Is there a “Jewish” cultural model of friendship? How did it change over time? Could the study of Jewish friendships shed new light on the Jewish past? 13 scholars will gather together to present their research on Jewish amical practices, sociability, intimacy, familiarity and spiritual friendship.

The event is co-organized by the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies and the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, with the support of the International Institute.

Conference Schedule:
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
16:30 | Greetings
Maya Barzilai (University of Michigan)
Shachar Pinsker and Shai Zamir (University of Michigan)
16:45-18:30 | Early Modern Friendships
Chair: Ryan Szpiech (University of Michigan)
Orit Bashkin (University of Chicago): “The Sultan’s Best Friend Forever: Early Modern Jewish Constructions”
Bernard Cooperman (University of Maryland): “Rhetorics of Friendship and Family in Traditional Jewish Society”
Shai Zamir (University of Michigan): “Friendship as a Rhetorical Strategy among Portuguese New Christians”

Thursday, October 27, 2022
9:00 | Coffee
9:15-11:00 | Mediterranean Friendships
Chair: Helmut Puff (University of Michigan)
Federica Francesconi (University at Albany, SUNY): ״Single Jewish Women in Early Modern Venice and their Global Networks: Belonging, Friendship, and Circulation of Objects״ 
Lawrence Fine (Mount Holyoke College): “Spiritual Friendship and Intentional Kabbalistic Fellowships in the Early Modern Period”
Francesca Bregoli (Queens College of the City University of New York): “‘Cursed be that Money that Ruins and Breaks our Friendship’: Epistolary Constructions of Merchant Friendship in the 18th-century Mediterranean”

12:00 | Lunch

12:20-14:20 | American Friendships
Greetings: John Carson (University of Michigan)
Chair: Rachel Rafael Neis (University of Michigan)
Steven Green (University of California, Santa Cruz): "A Necessary Friendship?: Jewish Relations between Themselves and non-Jews on North Dakota Homesteads"
Rachel B. Gross (San Francisco State University) and Sarah Imhoff (Indiana University): “Sufferings of the Soul: The Friendship of Mary Antin and Jessie Sampter” 
Maggie Carlton (University of Michigan): “Mistaken, Forbidden, & Severed Friendships in Interwar Detroit”

15:30-17:45 | Modern Friendships
Chair: Jeffrey Veidlinger (University of Michigan)
Gabriel Mordoch (University of Michigan): "Stanley Bendana and Jacob Perlman: A Sephardic-Ashkenazi encounter in Victor Perera's The Conversion (1970)"
Mostafa Hussein (University of Michigan): "Friendship in Trying Times: On Jewish-Arab Relations in Mandate Palestine"
Ruth Behar (University of Michigan): “El Grupo: Friendship Among Cuban Jewish Immigrants”  
Shachar Pinsker (University of Michigan): “Coffee, Sociability, and Conversation: Coffeehouses and Modern Jewish Friendship”

Illustration by Rutu Modan: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/12/24/what-cafes-did-for-liberalism