Day 2
Tuesday, February 17
Itinerary
9:30 - 11:00
Session I – From the Bible to the Byzantine Period
Chair: Sharon Shalom (Ono Academic College)
Assaf Avraham (Shazar Center for Jewish History) – Spices, Scripts, and Scriptures: Southern Levantine Ties with the Western Indian Ocean in the Iron Age.
Seven Fine (Yeshiva University) – Communication between the Indian Ocean Region and Jewish Palestine in Roman Antiquity.
Lev Cosijns (University of Oxford) & Haggai Olshanetsky (University of Ghana) – “A Sack full of Ginger and a Cup full of Long-Stalked Pepper”: Rabbinic Texts and Jewish Agency in the Indo-Roman Trade.
David Hamidovich (University of Lausanne) – In Search of Archaeological Traces of Jews in Oman
11:00 - 11:30
Break
11:30 - 12:45
Session II – Commerce and Travel in the Middle Ages
Chair: Hebatullah Adam (OP Jindal Global University)
Zohar Amar (Bar-Ilan University) & Efraim Lev (University of Haifa) – The Introduction and Distribution of new “Arabic” Medicinal Substances and their Impact on Medieval Mediterranean Medicine and Pharmacology.
Noga Raved (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)- Gam and Jews: Jewish Gem‑Trading Networks in the Indian Ocean, 11th–18th Centuries.
Sharon Shalom (Ono Academic College) – “I write, therefore I Exist” – a Case Study of the History and Halachic Tradition of Ethiopian Jews.
12:45 - 13:45
Lunch Break
13:45 - 14:30
Distinguished Public Lecture
Chair: Narvas Jaat Aafreedi (Presidency University in Kolkata)
Shalva Weil (The Hebrew University in Jerusalem) – Navigating the Literature, Steering the Subject Matter: Trust among Indian Jewish Traders in the Modern Era
14:30 - 14:45
Break
14:45 - 16:15
Session III – Early Modern Period and the Western Empires
Chair: Mohsin Raza Khan (OP Jindal Global University)
José Alberto Rodrigues da Silva Tavim (University of Lisbon) – In the “shadow” of the Portuguese Empire: Jews and trade in the Indian Ocean through inquisitorial and other sources.
Claude B. Stuczynski (Bar-Ilan University) – A Hebrew Nation Upon the Indian Ocean and beyond: The Thalassocratic-Mercantilistic Views of the Portuguese New Christian Duarte Gomes Solis and his Milieu.
Jessica Roitman (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) – Ports and Peoples: Jewish Travelers and the Narration of Oceanic Connection, 17th-19th centuries.
Johann Nicolai (Independent Scholar) – From Ghetto to Port City: Jewish Mobility, Trade, and Networks in the Indian Ocean.
16:15 - 16:45
Break
16:45 - 18:00
Session IV – Art and Rabbinic Literature in the Modern Period
Chair – Assaf Avraham (Shazar Center for Jewish History)
Arye Edrei (Tel-Aviv University) – Bene-Israel in India: Can a Lost Diaspora Be Restored?
Achia Anzi (OP Jindal Global University) & Menashe Anzi (Ben Gurion University) – Haggadah from Mumbai
Shalom Sabar (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) – Jewish Art in Transition—From Baghdad and Ṣanʿā’ to India, China, and Singapore (Late 18th to Early 20th Centuries).
18:00
Tea Break
18:30
Cultural Program
19:30
Dinner