Center for Jewish History Presents: 'A History of Giving: Symposium on Jews and Charity'

Conference Co-Organizers:

Debra Kaplan, Yeshiva University

Judah Galinsky, Bar Ilan University-CAJS, University of Pennsylvania

Fourteen international scholars will discuss the fascinatingly complex personal, legal, economic and social reasons that led to charitable giving over time, looking with a comparative lens at its practice among Jews from the biblical period through the contemporary period. For a complete program and list of scholars, please visit www.cjh.org/charity. CJH | $20 general; $15 CJH members; $8 seniors.

Complimentary tickets are available for graduate students. Please contact Ethan Zadoff at ezadoff@cjh.org.

Program Schedule

Session 1: The Apparatus of Charitable Giving

Chair: Gerald Blidstein, Ben Gurion University of the Negev-NYU Tikvah

Moshe Halbertal, Hebrew University- New York University: On Addressing Needs Private and Public

Alyssa Gray, Hebrew Union College: The Amoraim of Bavel and Eretz Israel as Collectors and Distributors of Charity Funds

Idana Goldberg, Associate Executive Director, RAVSAK: Sacrifices Upon the Altar of Charity: The Masculinization of Jewish Philanthropy in Mid-nineteenth Century America

Session 2: Forms of Communal Charity

Chair: Mark Cohen, Princeton University

Tzvi Novick, Notre Dame University, Subsidizing the Poor: Charity and the Economic Cost of Halakhic Observance in Rabbinic Palestine

Judah Galinsky, Bar Ilan University-CAJS, University of Pennsylvania: The Tension between Private Giving and Communal Charity – A Medieval Perspective

Elisheva Baumgarten, Bar Ilan University-CAJS, University of Pennsylvania: Communal Charity as a Reflection of Medieval Jewish Society: The Nürnberg Memorbuch

Session 3: Addressing Communal Need through Charity and Philanthropy

Chair: Jonathan Helfand, Brooklyn College, CUNY

Debra Kaplan, Yeshiva University: Coercion and the Communal Chest: Funding Early Modern Jewish Communities

Alan Kraut, American University: Caring for Our Own: Jewish Hospitals and Jewish Philanthropy in the History of American Healthcare.

Roundtable:

Yossi Prager, Executive Director, Avichai Foundation: contemporary perspective

Suzanne Last Stone, Cardozo Law School: legal perspective

Adam Teller, Brown University- Senior NEH Fellow at CJH: historical perspective