Dr. Moshe Yagur

MY
Dr.
Moshe
Yagur
Jewish history

Social history
Medieval Judaism
Mediterranean studies
Medieval Middle East
Inter-religious encounters
Migration studies
Identity construction

 

Email: mosheyagur@gmail.com

Current Projects

My current project examines the shared or adjacent dwelling of Jews, Muslims and Christians in the urban centers of Egypt and Greater-Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk periods (10th-15th centuries) as an arena of daily inter-religious encounters of the non-elite.

Curriculum Vitae 

Fellowships and Grants:

  • 2020-2021 – The Zvi Yavetz School of Historical Studies, Tel Aviv University, post-doctoral fellowship

  • 2020-2021 – The Halpern Center for the Study of Jewish Self-Perception, Bar Ilan University, post-doctoral research fellowship

  • 2019-2020 – The Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, post-doctoral fellowship

  • 2018-2019 – Fulbright Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship, at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

  • 2018-2019 –Frankel Center for Advanced Judaic Studies – research fellow

  • 2018-2020 – Yale University Judaic Studies program post-doctoral fellowship in Jewish history (declined)

  • 2017-2018 – University of Haifa post-doctoral fellowship, Department of Middle Eastern History

Prizes:

  • 2021 – The Middle East and Islamic Studies Association of Israel's Bleiman prize for a doctoral dissertation – special commendation of excellence

  • 2021 - The Zalman Shazar Center's Yuval Heiman Prize for an outstanding Hebrew dissertation in Jewish history (to be published as a book in Shazar Press)

  • 2017 – Annual PhD Candidate Award, The Joseph & Racheline Barda Chair for the Study and Research of Jewish Heritage in Egypt, University of Haifa

  • 2015 – Wald Award for PhD candidate, The Zalman Shazar Center

Publications

Chapters in books:

  1. “Communal Borders and Religious Conversion”, The Jews of Medieval Egypt, ed. Miriam Frenkel, Boston: Academic Studies Press (2021): 47-71

  2. “Converts, Captives, Concubines: A Gendered Rite of Passage in the Medieval Near East”, Language, Gender and Law in the Judaeo-Islamic Milieu, eds. Amir Ashur, Zvi Stampfer, Leiden: Brill (2020): 88-109

  3. “The Donor and the Gravedigger: Converts to Judaism in the Cairo Geniza Documents”, Contesting Inter-Religious Conversion in the Medieval World, eds. Yaniv Fox, Yossi Yisraeli, New York: Routledge (2017): 115-134

Peer-reviewed articles:

  1. “The cautious beginnings of Sephardi self-identification: a view from the Cairo Geniza (tenth-thirteenth centuries)”, forthcoming in Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 15.1 (2023)

  2. “Excommunication and apostasy: re-drawing Jewish communal boundaries in Fatimid and Ayyubid Egypt” – forthcoming on 2022 in Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean

  3. “Shaving hair and paring nails: the origins and transmutations of a unique rite of passage in medieval Judaism” [Hebrew], Tarbiz 88.1 (2021): 109-132

  4. “Ezra in Ashkelon: a medieval local tradition in its geo-political context” [Hebrew], Zion 86.1 (2020): 31-56

  5. “Religiously-mixed families in the Mediterranean society of the Cairo Geniza”, Mediterranean Historical Review 35.1 (June 2020): 27-42

Translations:

  1. “Several documents from the Cairo Geniza concerning conversion to Islam”, Conversion to Islam in the Premodern Age: A Sourcebook, eds. Nimrod Hurvitz, Christian Sahner, Uriel Simonsohn, Luke Yarbrough, Los Angeles: University of California Press (2020): 227-231

Presentations

  • 11.8.2022 – ̔̔Shared, not dividedʼ: Inter-religious ownership of private dwellings in medieval Fustatʼ, 18th World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem

  • 13.5.2022 – ʽNarratives of the ideal proselyte in documentary sources from the Cairo Genizaʼ, international workshop at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, titled ʽThe Status of Converts in Jewish Communities and Jewish Thought, from Biblical Times to Contemporary Israelʼ

  • 25.4.2022 – ̔Contesting religious identity in Muslim courtsʼ, Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Annual conference

  • 29.4.21 – ʽThe ruined house of Abu Ali Yefet ben Avraham, Judge Street, Fustatʼ, Jews and Objects, Department of Jewish History, University of Haifa

  • 30-31.3.2019 – ʽThe Jewish ritual of circumcision under medieval Islam: Common practice, exclusive identity and the ʽnarcissism of minor differencesʼʼ, 39th Annual conference of the Center for Medieval Studies, Fordham University, NYC

  • 27-28.3.2019 – ʽTo be or not to be a Sephardi: The case of Rabbi Isaac b. Samuelʼ - Frankel Center for Judaic Studies' Annual Symposium, 'Sephardic Identities: Medieval and Early Modern'

  • 27.10.18 – ʽConversion as a non-issue: Conversion to and from Judaism under the Fatimidsʼ, University of Chicago, Shi'i Studies Group Annual Symposium

  • 5.7.18 – ʽFrom Judaism to Islam and Back: A 14th-Century Autobiography of a Relapsed Convertʼ, International Medieval Congress (Leeds)

  • 6.8.17 – ʽForeigners in the Bedroom: Jewish Men, Slave Women, and their Childrenʼ, 17th World Congress for Jewish Studies, Jerusalem

  • 12.6.17 – ʽManumitted Female Slaves and their (lack of) Cultural Capitalʼ, International Conference of the Research Group Jewish Women's Cultural Capital, Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, Jerusalem

  • 24.5.17 – ʽʽAre You With the Jews, Your Father's People, or With Your Mother and the Gentiles?ʼʼ, The 4th International Conference of The Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

  • 16.5.17 – ʽReligious Conversion and Social Boundaries: Outlining the borders of ‘Genizah Societyʼʼ, From Fustat to Haifa: An International Workshop Celebrating 120 Years of Genizah Research, University of Haifa

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