11 January 2021: Launch of POLIN vol. 33, “Jewish Religious Life in Eastern Europe”

 

A message of welcome from
Sir Ben Helfgott, 
Life Patron of the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies, and former Chairman

 

“The Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies has again organised an inspiring range of events to remind us of the rich legacy of Jewish life in Poland, and in Eastern Europe more generally. Lectures, book launches, workshops and the annual conference to launch the new volume of Polin. Studies in Polish Jewry bring the state of the art in this field to a London audience. I very much look forward to join these events, many of which will also be accessible from further afield by computer.”

 

 

11 January 2021, 9:30am – 5pm – with JW3, Embassy of the Republic of Poland, the Polish Cultural Institute and UCL’s Institute of Jewish Studies, and on zoom:
Launch of POLIN vol. 33, “Jewish Religious Life in Eastern Europe”
The conference will engage with the rich offerings of this most recent volume of Polin. Studies in Polish Jewry, edited by Ada Rapoport-Albert – who passed away prematurely earlier this year – and Marcin Wodziński, adopts a fresh understanding of Jewish religious life in Poland. It probes new approaches to the history of hasidism, women’s religious practice, and a focus on the beliefs and practices of ordinary people. Reappraisals of religious responses to secularization and modernity, both liberal and Orthodox, offer more nuanced insights into this key issue. Other research areas represented here include the material history of Jewish religious life in eastern Europe and the shift of emphasis from theology to praxis in the search for the defining quality of religious experience. Not to be missed!