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Annual Conference 2025

Trauma and Coping with Trauma in World Religions:

Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

 

Annual International Conference 26-27 May 2025

Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters

 

Room 301, Helen Diller Building #74

BGU Marcus Campus, Be’er Sheva, Israel

 

 

Monday 26.5.25

 

09:30-10:00  Conference Registration, Refreshments

 

10:00-10:15  Greetings and Opening Remarks

  • Daniella Talmon-Heller (CSoC director, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
  • Yoni Mendel (Chair of Middle East Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)

 

10:15-11:45  Session 1: Historiography of Medieval Traumas

Chair: Michal Bar-Asher Siegal (Vice President for Global Engagement, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)

  • Nadia Zeldes (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev): Commemoration, Justification, and Redemption in Post Expulsion Narratives
  • Oded Zinger (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): Coping with Trauma: The Forgotten Arabian Chapter in Medieval Jewish Historiography
  • Michal Biran (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): The Mongol Conquest of Baghdad (1258): A Reconstruction of Religious Trauma?

 

11:45-12:15  Refreshments, Break

 

12:15-13:45  Session 2: Traumatic Experience and Religious Identity:

Chair: Nirit Ben-Aryeh Debby (Dean of the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)

  • Nadia Beider (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): Trauma and Identity: The Impact of Rising Antisemitism on Jewish School Choices in Europe.
  • Nureet Dermer (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev): Jews Facing the Trauma of Expulsions in Medieval Western Europe
  • Philip Slavin (University of Stirling): Plague, Exile and Prejudice: Towards the Environmental History of the 1492 Expulsion

 

13:45-15:00  Lunch

 

15:00-16:30  Session 3: Responses to Trauma

Chair: Chaim Hames (Rector, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)

  • Mor Hajbi (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): Coping with Trauma: Pastoral Responses to the Sack of Rome in CE410
  • Uri Jacob (Bar-Ilan University): Songs in Response to Crusader Defeats: Words, Music, and Emotion
  • Hagar Shalev (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev): Exploring Trauma in Pre-Modern Yogic Texts: Insights into Bodily Sensations and Beyond

 

16:30-17:00  Refreshments, Break

 

17:00-18:00  Session 4: Trauma and Religious Nationalism

Chair: Effie Shoham-Steiner (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)

  • Dror Zeevi (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev): A Toxic Concoction: Religion, Nationalism and the Anatolian Horrors, 1894-1924
  • Sarina Chen (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev): The Return of the Repressed: The Interplay Between the Jewish “Hurban” and Contemporary Third Temple Activism

 

18:30  Dinner at "Little India" (walking distance from campus)

 

Tuesday 27.5.25

 

08:45-09:45  Session 5: Inflicting Trauma in the Name of Faith

Chair: Cana Werman (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)

  • Jocelyne Cesari (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Georgetown University): War Rape, Religious Identity, and National Politics: The Bosnia Case
  • Nimrod Hurvitz (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev): Inflicting Trauma: Isis’s Narratives, Strategies and Revenge

 

09:45-10:00  Refreshments, break

 

10:00-11:45  Session 6: Means of Reconciliation and Healing

Chair: Jackie Feldman (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)

  • Hanoch Ben Pazi (Bar-Ilan University): Religious and Philosophical aspects of Forgiveness: From South Africa's TRC to the Challenges of Israeli Society
  • Dalia Marx (Hebrew Union College): Prayers Following the October 7 Massacre
  • Elad Ben David (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev): The COVID-19 Pandemic as an incentive of Healing the Faith: A Comparative Study of American Imams and Israeli Rabbis’ Discourse on YouTube

Respondent: David Lehmann (Cambridge University)

 

11:45-12:15  Concluding Remarks

Jocelyne Cesari (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Georgetown University)

 

12:15-13:00  Lunch

 

13:00-18:00  Tour: Coping with October 7th and its Aftermath in Communities of the Western Negev

(Minibus back and forth from BGU included)

  • Sheikh Hassan Abu-Aliyun – Rahat

Avi Dabush (Rabbis for Human Rights, Kibbutz Nirim) – Sderot & Nova Memorial

Trauma and Coping with Trauma in World Religions: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives   Annual International Conference 26-27 May 2025 Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters   Room 301, Helen Diller Building #74 BGU Marcus Campus, Be’er Sheva, Israel     Monday 26.5.25   09:30-10:00  Conference Registration, Refreshments   10:00-10:15  Greetings and Opening Remarks Daniella Talmon-Heller (CSoC director, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) Yoni Mendel (Chair of Middle East Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)   10:15-11:45  Session 1: Historiography of Medieval Traumas Chair: Michal Bar-Asher Siegal (Vice President for Global Engagement, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) Nadia Zeldes (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev): Commemoration, Justification, and Redemption in Post Expulsion Narratives Oded Zinger (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): Coping with Trauma: The Forgotten Arabian Chapter in Medieval Jewish Historiography Michal Biran (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): The Mongol Conquest of Baghdad (1258): A Reconstruction of Religious Trauma?   11:45-12:15  Refreshments, Break   12:15-13:45  Session 2: Traumatic Experience and Religious Identity: Chair: Nirit Ben-Aryeh Debby (Dean of the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty, Ben-Gurion University of
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