The Lavy Colloquium was founded in 2005 through the generosity of Norman Lavy, MD, FACP, and Marion H. Lavy. The colloquium examines and considers ideas related to Jewish civilization.
The 18th Lavy Colloquium
The Impact of the Israel-Hamas War on Israeli Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy
The 17th Lavy Colloquium
Jewish Monumentality
The 17th Lavy colloquium took place on May 6th and 7th 2024 at the Smokler Center for Jewish Life across the street from the Homewood campus of the Johns Hopkins University. The two-day international conference featured experts in ancient and modern monuments. The many topics addressed in the lectures included Jewish burials, museums, ancient magical objects, the temples in Jerusalem, synagogues around the world, and literature from the Bible to Yiddish Holocaust commemorative texts.
The 16th Lavy Colloquium
Christian Kabbalah
April, 16-18, 2023.
Christian Kabbalah can be defined, most broadly, as Christian engagement with the Jewish esoteric and mystical tradition. This engagement took two main forms: Christian – and Christological – reading of the works of Jewish Kabbalah, such as the Zohar, and the application of kabbalistic techniques, such as gematria and other forms of numerology, to the reading of Christian own texts. The aim of the 16th Lavy Colloquium was to assess the state of research on Christian Kabbalah, fill lacunae in existing scholarship, and chart directions for future inquiry. The Colloquium focused on Christian Kabbalah in the broadly understood Early Modern Period and was organized by Professor Pawel Maciejko.
The 14th Lavy Colloquium
October 7, 2018
Israel Under Netanyahu
The colloquium will analyze Israeli domestic politics and foreign policy during the period in which Benjamin Netanyahu has served as Israel’s prime minister. The one-day symposium will bring together scholars from Israel and the United States and will discuss Israel’s political parties, its economy, and its relations with the United States, Iran, Turkey, the Palestinians, the Arab world, India, China, and the American Jewish community.
The 13th Lavy Colloquium
April 9-11, 2018
Herem: The Sources, Practice, and Representation of Ex-Communications and Bans in Rabbinic Culture
The 12th Lavy Colloquium
Nov. 6-7, 2017
New Frontiers in the Study of Modern Hebrew Literature
The 11th Lavy Colloquium
May 4-5, 2016
Israel’s East European Lineages: Russian and Polish Jewish History, Zionism, and Israeli Political Cultures
The 10th Lavy Colloquium
Dec. 1-2, 2014
The Polish Jewish Condition? Polish Jewish Social Thought and the 1930s
The 9th Lavy Colloquium
Nov. 18-19, 2013
The Hacham Tzvi, Rabbi Yaacov Emden, and Their Worlds: The Story of Early Modern Rabbinics
The 8th Lavy Colloquium
Oct. 15-16, 2012
Yiddish After the Castrophe, 1934 to Present
The 7th Lavy Colloquium
Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 2011
Jews and Empire
The 6th Lavy Colloquium
Oct. 10, 2010
Six Decades of U.S.-Israeli Relations
The 5th Lavy Colloquium
Nov. 18-19, 2009
“The Jewish Jesus”
The 4th Lavy Colloquium
2008
Nationhood and the Jews
The 3rd Lavy Colloquium
2007
Judaism and Christian Art
The 2nd Lavy Colloquium
2006
Israel Since Rabin
The 1st Lavy Colloquium
Atlantic Jewry in an Age of Mercantilism