2nd Contact Day Jewish Studies on the Low Countries
Wednesday 20 May 2009, 9:00-18:00
Universiteit Antwerpen, Gebouw "De Meerminne", Sint-Jacobstraat 2 - M.107, 2000 Antwerpen
 Contact Day in English - free entrance

The Institute of Jewish Studies organizes for the second time an interdisciplinary conference concerning Jewish Studies on the Low Countries at the University of Antwerp. The purpose of the conference is to facilitate contacts between researchers working within this area of study. We especially encourage young researchers to participate in the workshop. We also hope for contributions from more established researchers, in order to establish a positive exchange between different research generations. Presentations may include works in progress. Represented disciplines in the program are history, literature, anthropology and sociology.
Programma / Program

9:00 – 9:30 
Welcome: Vivian Liska (Instituut voor Joodse Studies, Universiteit Antwerpen)
Introduction: Karin Hofmeester (Universiteit Antwerpen / IISG) & Veerle Vanden Daelen (Universiteit Antwerpen)

9:30 – 11:00 Session I: Institutions, Religion, Emancipation and Secularisation
Chair: Jean-Philippe Schreiber (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
Rosa Reicher (Universität Heidelberg): State, Religion and Jewish Identity in the Philosophical and Political Thought of Simone Luzzatto, John Toland and Menasseh ben Israel
Karin Hofmeester (Universiteit Antwerpen / IISG): State, Religion and Jewish Political Emancipation in the Netherlands
Paul van Trigt (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam): Secularization, the Sixties and Religious Jewry in the Low Countries

11:00 – 11:15 Coffee Break

11:15 – 12:15 Session II: Jewish Economic Life in the Low Countries
Chair: Cor Trompetter (Independent Scholar, Weststellingerwerf)
Bert Schijf (Universiteit van Amsterdam): The German Bischoffsheims in the Nineteenth Century: Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels and Paris. The International Orientation of a Jewish Financial Dynasty
Serge ter Braake (Joods Historisch Museum / Menasseh ben Israel Instituut, Amsterdam): Jewish Entrepreneurs in the Dutch Leather Industry (1870-1940): the Possibilities and Impossibilities of a Quantitative Approach

12:15 – 13:30 Lunch Break

13:30 – 16:00 Session III: Jewish and non-Jewish Encounters: Migration, Translation, Geographic and Symbolic Space
Chair: Veerle vanden Daelen (Universiteit Antwerpen)
Kris Van Heuckelom (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven): The Jewish Connection: 19th Century Polish Literature in Dutch Translation
Pascale Fallek (European University Institute, Florence): Female Jewish Migrants from Eastern Europe at Belgian Universities 1918 -1940: the Life Trajectory of Hélène Temerson (1896-1977)
Anick Vollebergh (Universiteit van Amsterdam):Telling Spaces and Bodies apart in a Multiethnic Neighbourhood: the ‘Jewish’ Perspective
Gila Schnitzer (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Gerrit Loots (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and Carolina Valdebenito (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven): Mapping Encounters in an Invisible Arena: the (Flemish) Mental Health Care and the Jewish Community in Antwerp
Peter Tammes (Universiteit Leiden): Residential Segregation of Jews in Amsterdam Neighbourhoods on the Eve of the Shoah 

16:00 – 16:15 Coffee Break

16:15 – 17:45 Session IV: World War II in the Low Countries
Chair: Pim Griffioen (Independent Scholar, Amsterdam)
Marc Verschooris (Hogeschool Gent) and Yves Louis (Belgische Academie voor Kindergeneeskunde, Ronse): Doctors, Medical Professors and Students in Belgium during WWII: the Connection of Anti-Semitism and Anti-Masonry versus the Resistance
Jan Maes (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven): Bystanders, Victims and Perpetrators Involved in the Story of an Informal Network of Protestants Trying to Rescue Jews in the Surroundings of Antwerp and Louvain (1942-1944)
Jan Bernheim (Vrije Universiteit Brussel): The Shoah on the Scheldt. Reasons why Denying the ‘Antwerp Specificity’ is Tantamount to Negationism

17:45 – 18:00 Closing Remarks
 
Inhoudsverantwoordelijke(n) : jan.morrens