New Jewish Studies resources

Shoah Foundation Archive. The USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive is now available through The University of Manchester Library. With more than 54,000 video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of genocide, this resource promises to be a valuable addition to our holdings. Access by keying the full title into Library Search or by scrolling down to “U” on the Databases A–Z listing. If you are working from an off-campus location you will need to complete an initial registration in order to access it. If you have any queries about this please get in touch with our Electronic Resources Helpdesk at uml.eresources@manchester.ac.uk or phone 0161 275 7388. Further information.

Conference participation, Marburg

Biblical Studies. Peter Oakes recently attended the annual meeting of the Society of New Testament Studies (SNTS), held this year in Marburg, where he chaired one of the papers. The Oberhessische Presse (1.8.19) dedicated a half-page spread to the opening because the last meeting there, in 1954, chaired by Rudolf Bultmann, marked a key step of reintegration of post-war German biblical scholarship into international discourse. Another paper was presented by Fred Tappenden (PhD Manchester, 2012), who is now Principal and Professor of Theology at St. Stephen’s College at the University of Alberta, Canada. 30 July - 2 August. Further information.

Teaching successes

Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence. Congratulations to Andy Boakye as a recipient of the Faculty Students’ Outstanding Teaching Award, and also to Holly Morse, Ketan Alder, and Katja Stuerzenhofecker for all having been nominated. These awards are a way of recognising those members of staff who make an outstanding contribution to teaching and learning. Students were asked to nominate those teachers who consistently provided a well-organised course that was taught effectively, supported through high-quality assessment/feedback and inspired and challenged them to learn. For other examples of local teaching success, see the Dept's record on student evaluations earlier this year.

Religion in... the BBC

Jewish studies. 'The New Yorker reviving Jewish life on a holiday island.' An American who landed in Majorca five years ago soon found himself working to revive the Mediterranean island's Jewish community - with the help of families forced to convert from Judaism to Christianity 500 years ago. Further information.

Religion in... the BBC

Christian Studies. 'Hillsong: A church with rock concerts and 2m followers.' As Christian churches throughout the US face widespread decline, one church is bucking the trend. But is Hillsong a triumph of marketing or faith? Further information.

Religion in... The Atlantic

Biblical Studies. "Edward Greenstein’s new “white-knuckle” translation of the Book Of Job gives us a Job for modern times, a Job who tells God where to get off when God shows up at the end presuming to berate Job for losing his faith. “Every version of the Bible that you have read puts Job, in the wake of God’s speech, in an attitude of awestruck contrition or reconversion”. Greenstein’s Job stays vinegary to the end. “I have heard you”, Job tells God, “and now my eye has seen you. That is why I am fed up.” Further information.

Religion in... The Guardian

Christian Science. Christian Science is disappearing. The churches are closing. Barely 1,000 “practitioners” still offer their services. By denying the reality of illness and preaching against the use of medicine, the church has caused untold suffering to believers and — less forgivably — to their children. Religious exemptions have sheltered Christian Scientists from prosecution for child neglect, and allowed them to opt out of public health programmes. “The church deserves to die, and it is dying. It just can’t happen soon enough”. Further information.

Religion in... Granta

Jewish Studies. A psychiatrist’s memoir of treating Hasidim patients at a community mental clinic in Brooklyn. “There was a steady trickle of patients. They were invariably male, invariably psychotic, and, invariably, I was the first psychiatrist they had ever seen. They were, in turn, the first insane Hasidim I had seen. The difference was in the details — a Jewish God speaking to them instead of a Gentile God, a personal message received from the Talmud instead of the TV, a belief that they were the Mechiach instead of Jesus Christ”. Further information.

BAJS student essay prize 2019

Manchester award winner. The annual national Postgraduate Student Essay prize offered by the British Association for Jewish Studies was awarded to a Manchester student this year, Hollie Eaton, for an essay entitled 'Blackguards in Bonnets: Women’s Suffrage, Religion and Interfaith Relations, 1910-1914' (supervised by Daniel Langton). Further information.

Student news, The Guardian

Craftivism. 'A stitch in time: how craftivists found their radical voice.' If street protests are too shouty, craftivism may offer an alternative and still powerful means of political expression, according to Sarah Corbett, a graduate of Religions and Theology at Manchester. Further information.

PhD completion

Tereza Ward on Manchester Jewish History. The Centre would like to congratulate Tereza ward on the successful defence of her doctoral thesis 'Social and Religious Jewish Non-conformity: Representations of the Anglo-Jewish Experience in the Oral Testimony Archive of the Manchester Jewish Museum'. Her supervisors were Prof. Daniel Langton and Bill Williams, and the external examiner was Prof. Tony Kushner. See the list of current PhD students in the area of Jewish Studies at Manchester.