BMFTR Final Conference: The Materiality of Jewish-Arabic Relations

PROGRAMM

Monday, 19. Januray 2026

OPENING
14:00-14:30
TERESA BERNHEIMER & ANNA BUSA (LMU Munich)

Session I
14:30-16:30
RONNY VOLLANDT, LMU Munich

I, the bookcase speak to you
Ariel Fein
Princeton University Art Museum

Betsalel Frenkel’s Yiddish Book Collection in Alexandria
Tal Hever-Chybowski
MLU, Halle

Journey of an Arabic Astronomy Manuscript: Ottoman-Jewish Intellectuals as Transmitters of Knowledge
Özge Yildirim
LMU, Munich

Materiality of Near Eastern copies of Toledot Yeshu in Judeo- Arabic
Miriam Goldstein
The Hebrew University, Jerusalem

COFFEE – 16:30

KEY NOTE
Arab Jewish Relations in the 19th and 20th century: materiality, memory, and periodization
18:00
ORIT BASHKIN
University of Chicago

Tuesday, 20. Januray 2026

Session II
9:30-11:00
OTTFRIED FRAISSE, MLU, Halle

Visual Power, Material Poster, A Zionist lithograph of 1900 and the construction of Jewish-Arab relations
Sawsan Marwan
Independent artist, Israel

Unturned stones? Preservation of Palestine homes in Galilee’s Kibbutzim: a case study
Lily Eilan
University of Heidelberg

Burdened: The donkey and power relations in Palestine/Israel in the 20th century
Tamar Novick/Lee Rotbart
TUM, Munich

COFFEE – 11:00-11:30

Session III
11:30-13:00
ANNA BUSA, LMU Munich

Jewish copies of classical Arabic grammars as loci of Muslim-Jewish entanglement
Nadia Vidro
UCL, London

Confessing hands? On the question of Jewish converts as copyists of early Christian Arabic manuscripts
Peter Tarras
LMU, Munich

Material dialogues: Jewish, Islamic, and Coptic interactions in Ben Ezra Synagogue
Yoram Meital
Ben Gurion University of the Negev

LUNCH – 13:00-14:30 UHR

Session IV
14:30-16:00
JOHANNES BECKE, University of Heidelberg

Binding the Twansa: Material politics of Jewish belonging in 1890’s colonial Tunis
Tamir Karkason
MLU, Halle

From Abbassid Chanceries to Wissenschaft des Judentums: Qaraite manuscripts and the shifting of Jewish-Arab relations
Gregor Schwarb
LMU, Munich

Documenting Qaraite Endowments in 16th century Jerusalem through their 20th Century Reflections
Moshe Yagur
Bar Ilan University

16:30 – GUIDED TOUR, JÜDISCHES MUSEUM MUNICH

Wednesday, 21. Januray 2026 

Session V: Objects on the move
9:30-11:00
ILSE STURKENBOOM, LMU Munich

On the Trail of the ‘Mosseri Bible’ or ‘Bible du Caire’. The Transcultural Biography of a Illuminated Hebrew Manuscript and its (Dis)Entangled Histories with the Arab World
Anna Messner
Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf

Tradition in motion: Preservation and change in Yemeni Jewish Amulets
Tom Fogel
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Of music records in Ottoman Salonika: local musical culture, interfaith debates, and the introduction of a new technology
Artemis Ignatidou
University of Bayreuth

COFFEE – 11:00-11:30

Session VI
11:30-13:00
TERESA BERNHEIMER, LMU Munich

The Rise and Revival(s) of America’s ‘Cathedral Synagogue’, Temple Emanu-el and the aesthetic identifications of Reform Jewry
Rhea Stark
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Ashkenazim wearing the Fez: appropriation, assimilation, masquerade?
Yair Wallach
SOAS, London

Minarets in the window. A Minaret form Hanukkiah and Jewish-Arab relations
Ali Satilmis
Kocaeli University, Istanbul

LUNCH – 13:00-14:30

Session VII
14:30-15:30
JULIA SCHNEIDAWIND, LMU Munich

A Morrocan Jew’s gaze upon his native land from 1830’s London
Michal Ohana
MLU, Halle

The Nakba in Focus: Photographs of destroyed Arab Towns and Villages in a German Archive
Julia Hauser
Kassel University

CLOSING
15:30
TERESA BERNHEIMER LMU Munich, ANNA BUSA LMU Munich