Jewish History and Culture in the Early Modern World

During the last years, a shift in paradigms has emerged in research on the history, culture, and religion of the European Jewries in the premodern era. On the one hand, research approaches and methods as such are considering new perspectives. On the other, online cataloguing and digitization of sources as well as new forms of dissemi-nation are increasing their impact in the field. »Recovering the Records of European Jewry: The Pinkassim Project« is a case in point. It is dedicated to digitizing the minute books (Pinkassim) of Jewish communities in Ashkenazic Europe and to open them up for research. As historical source materials still barely evaluated and tapped in a systematic fashion by more recent scholarship, the Community Pinkassim are in a position to further the better understanding of Jewish history and culture in premodern Europe to a special degree. 

Against this backdrop, the workshop pursues the goal of making a kind of inventory of current approaches in research from which new perspectives can emerge on Jewish history in the Early Modern Era in its European and also transcultural interrelations beyond the research tradition shaped by the nation-state. The intention is to bring scholars in diverse disciplines, curators of Jewish museums and research associates working in Digital Humanities projects together for discussion. In this shared context, the possibility will be opened up to explore the potential of current thematic approaches for their visualization in museums and for web portals and digitization projects. The workshop thus also aims at furthering the formation of networks between representatives of the spheres of research, exhibitions and eHumanities.