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Branching Out: Diversity of Jewish Studies - Congress organized by Elisabeth Hollender LOEWE-Minority Studies: Language and Identity.

© LOEWE-Minderheitenstudien

From July 16 to 20, 2023, more than 700 scholars from more than 30 countries met at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main to discuss a wide range of topics from the broad field of Jewish Studies. The congress was organized by Elisabeth Hollender, spokesperson for the LOEWE priority area "Minority Studies: Language and Identity".

The participants presented many approaches to Jewish history, culture and religion in order to analyze Jewish life in the past and present.

Questions from the LOEWE focus were taken up in sessions on Jewish languages, such as Judeo-Spanish literature, spoken Yiddish in modern Hasidic communities, and foreign perceptions based on a Spanish encyclopedia. Multilingualism ran as a theme through many fields and eras, and the importance of Hebrew as the language of Judaism connected many aspects of the congress, which celebrated the multidisciplinarity of Jewish Studies.