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Jewish-Arab Culture Research Center

Interdisciplinary research on the Jewish-Arab category 
in contemporary culture, art, theory, and politics.

 

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Introduction

The hyphenated category "Jewish-Arab," as a depiction of a viable Jewish-Arab existence, appears to have been largely vanished at the turn of the 20th century - a critical period in the modern history of the Middle East. This era witnessed tectonic shifts, including the collapse of the Ottoman Empire on one hand and the rise of European imperial hegemony in the Middle East and beyond on the other.

The intellectual wealth, accumulated over the years thought, associated with this elusive category—Jewish-Arab—is often regarded in academic literature as a marginal byproduct of Western conceptual frameworks and hence deemed insignificant and consigned to oblivion.

Paradoxically, Jewish connections to the "local" and its historical, geographical, and cultural contexts were abandoned in favor of the "external," namely the Western intellectual tradition with its predilections. The intellectual framework within which prominent intellectuals sought to examine Jewish identity and its ties to the broader Middle Eastern and specifically Arab contexts—across political, religious, linguistic, and cultural dimensions—succumbed to Western intellectual heritage. As a result, Jewishness and Arabness came to be seen by many as irreconcilable opposites. 

Vision 
The Jewish-Arab Culture Research Center, Barcelona seeks to challenge this trend and highlight the importance of the Jewish-Arab intellectual heritage and shared historical experience as a perspective from which to examine the possibility of a viable and propitious Arab-Jewish coexistence (Convivencia).

The commitment to this vision is urgently needed now, when animosity is rampant and this vision is deemed nothing but a chimera, as a fantasy entertained by hallucinatory minds. Again, the initiative to establish this center is driven by the steadfast belief that the category— Jewish Arab—holds unique and significant potential for "Tikkun Olam" (world repair), fostering Jewish-Arab coexistence based on shared history, language, culture, philosophical, and religious heritage.

The intent is that this center becomes an abode for a wide gamut of academic, intellectual, and cultural activities, including history, sociology, philosophy, cultural studies, art, cinema, and more, and that it hosts seminars, art exhibitions, and artistic performances. Common to all those activities is to promote a new consciousness asserting that an auspicious Jewish-Arab existence is a viable social reality. 


Location and Operational Framework 
The Jewish-Arab Culture Research Center, Barcelona operates under the framework of the Instituto de Estudios Judíos de Barcelona (EJB), which provides an appropriate platform due to the historical background of Spain and Catalonia as sites of shared inter-religious life. Moreover, contemporary Spain is viewed as a place with a strong ethical and institutional commitment to fostering collaborations guided by the principles underlying this multi-dimensional project.

The Center's location in Catalonia, Spain, and specifically Barcelona, will enable interfaith and intercultural collaborations with thinkers, scholars, creators, institutions, and organizations from diverse fields operating in Mediterranean countries and beyond. 

Inaugural Conference - July 2 - 4, 2025
To mark the establishment of the Jewish-Arab Culture Research Center, Barcelona, an inaugural conference will take place from July 2nd to 4th, 2025.

This three-day event will blend academic, scholarly dialogue and interdisciplinary discussions with cultural and artistic performances, creating a dynamic platform for exploring the conceptual framework of the Jewish-Arab category. Through this fusion of academic inquiry and artistic expression, the conference will highlight the richness of contemporary Jewish-Arab identities and provide a space to showcase their evolving cultural forms.

Image: Aravrit, by Liron Lavi Turkenich

 

 

 

 

 

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