Audio Visual
11 April 2013
Dr Edward Kessler: "Jewish-Christian Relations in light of Vatican II"
Dr Edward Kessler MBE is the Founder and Executive Director of the Woolf Institute. To mark the Year of Faith and the recent anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, Dr Kessler addressed the Diocese of Salford on the theme of Jewish-Christian Relations in the light of the Second Vatican Council’s document 'Nostra Aetata’ (The Declaration on the Relations of the Church to non-Christian Religions).
Dr Edward Kessler on "Jewish-Christian Relations in light of Vatican II" from Woolf Institute on Vimeo
6 March 2013
Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks: "Trust and trustworthiness"
On the 26th February 2013 Lord Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth and Cardinal Kurt Koch, head of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, met and offered lectures on the theme of "Trust" organised by the Woolf Institute and the Cardinal Bea Centre for Judaic Studies, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome. The Chief Rabbi's lecture, addressing the theme of "Trust and trustworthiness" is now available, including a reponse from Lord Rowan Williams.
Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks on 'Trust and trustworthiness' from Woolf Institute on Vimeo
6 March 2013
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Cardinal Koch: "Trust as the Basic Attitude in a Culture of Humanity"
On the 26th February 2013 the Woolf Institute was delighted to welcome Cardinal Kurt Koch, head of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. The Cardinal's visit was part of a day of events organised by the Woolf Institute in partnership with the Cardinal Bea Centre for Judaic Studies, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome and included a private meeting with Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks.
During the day the Cardinal offered a lecture on "Trust as the Basic Attitude in a Culture of Humanity" to the Cambridge Theological Federation. This lecture was facilitated by the Woolf Institute's director Dr Edward Kessler and Father Philipp Renczes of the Cardinal Bea Centre.
4 December 2012
Professor Akbar Ahmed: Islam in America
Visiting Fellow Ambassador Akbar Ahmed has been called “the world’s leading authority on contemporary Islam” by the BBC. He has advised General David Petraeus, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and other US agencies on Islam and foreign policy. He is the author of over a dozen award-winning books, including Discovering Islam, which was the basis of the BBC six-part TV series called “Living Islam.” Following up on his critically acclaimed Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization, his latest project, based on extensive fieldwork, has resulted in a full length documentary, Journey into America, shown at several film festivals and the book, Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam (Brookings Press, July 2010).
Professor Akbar Ahmed on 'Islam in America' from Woolf Institute on Vimeo
4 December 2012
An Interview with Professor Akbar Ahmed
Visiting Fellow Ambassador Akbar Ahmed has been called “the world’s leading authority on contemporary Islam” by the BBC. He has advised General David Petraeus, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and other US agencies on Islam and foreign policy. He is the author of over a dozen award-winning books, including Discovering Islam, which was the basis of the BBC six-part TV series called “Living Islam.” Following up on his critically acclaimed Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization, his latest project, based on extensive fieldwork, has resulted in a full length documentary, Journey into America, shown at several film festivals and the book, Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam (Brookings Press, July 2010).
An Interview with Prof. Akbar Ahmed from Woolf Institute on Vimeo
13 April 2012
An Interview wth Prof. Fred Astren
Fred Astren is Professor and Chair of the Department of Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University. He received his PhD in Near Eastern Studies from the University of California at Berkeley in 1993. He holds a B.E.S. degree from the University of Minnesota with a specialisation in medieval history and an MA in Arabic from UC Berkeley. Areas of research include minority/sectarian history and sacred history in the Mediterranean Middle Ages, with special focus on Jewish history under Islam, Jewish-Muslim relations, and the Karaite Jewish sect. He is currently writing a book on Jews in the Mediterranean of the early Middle Ages.
An Interview with Prof. Fred Astren from Woolf Institute on Vimeo
29 March 2012
HRH Prince El Hassan Bin Talal Address at the Conference Jews of Arab Culture 1948-2009
An international Conference was organised by the Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations (CMJR) and the Department of Middle Eastern Studies (Prof. Yasir Suleiman), University of Cambridge, under the patronage of HRH Prince El Hassan Bin Talal and supported by the Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies in Amman
While the study of medieval and early modern Judaeo-Arabic culture & literature is a comparatively well established field in Western academia, there exists so far no comprehensive study of the more recent Arabic literature written by Jews. Central aspects of the last sixty years of Jewish-Arabic culture and literature have not yet been systematically surveyed and studied.
The conference attempted to fill this gap and explore various aspects of the process of 'De-Arabization' of the literary culture of "Arab Jews" since the 1940s. How did Jews (Jewish writers) who emigrated to Israel from different parts of the Arab world react or even resist this transformational process and how did it impact on the Palestinian literature?
HRH Prince El Hassan Bin Talal Address at the Conference Jews of Arab Culture 1948-2009 from Woolf Institute on Vimeo
28 March 2012
Dr Nathan Abrams - A Portrait
On the 12th October Director of Graduate Studies and Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at Bangor University, Dr Nathan Abrams delivered a plenary lecture entitled ''Menschlikayt vs Goyim Naches' : Jewish/non-Jewish values in Contemporary Cinema'. Dr Abrams has written widely on transatlantic Jewish film, history, politics and popular culture with specific reference to the United States and the United Kingdom. His current research falls into three key areas: Jews, Jewishness and Judaism in Popular Culture, 1990-present; Public Intellectuals and American Culture; and European Jewish Diasporas. His recent publications include: The New Jew in Film: exploring Jewishness and Judaism in Contemporary Cinema (London: I.B.Tauris, 2010) and Caledonian Jews: A Study of Seven Small Communities in Scotland (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009).
Dr Nathan Abrams - A Portrait from Woolf Institute on Vimeo
16 March 2012
An Interview with Prof. Norman Stillman
Norman A. Stillman is the Schusterman/Josey Professor of Judaic History at the University of Oklahoma, and is an internationally recognized authority on the history and culture of the Islamic world and on Sephardi and Oriental Jewry. He is the author of seven books and numerous articles in several languages. His book The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times (Philadelphia, 1991), a sequel to his highly acclaimed The Jews of Arab Lands: a History and Source Book (Philadelphia, 1979), was nominated for the National Jewish book award. In collaboration with his late wife, Yedida Kalfon Stillman, Professor Stillman published an English edition of Samuel Romanelli’s 17th-century Hebrew classic, Travail in an Arab Land, University of Alabama Press (1989). He also finished editing her book Arab Dress: a Short History which appeared in 2000 and has just come out in a third revised edition. He is currently the executive editor of the Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World (Leiden and Boston, 2010) and was editor of the AJS Review, the journal of the Association for Jewish Studies from 1989-1999.
An Interview with Prof. Norman Stillman from Woolf Institute on Vimeo
14 March 2012
An Interview with Prof. Sarah Stroumsa
Sarah Stroumsa, the Alice and Jack Ormut Professor of Arabic Studies, teaches in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature and the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University, where she currently serves as the Rector of the University. Her area of academic focus includes the history of philosophical and theological thought in Arabic in the early Islamic Middle Ages, Medieval Judaeo-Arabic literature, and intellectual history of Muslims and Jews in Islamic Spain. Among her published works: The Beginnings of the Maimonidean Controversy in the East: Yosef Ibn Shimon’s Silencing Epistle (Jerusalem: Ben Zvi Institute, 1999; Hebrew]) Freethinkers of Medieval Islam: Ibn al-Rawandi, Abu Bakr al-Razi, and Their Impact on Islamic Thought (Leiden: Brill, 1999); and Maimonides in his World: Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker (Princeton Princeton University, 2010).
An Interview with Prof. Sarah Stroumsa from Woolf Institute on Vimeo
13 March 2012
Dr Camilla Adang - Portrait
Dr Adang is a Senior Lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Tel Aviv University where she has previously held the Chair. Dr Adang is researching Relations between Muslims and Jews in the Islamic West as reflected in the works of Abu’l-Qasim al-Burzuli (d. 841/1438) and his predecessors. The aim of this project is to analyse all passages from al-Burzulī's work that reflect the interaction between Muslims and Jews (the latter are often subsumed under the more general category of People of the Book). Among the topics addressed in the fatwās are ritual purity, marriage, conversion, the swearing of oaths, taxation and litigation at the Muslim court. Dr Adang's work is part of a broader monograph project aimed at looking at legal cases involving Jews and Christians in the medieval Andalusian and North African contexts.
Dr Camilla Adang - Portrait from Woolf Institute on Vimeo
2 March 2012
Interview with Rev Dr Toby Howarth
On the 22nd November the Revd Dr Toby Howarth visited the Woolf Institute to deliver a reflection on 'Perspectives on Mission in 21st Century Britain'. This seminar marked the launch of the Lambeth-Jewish Forum document: Jews and Christians: Perspectives on Mission, a document produced under the auspices of the Lambeth-Jewish Forum, a joint initiative of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Interfaith office and the Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations.
Interview with Rev Dr Toby Howarth from Woolf Institute on Vimeo
19 February 2012
Archbishop Nichols - Lecture "God in the City"
On Wednesday the 8th February, Archbishop Vincent Nichols delivered a Woolf Institute public lecture on the subject of 'God in the City'. Reflecting on the theme of the common good, the Archbishop remarked that "one of the significant features of our times is the profound desire to foster and benefit from genuine dialogue between our religious beliefs and traditions. This desire is shaped not only by the evident need for our society to find a sound ethical basis on which to build, not only the need to generate in society those values which lead to generous, selfless service, but also out of the religious conviction that the one eternal God graces our world in many ways. It is in response to that graciousness, that gratuity, that we, in our turn, offer to each other a warmth and a respect which motivates us to explore together, to study together and together serve the cause of human flourishing."
The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster delivering the Lecture 'God in the City' from Woolf Institute on Vimeo
16 February 2012
Interview with Archbishop Nichols
On Wednesday the 8th February, Archbishop Vincent Nichols delivered a Woolf Institute public lecture on the subject of 'God in the City'. An interview with the Archbishop was conducted by the academic staff at the Woolf Institute on themes such as: the future of Jewish-Christian relations, 'key issues' in Jewish-Muslim-Christian relations, the contribution of faith based social action and the role of 'trust' today.
Interview with the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster from Woolf Institute on Vimeo
6 February 2012
DIVERSITY ISSUES IN END OF LIFE CARE
This one-day course offers participants an opportunity to develop skills and knowledge to engage confidently with patients and their families in conversations about end of life care in cases affected by religious beliefs and practices. Using the examples of Islam and Judaism, this course gives an understanding of what it means to have a religious worldview.
By working through case studies drawn from a broad range of clinical settings, participants will develop the necessary skills and understanding required to offer the best end of life care to patients from different religious backgrounds.
An introduction to the video can be found here.
Definition of Death Session from the course 'Diversity in End of Life Care: a Muslim/Jewish Case Study' from Woolf Institute on Vimeo
Further Resources:
Diversity in End of Life Care Flyer
Diversity in End of Life Care further information
Final Report on End of Life Project
15 September 2011
An Interview with AJ Levine
AJ Levine if University Professor of New Testament and Jewish studies, E.Rhodes and Leona B.Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies, Professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School and, as of May 2011, an Affiliated Professor at the CJCR.
Interview with Prof A-J Levine from Woolf Institute on Vimeo.
31 August 2011
Bridging the Great Divide: the Jewish-Muslim Encounter
Dr Yousef Meri, Academic Director of the Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations, Woolf Institute, Cambridge, delivering the Induction session of the course Bridging the Great Divide: the Jewish-Muslim Encounter. The course is offered by the American University Washington in partnership with the Woolf Institute, Cambridge.
Bridging the Great Divide - Induction Session with Dr Yousef Meri from Woolf Institute on Vimeo.
8 March 2011
Professor Simon Schama speaking on The Difficulties of Toleration: Jews amidst Christians & Muslims
On the 8 March 2011 at St Edmund's College, Cambridge, the Woolf Institute had the honour of welcoming Professor Simon Schama as a guest lecturer. Professor Simon Schama delivered a talk to an audience of more than a hundred people on the Difficulties of Toleration on: Jews amidst Christians and Muslims.
Professor Simon Schama speaking on The Difficulties of Toleration: Jews amidst Christians and Muslims from Woolf Institute on Vimeo.
24 June 2010
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AUDIO: Muslim-Jewish Relations in South Asia
"Muslim-Jewish Relations in South Asia" was a CMJR highlight lecture given by Dr Navras Jaat Aafreedi, a visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations in 2010.
28 May 2010
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AUDIO: Jews of Arab Culture
Jews of Arab Culture was an international conference organised by the Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations (CMJR) and the Department of Middle Eastern Studies (Prof. Yasir Suleiman), University of Cambridge, under the patronage of HRH Prince El Hassan Bin Talal and supported by the Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies in Amman.
26 May 2010
Session II: Academic Approaches to Life and Death
Session II of Conference 'Life and Death in Judaism and Islam', St Edmund's College Cambridge
The Conference was organised by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre for Islamic Studies (CIS) and the Woolf Institute, Centre for Muslim-Jewish Relations (CMJR)
Title: Academic Approaches to Life and Death in Judaism and Islam
Chair: Dr Navras Afreedi, Research Fellow, CMJR
With: Dr Hossein Godazgar and Dr Simon Dein
Session II Academic Approaches to Life and Death in Judaism and Islam from Woolf Institute on Vimeo.
26 May 2010
Session I: Medical Practices at the end of life in Judaism and Islam
Session I of Conference 'Life and Death in Judaism and Islam', St Edmund's College Cambridge
The Conference was organised by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre for Islamic Studies (CIS) and the Woolf Institute, Centre for Muslim-Jewish Relations (CMJR)
Title: Medical Practice at the end of life in Judaism and Islam
Chair: Dr Keith S Taber, Faculty of English, Faraday Institute for Science and Religion
With: Prof. David Katz and Dr Aiman Alzetani
Session I 'Medical Practices at the end of life in Judaism and Islam' from Woolf Institute on Vimeo.
26 May 2010
Session IV: End-of-life Issues and Chaplaincy
Session IV of Conference 'Life and Death in Judaism and Islam', St Edmund's College Cambridge
The Conference was organised by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre for Islamic Studies (CIS) and the Woolf Institute, Centre for Muslim-Jewish Relations (CMJR): End-of-life Issues and Chaplaincy
Chair: Reverend Anne Aldridge (President of the College of Health Care Chaplains and Anglican Assistant Chaplain at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge). With: Imam Yunus Dudwhalla, Multifaith Manager and Chaplain at Newham University Hospital, London and Rabbi Amanda Golby, Chaplain at Southport District General Hospital, and Nottingham University Hospital.
Session IV: End-of-life Issues and Chaplaincy from Woolf Institute on Vimeo.
26 May 2010
Session III: Religious Insights into Life and Death
Session III of Conference 'Life and Death in Judaism and Islam', St Edmund's College Cambridge
The Conference was organised by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre for Islamic Studies (CIS) and the Woolf Institute, Centre for Muslim-Jewish Relations (CMJR)
Chair: Reverend Andrew Brown (Minister of the Unitarian Church and Unitarian and Free Christian Chaplain, Cambridge)
With: Rabbi David Hulbert, Rabbi to a Jewish community on the north-eastern fringes of London. Eight years ago, together with Imam Fahim, he founded the East London Three Faiths Forum and Imam Mohammed Fahim, Imam at South Woodford Mosque, Essex
Session III: Religious Insights into Life and Death from Woolf Institute on Vimeo.
14 April 2010
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AUDIO: Contextualising Theology: The Training of Jewish and Muslim Leaders in the UK
Seminar organised by the Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations at the Woolf Institute. The Speakers were Dr Ataullah Siddiqui, Academic Director, and Reader in Religious Pluralism and Inter-Faith Relations at the Markfield Institute of Higher Education in Leicester & Rabbi Professor Marc Saperstein, Principal of Leo Baeck College (London). The Seminar took place on Thursday 25th March 2010.
22 July 2009
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AUDIO: Concert By Yair Dalal
A concert given by Yair Dalal as a part of the "Jews of Arab Culture" Conference. The programme took place on 22nd June 2009 at Wesley House and was introduced by Merav Rosenfeld-Hadad of the University of Cambridge.
20 July 2009
Interview with Rachel Shabi
Shabi was born in Israel to Iraqi Jewish parents and later raised in England. A journalist, she has written for a variety of national and international newspapers such as the Guardian, the Sunday Times, the New Statesman, the Independent on Sunday, English Al-Jazeera online, the National, Jane’s and Salon.com. For the past three years she has been based in Israel and reporting on the Middle East conflict.
20 July 2009
Interview with Dr Avihai Shivtiel
Avihai Shivtiel was born in Palestine (Israel). He graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he read Arabic language and literature, Islamic studies and Hebrew language and linguistics, towards the degrees of B.A. and M.A (1971). In addition he taught Arabic at the Hebrew University and Bar Ilan University. Between 1972-1978 he taught Hebrew and Arabic at Cambridge University where he also obtained his Ph.D. in Arabic linguistics. In 1979 he moved to Leeds University where he taught Semitic languages, literatures and cultures and served as the head of the Department of Semitic Studies and later Arabic studies. Concurrently, he also worked as a Senior Research Fellow at the Taylor-Shechter Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge university until his full retirement in 2007. His publications include over 150 books, articles, reviews and entries for the three Encyclopaedias of Islam, Language and Linguistics and Arabic Language and Linguistics.
Interview with Avihai Shivtiel from Woolf Institute on Vimeo.
20 July 2009
Interview with Dr Richard Stone
Dr Richard Stone, who is a Patron of the Woolf Institute, was on the panels of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, and of the 2003/04 David Bennett Inquiry into the death of a Black patient in a medium secure psychiatric hospital in Norwich. He was previously senior partner in a five-doctor group practice in Notting Hill and Bayswater,Central London. Vice-chair of the Runnymede Trust he spent 6 years on its Islamophobia Commission, from 2000 to ’04 as chair. He is President of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality, and founder and co-chair of Alif-Aleph UK, a group of British Muslims & British Jews.
In 2008 he generously donated £1 million to the Woolf Institute to help establish the Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations and since this interview he has in 2010 been awarded an OBE for his public and voluntary service.
Interview with Dr Richard Stone from Woolf Institute on Vimeo.
20 July 2009
Interview with Attalah Mansour
Atallah Mansour is the only Arab-Christian to become a member of the editorial board of a major Israeli newspaper. He was also the first to write in Hebrew for Haaretz and the first to publish a novel in Hebrew. He was born in Al-Jish, Safad S/D, Palestine in 1934 and was a refugee in the first school for Palestinian students in Al Mokhtarah,Lebanon (1948-49). He is a graduate of Ruskin College, Oxford (1973).
Interview with Atallah Mansour from Woolf Institute on Vimeo.
30 May 2009
Interview with HRH Prince El Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan
Prince El-Hassan bin Talal is the son of King Talal and Queen Zein al-Sharaf. He is the brother of the late King Hussein, Crown Prince from 1965 to 1999 and is uncle to the present King Abdullah II of Jordan. He was educated first in Amman. He then attended Summer Fields School, then Harrow School in England as well as Christ Church, Oxford University, where he received a BA Hons in Oriental Studies followed by an MA. In 2008 he was awarded the Abraham Geiger Award for his achievements as a voice for global sustainability, reconciliation and interreligious understanding. He is a patron of the Woolf Institute.
Interview with HRH Prince El Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan from Woolf Institute on Vimeo.
1 January 2009
An Interview with Sasson Somekh
Sasson Somekh was born in Baghdad to a secular Jewish family. In 1951, Somekh and his family immigrated to Israel in the wake of growing pressures on the Jews of Iraq to leave the country. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Hebrew Language and History from Tel Aviv University, and a Master's degree in Linguistics of Semitic languages at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1962-1965, Somekh served as scientific secretary of the Academy of the Hebrew Language. He did his doctorate at Oxford University in 1966-1968. He served as chairman of the Arabic Language and Literature department at Tel Aviv University in 1972-1984. In 1980, he became a full professor. Between 1982-2003, he held the Helmos Chair for Arabic Literature. In 1996-1998 he was head of the Israel Academic Center in Cairo. He was a visiting professor at Princeton University, St Antony's College, Oxford, Annenberg Research Institute, NYU and Uppsala University. In 2004, he received an honorary doctorate from Ben Gurion University.
Interview with Prof Sasson Somekh from Woolf Institute on Vimeo.
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