Research Workshop of the Israel Science Foundation: Religion and Immigration
Opening 17:00–18:00, Hall 108
Greetings: Prof. Gil Epstein, Dean of the Social Sciences Faculty
Prof. Eliezer Schlossberg, Dean of the Humanities Faculty
Prof. Malachi Hacohen (Duke, INIRE)
Opening keynote-lecture – Prof. Peter Casarella (Duke): Holy Envy and the Question of the Foreigner: Abrahamic Learnings on Religion and Migration.
18:15–19:45
Session 1a: Modern Jewish thought and immigration, room 111
Chair: Ynon Wygoda (Hebrew University)
Orr Scharf (Haifa): Zionism as a Theology of Disenchantment: Buber, Bergman, Scholem
Zohar Maor (Bar Ilan): Dialogic Theology of Migration: Martin Buber and Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
Ori Werdiger (Toronto): Migration and vocation in the Metropol: The Figure of Joseph in the Postwar Diasporic Hermeneutics of Léon Askenazi
Session 1b: The Interaction of Religion and other Factors in successful Integration, Hall 108
Chair: Shirley Ben-shlomo (Bar Ilan University)
Özgür Olgun Erden (Usak University): Can Religion Alone Provide Integration? Reconsidering Relationally Religion and Immigration on Turkish Case.
Alessia Passarelli (FSCIRE): Migration, Religion and Integration. The Case-Study of Protestant Churches in Italy.
Drorit Levy (Bar Ilan University): Adaptation among Immigrants from Traditional-Religious Communities in Israel: Theory and Practice
Wednesday, 8th June
9:00–10:30
Session 2a: Theology and its Impact on Attitudes toward Immigrants, room 112
Chair: Yaakov Ariel (North Carolina University)
Matthew Rowley (Leicester University): Embracing Ambiguity: Biblical Witness, American History and Immigration.
Rabbi Sharon Shalom (Uno College, Bar Ilan University): The Primary Nature of Man: The Perception of Beta Israel.
Antonella Bellantuono (Catholic University of Lille): Religion and Hospitality in Judaism: The Figure of the Migrant in the Old Testament.
Session 2b: Belief, Identity and Immigration, room 111
Chair: Doron Avraham (Bar Ilan)
Hilda Nissimi (Bar Ilan University): Mashhadis and Immigration: Redemptive Narratives and Practical Challenges
Lior B. Sternfeld (Penn State University): Political vs. Ancestral Homeland: Zionism and Iranian Nationalism among Iranian Jews in the 20th Century
Menachem Katz and Daniel Nikritin (Hemdat Hadarom College): “And We May Never Fail”. Irony, Ambivalence, Compassion: Agnon’s “Autobiographic” Story and the Different Versions of Jewish Prayer
Coffee break
10:45–14:15: Excursion to Petach Tikvah, Social Farm for Immigrants from Ethiopia
Coffee break
14:30–16:00
Session 3a: Immigration, Diversity and Law, room 111
Chair: Rossella Alessandra Bottoni (Trento University)
Bat-Zion Eraqi Klorman (The Open University of Israel): Religious Law and Modern Values – The Case of Yemeni Jewish Immigrants in Palestine.
Adelaide Madera (University of Messina): The management of Religious Diversity in Europe at the Crossroads between Accommodation and Neutrality (by zoom)
Geraldine Gudefin (Hebrew University) Navigating the Civil and Religious Worlds: Russian Jewish Immigrants & Marital Laws in France and the United States 1881–1939
Session 3b: The Contribution if the Religious Factor to Successful Integration
Chair: Zohar Maor (Bar Ilan)
Netanel Fisher (Sha’arei Mishpat College): Secularization of Immigration Policy vs. Religion’s Influence on Social Integration Israel’s Non-Jewish Jews’ Immigration in a Comparative Perspective.
Julia Mirsky (Hebrew University): Common Facilitating Effects of Religious Background, Beliefs, and Religious Social Networks on Immigrants’ Integration in Israel and an Exceptional Opposite Case.
Ahmet İçduygu (Koç university): Syrian Refugees’ Incorporation in Turkey: Negotiating Religious Identity and Politics
Coffee break
16:30–18:00 Roundtable of Religious Leaders on Issues of Immigration, Hall 108
Festive Dinner – Kfar Hamaccabia Hotel
Thursday, 9th June
9:00–10:00 INIRE meeting, room 111
10:00–11:00
Session 4: Jewish Immigration in the Middle Ages and it Impact on Religion, room 112
Chair: Pinchas Roth (Bar Ilan University)
Yehuda Galinsy (Bar Ilan University): The impact of Immigration on Halacha – The Case of Rabeinu Asher
Tzafrir Barzilai (Haifa University): The making of Ashkenaz: Jewish movement patterns, networks and religious culture in medieval Northern Europe
Coffee break
11:30–13:00
Session 5a: Contemporary Challenges of Integration of Migrating Religious Communities, room 108
Chair: Zohar Maor
Peter Kivisto (Augustana College): Welcoming or Rejecting the Stranger: Religious Differences over Immigration to the United States
Rajesh Chandra Shukla and Richard Feist (Saint Paul University): Immigration Policy and Religion in Contemporary West
Kerstin Menzel (Leipzig University): Advocacy for Refugees – Visuals of a Political Church (by zoom)
Session 5b: Religious identity and Integration (room 111)
Chair Julie Mell (North Carolina State University)
Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe (University of Nigeria, Nsukka): Politics of Religious Identity and the Fallacy of Immigrant Muslim Integration in the Western World: Ilhan Omar of U.S. Congress and the Contest between Muslim Identity and Westernization
Antonio Cuciniello (Catholic University, Milan), Islam in the Italian school: Between texts and contexts – by zoom
Rossella Alessandra Bottoni (University of Trento): Religion, Citizenship and Migration: beyond the “West versus non-West” Approach.
Lunch break
14:30 –15:30
Session 6a: Religion and other Factors Shaping Attitudes towards Immigrants – room 111
Chair: Efrat Aviv (Bar Ilan University)
Şakir Dinçşahin (Hasan Kalyoncu University): Discourses of Inclusion and Exclusion Towards Syrian Refugees in Turkey – A Psychoanalytic Approach
Alexander Yendell (Leipzig University): Authoritarianism and Conspiracy Ideologies as a Danger for the Acceptance of Religious Plurality in Times of Flight and Migration (by zoom)
Session 6b: Religious Leadership and the Integration of Immigrants (Hall 108)
Chair: Ori Werdiger (Toronto):
Yaakov Ariel (North Carolina University): Religious Leaders as Ambassadors of Cultural Integration: Interfaith Dialogue in Our Time
Daniela Tarantino (Genoa University): “Nobody Should be Forgotten!”. The Migratory Phenomenon in the Law of the Church at the Time of the Coronavirus (by zoom)
Coffee break
16:00 –17:00
Session 7a: Jewish Émigrés intellectuals in USA and their Religious Identity (room 108-
Chair: Steven Aschheim (Hebrew University)
Malachi Hacohen (Duke University) and Julie Mell (North Carolina State University): Neither Religion nor Race: Jewish Émigrés from National Socialism
Udi Greenberg (Dartmouth College): Jewish Émigrés, the Re-conceptualization of Religion and the Suppression of Judaism (by zoom)
Session 7b: Conversion and Integration, room 111
Chair: Hilda Nissimi (Bar Ilan University)
Ori Yehudai (Ohio State University): Leaving the Land and the People: Emigration and Religious Conversion in 1950s Israel (by zoom)
Dorottya Nagy (Protestant University, Amsterdam): “How does it Feel to Touch a Stranger?” Theological Reflections on Conversion Assessments in Asylum Procedures (by zoom)
17:15–18:45
Session 8a: Abrahamic Texts and Immigration: Workshop (room 111)
Chair: Rabbi Shlomo Dov Rosen (Yakar)
Carol Bakhos (UCLA): Immigration in Classical Biblical Texts
Imam Yahya Sergio Pallavicini (CO.RE.IS): Immigration in Classical Islamic Texts
Rabbi Shabtai Rappaport (Bar Ilan University): Immigration in Jewish Halacha
Session 8b: Religion, Immigration and Culture, Hall 108
Chair: Mor Presiado (Bar Ilan University)
Paul Ariese (Reinwardt Academy): Religion-Heritage Entanglement in Musealised Synagogues
Arpad v. Klimo (Catholic University Washington): The Cult of Our Lady of Fatima. A Century of Global Devotion, Politics, and Migration.
Amir Segal (Hebrew University): Homeland Run: Israeli Baseball and American Transmigrants.
19:00 – 19:15: Conclusion