prof. Lenn Goodman, Vanderbilt University

  • Dr. Ehud Krinis, Ben Gurion University of the Negev; in cooperation with BGU Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters
    • A Shii Passage in the Duties of the Heart – Bahya ibn Paquda’s Adaptation of the Shii Principle of Continuity
  • Dr. Yair Shiffman, Hebrew University; David Yellin College for Education
    • Narboni on Esoteric and Exoteric motives in Ibn Tufail’s Hayy Ibn Yaqdhan

4:30-6:00 Panel: Maimonides and His Family II, Divinity School G23

Panel Chair: Prof. Haggai Ben-Shammai, Hebrew University

  • Prof. Arnold Franklin, Queen’s College
    • Rationalizing Prayer: David ben Joshua Maimuni’s Commentary on the Text of the Liturgy
  • Marc Herman, University of Pennsylvania
    • Principle Two in Maimonides’ Sefer ha-Miṣvot in light of his Theories of the Oral Torah
  • Dr. Amir Ashur, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; in cooperation with BGU Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters
    • Maimonidean and Maimonidean-related Documents from the Geniza—New Discoveries

7:30-8:30 Panel: Exegesis, Buttrick 102

Panel Chair: Dr. Shimon Shtober, Bar-Ilan University

  • Prof. Daniel Frank, Ohio State University
    • Recovering Japheth Ben Eli’s “Lost” Commentary On Lamentations
  • Prof. Jessica Andruss, University of Virginia
    • Historical Hermeneutics in the Commentaries of Salmon b. Yerūḥīm

Wednesday 17 August

8:30-10:30 Panel: Legal Thought, Library Community Room, 4th floor

Welcoming Remarks from Prof. Christopher Serkin, Associate Dean, Vanderbilt Law School

Panel Chair: Prof. Mark Cohen, Princeton University

  • Prof. Gideon Libson, Hebrew University
    • Judaeo-Arabic Legal, Philosophical and Gendered Terms in Maimonides’ Writings and their Meaning according to Muslim Legal Literature
  • Dr. Aviram Ravitsky, Ariel University
    • Aristotelian Syllogism and the Skeptical Critique of its Reasons, in the Legal Thought of Ya’qub al-Qirqisani
  • Dr. Zvi Stampfer, University of Cambridge
    • The Formulation of Family law in the Post-Geonic Judaeo-Arabic literature
  • Neri Y. Ariel, Hebrew University
    • Manuals For Judges: Achievements and Challenges in the Reconstruction of a Judaeo-Arabic Halakhic  Genre from the Genizah

10:30 Coffee break

11:00-12:00 Panel: History I, Library Community Room, 4th floor

Panel Chair: Prof. Leor Halevi, Vanderbilt University

  • Moshe Yagur, Hebrew University; in cooperation with BGU Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters
    • Social Bonds between Jews and Apostates in the Geniza Society
  • Brendan Goldman, Johns Hopkins University
    • The Crusades and the Geopolitics of Jewish Authority in Latin Syria (1099-1187)

1:30-3:00 Panel: History II, Shulman Center Center for Jewish Life

Panel Chair: Prof. David Wasserstein, Vanderbilt University

  • Prof. Dan Shapira, Bar-Ilan University
    • Did the author of the so-called Reply of the Khazar King Joseph Know any Arabic?
  • Prof. Phil Lieberman, Vanderbilt University
    • Onomastics and Migration in the Cairo Geniza

3:00 Coffee Break

3:30-5:00 Panel: History III, Shulman Center Center for Jewish Life

Panel Chair: Prof. Marc Bernstein, Michigan State University

  • Dr. David Sklare, Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University
    • Mosul and the Surrounding Region as a Center of Jewish Culture in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries
  • Daria Vasyutinskaya Shapira, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
    • Documents in Arabic from the Second Firkowicz Collection

6:30-7:30 Panel: Saadya Gaon and His Works Shulman Center Center for Jewish Life

Panel Chair: Prof. Nahem Ilan, Ono Academic College

  • Prof. Tamar Zewi, University of Haifa
    • Islamic  Vocabulary in the Samaritan Version of Saadya Gaon’s Translation of the Pentateuch
  • Dr. Doron Yaakov, Hebrew University; Herzog College
    • The Yemenite Reading Tradition of Rav Saadia Gaon’s Tafsir – between Conservation and Innovation

Thursday 18 August

8:30-10:00 Panel: Theology II, Kissam C210

Panel Chair: Dr. David Sklare, Hebrew University

  • Prof. Daniel J. Lasker, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; in cooperation with BGU Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters
    • What Did the Kings of the Khazars Know and When Did He Know It?
  • Dr. Marzena Zawanowska, University of Warsaw
    • The Treatment of Biblical Anthropomorphisms in the Arabic Translations of Medieval Karaites
  • Dr. Dong Xiuyuan, Van Leer Institute
    • Some Notes on the Buddhist Background of the Barāhima in Kalām Literature

10:00 Coffee break

10:30-12:00 Panel: Interreligious Relations and Polemics, Kissam C210

Panel Chair: Prof. Daniel Lasker, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters

  • Prof. Haggai Ben-Shammai, Hebrew University
    • The Intra-Karaite Controversy on Intercalation: Tradition versus Science
  • Dr. Miriam Goldstein, Hebrew University
    • Toledot Yeshu in Judeo-Arabic
  • Dr. Shimon Shtober, Bar-Ilan University
    • Polemics and Homiletics: Anti-Christian Polemical Motifs in a Commentary to Deuteronomy

For locations of public parking, please visit Vanderbilt Traffic and Parking‘s website. For directions once you’re on campus, please refer to the campus map.