Projects and collaborations

The Center for the Study of the Jews of Spain and Islamic Lands: Past and Present collaborates with the following research centers, that are dedicated to related subjects:

The Joseph & Racheline Barda Chair for the Study and Research of Jewish Heritage in Egypt

The Chair supports academic research of the history, society, culture, daily life, languages, religion, economy etc. of the Jewish community in Egypt throughout its existence, as well as the contribution of its members in the Diaspora in all these aspects. The chair holds academic conferences dedicated to these topics, and promotes cooperation among scholars around the world working on them, and encourages their study.

Mother Tongue

The project collects audio and video recordings that are in the hands of the public for the purpose of copying, transcribing and translating them, and adding them to the freely accessible online library. The objective is to conserve the languages of Eastern and Western Jews, and the cultures they embody, thus enhancing familiarity with the Jewish cultures that nurtured the founding fathers and first citizens of the state and strengthening the identity of Israelis whose communities of origin have barely been studied.

The Haifa Center for Mediterranean History (HCMH)

The HCMH was founded in 2016 by staff members of the departments of General History and Maritime Civilizations. It aims to involve a broad array of scholars from various disciplines who study especially the pre-modern Mediterranean (roughly antiquity to 1800), to enable cooperation and high-level multidisciplinary research. The HCMH recruits new researchers and offers post-doctoral fellowships and PhD scholarships, organizes research seminars, helps the library to develop its Mediterranean collection and funds work-groups.

The Centre for Interdisciplinary Research of the Cairo Genizah

The Centre for Interdisciplinary Research of the Cairo Genizah was founded in 2012. The centre aspires to foster interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the Genizah, and to strengthen the public awareness of the precious treasure of Cairo. The Genizah Centre coordinates, hosts and participates in various events throughout the year for the benefit of the academic community and general public, including lectures, workshops and conferences.

The Digital Heritage Archive of Egyptian Jewry, Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library, University of Haifa

The archive is set to be a comprehensive resource about the Jewish community in Egypt. The project collects from Egyptian Jews and their descendants original photographs, documents, audio recordings and footage, digitizes them and adds them to the library’s online open collection. The archive was founded under the auspices of the Joseph & Racheline Barda Chair for the Study and Research of Jewish Heritage in Egypt and is run as a collaboration of the Chair and the Digital Content and Special Collections Branch of the library.
Photo: The wedding of Eliezer and Suzanne Cohen, 1950, “Eliyahu Nahavi” Synagogue, Alexandria, Egypt.