For centuries before the Holocaust, Central and Eastern European empires and nation-states were home to millions of Jews from differing religious, national, and social backgrounds. Major Jewish thinkers, artists, architects, and entrepreneurs contributed to the rich fabric of European life. Internally, Jewish communities developed an astounding cultural and material heritage. After the Holocaust, the Jewish population had been demographically, economically, and psychologically devastated. Those who remained struggled to rebuild their lives in Central and Eastern Europe and elsewhere, grappling with the memory, trauma, and other legacies of the Holocaust. Courses focused solely on the Holocaust tend to overlook Jewish life before and after the Holocaust. The result: we develop an understanding of how Jews died and forget how they lived. This course examines Jewish experiences before, during, and after the Holocaust, focusing on their twentieth-century lives and deaths in Central and Eastern Europe.

This is all about the contribution brought, in recent years, by the centres and institutions doing research on the history of Jews in Romania, France, Poland, and Slovakia to reconstitute some significant aspects of the past of this population with a tragic fate during the Second World War.

ReIReS offers scholars the opportunity to spend two weeks or more in one of fourteen outstanding European research centres (libraries and archives) in Belgium (Leuven), Bulgaria (Sofia), France (Paris), Germany (Mainz and Hamburg), and Italy (Bologna) to carry out their research project in Historical Religious Studies. Applications are welcome until August 30, 2020 . - All these centres and libraries hold relevant collections for the history of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and also Ancient and non European Religions. They grant access to their collections of manuscripts, rare books, documents and materials which allow research concerning religious studies and interreligious and interconfessional dialogue throughout history. -ReIReS grants to users support for travel and subsistence. Users spend typically two weeks at the provider institution and take advantage in dealing with all these materials with the constant tutorial of experts of the host provider who are specialists in the research field for which access has been requested, and who assist and guide the use and interpretation of the data.- Users should aim to publish the results of their research within a realistic period of time and preferably in open access ISI or SCOPUS refereed journals that have substantial academic impact. The support of the EU as well the use of the ReIReS services must be clearly acknowledged in the academic publication realised using ReIReS’ transnational access. Applications are submitted online on the ReIReS-website (www.reires.eu).

ReIReS offers scholars the opportunity to spend two weeks or more in one of fourteen outstanding European research centres (libraries and archives) in Belgium (Leuven), Bulgaria (Sofia), France (Paris), Germany (Mainz and Hamburg), and Italy (Bologna) to carry out their research project in Historical Religious Studies. Applications are welcome until February 16, 2020 . - All these centres and libraries hold relevant collections for the history of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and also Ancient and non European Religions. They grant access to their collections of manuscripts, rare books, documents and materials which allow research concerning religious studies and interreligious and interconfessional dialogue throughout history. -ReIReS grants to users support for travel and subsistence. Users spend typically two weeks at the provider institution and take advantage in dealing with all these materials with the constant tutorial of experts of the host provider who are specialists in the research field for which access has been requested, and who assist and guide the use and interpretation of the data.- Users should aim to publish the results of their research within a realistic period of time and preferably in open access ISI or SCOPUS refereed journals that have substantial academic impact. The support of the EU as well the use of the ReIReS services must be clearly acknowledged in the academic publication realised using ReIReS’ transnational access. Applications are submitted online on the ReIReS-website (www.reires.eu).

Arizona State University October 22-23, 2023

Tje article resumes the history of the study of Judaism in Prague and explains the motives behind the foundation of the Prague Centre for Jewish Studies in January of 2012. The article contains the resumé of the activities of the Centre as well as the list of the participants of its First Annual Conference.