Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry and the Rosenfeld Project on the History of the Jews in Hungary and the Habsburg Empire

From the Maharal to Masaryk
An International Workshop on Czech Jewish History

Thursday, 6 May 2004
Rabin Building, Seminar Room 2001

Greetings 9:00-9:15

Israel Bartal, Academic Chairman, Nevzlin Center and Michael K. Silber, Director, Rosenfeld Project, Hebrew U., Jerusalem

Session 1 9:15-10:30
Chair: Dov Kulka Hebrew U., Jerusalem

Orit Ramon Hebrew U., Jerusalem
³One Hundred Twenty-Seven States²
The Historical Background to the Maharal¹s Commentary to Megilat Esther (in Hebrew)

Rachel Greenblatt Hebrew U., Jerusalem
Community and Memory in Early Modern Prague
Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller's Selihot for 14 Heshvan

Session 2 10:30-12:30
Chair: Jonathan Frankel Hebrew U., Jerusalem
Pawel Macejko Oxford U.
Frankism and Secret Societies in Eighteenth Century Moravia

Louise Hecht Hebrew U., Jerusalem
Bohemian Jewish Historiography at the Beginning of the 19th Century and Re-evaluation of the Popular Pantheon: The Case of Josephus Flavius

Michael Miller Central European University, Budapest
Jews in the Balance: Moravia's Political Jewish Communities and the Czech-German Conflict

Session 3 2:30-4:00
Chair: Alon Rachamimov Tel Aviv U.

Hillel Kieval Washington U., St. Louis
Choosing to Bridge: Rethinking the Phenomenon of Cultural Mediation

Martin Wein Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva
Sources of History versus History of Sources: Methodological and ethical problems with sources in the study of Jews in the Bohemian Lands since the early 20th century

Session 4 4:30-6:30
Chair: Steven Aschheim Hebrew U., Jerusalem

Dmitri Shumsky Haifa U.
Czech Jews, German Jews, Czech-German Jews: Reframing the Social and Cultural Jewish History in fin-de-siècle Prague

Zohar Maor Hebrew U., Jerusalem
German, Czech and Jewish Identity in the Prague Circle during World War I (Hebrew)

Yfaat Weiss Haifa U.
Central European Ethnonationalism and Zionist Bi-Nationalism

Erich Kulka Prize Ceremony 7:00-8:00
Beit Maiersdorf

Galit Hazan-Rokem, Head of the Jewish Studies Institute, Hebrew University
Dov Kulka
Yehuda Bauer, ³Erich Kulka²
Dmitri Shumsky, recipient of this year¹s prize for the best work on Czech Jewish history