14 – 15 October 2026
University of Antwerp, City Campus
Free admission.
Registration required: email to ijs@uantwerpen.be.
On the occasion of its twenty-fifth anniversary, the Institute of Jewish Studies at the University of Antwerp will convene a special gathering to mark a moment of continuity and renewal. As the Institute celebrates a quarter-century of scholarship, community, and innovation, it also marks a change in leadership, as its founding director, Vivian Liska, passes the mantle to her successor, Theodor Dunkelgrün.
To honor this milestone, the Institute will bring together distinguished senior scholars from across the fields of Jewish studies, each paired with a junior scholar in their discipline. In short statements and conversations, these intergenerational pairs will explore transmission in all its registers: continuity, disruption, and new beginnings; indebtedness and the anxiety of influence; mentorship and discipleship — and discuss together ways in which knowledge, method, and creativity are passed on, reinterpreted, and transformed across generations.
Through these dialogues, participants will reflect on the evolution of their fields, the challenges and opportunities of the present, and the horizons of Jewish scholarship yet to come in a changing world, embodying the mission of the Institute itself: to foster rigorous inquiry, sustain dialogue between past and future, and cultivate the next generation of voices in Jewish Studies.
Program
Click to download the detailed conference program.