2022 Hayim Perelmuter Conference in Jewish-Christian Dialogue
We are pleased to invite proposals for the upcoming Hayim Perelmuter Conference, which will take place at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago on March 21–22, 2022 in partnership with University of Notre Dame. The Perelmuter Conference has a long tradition of focusing on Jewish-Catholic dialogue and exploring scholarship pertaining to the intersection of Jewish and Catholic literature, history, and theology. The theme of the 2022 conference will be“Competing Identities: Practice and Faith in the Public and Private Squares.”
The abrupt withdrawal from communal spaces of worship which took place last year in the wake of a global pandemic has invited people of faith to consider how communal institutions and domestic practices complement and interact with each other in shaping religious identity. An exploration of this dynamic will form the basis of our two-day conference, during which scholars of Judaism and Christianity will explore how themes related to communal and household religious identity find expression in Jewish and Christian history and literature, from antiquity to today. In particular, we invite abstracts that pertain to Jewish and Christian approaches to obligatory communal participation in legal literature, the social construction of gender roles, the role of memory transmission and narrative retelling in communal and domestic spaces, and the construction of competing systems of authority.
Rabbi Dr. Hayim Goren Perelmuter was the first Professor of Jewish Studies at Catholic Theological Union and the Rabbi of K.A.M. Isaiah Israel in Hyde Park. He made a deep and lasting impact on Jewish-Christian relations in the Chicago community and beyond. Rabbi Perelmuter co-directed the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program at Catholic Theological Union with Fr. John Pawlikowski for over three decades. The Perelmuter conference is dedicated to continuing Rabbi Perelmuter’s legacy of dialogue and friendship between Jews and Christians.
Please submit an abstract of approximately 300 words by November 1st, 2021 to Dr. Malka Z. Simkovich at msimkovich@ctu.edu. Papers can address one or another religious tradition, but abstracts with a comparative focus, or with clear comparative relevance, are especially welcome. Graduate students are asked to submit a curriculum vitae along with their abstract. Decisions will be made by December 1, 2021. Papers should be 20 minutes in length, to be followed by 10 minutes of discussion. The conference will provide speakers with an honorarium to help cover travel and hotel costs.