Kalman (d. 1470), the cantor of Regensburg, was on the threshold of baptism.  On May 4th, 1470, the young Jew Kalman was arrested and questioned in Regensburg by Hans Ebran – a judge appointed by Duke Ludwig of Bavaria Landshut (situated on the Danube in South-East Germany), who held the legal rights over the largest Jewish community in late medieval Ashkenaz- that of  Regensburg. These are the details of the case, according to Kalman’s first and second confessions:
On Good Friday, Kalman the cantor and learned scholar of Regensburg went to a passion play outside the Church of Saint Peter in Regensburg dressed in Christian garb. He also went to hear the Vi-Bishop‘s sermon and dined with high-ranking municipal officials for the Easter feast, together with the monks of the Augustinian order. Kalman visited the homes of influential Christians in the city, dined with them and conversed with them as old friends regarding his Jewish past and his honest deliberations regarding baptism. When Kalman conversed with one of his Christian friends, he explained that it was difficult for him to choose the path of conversion, for, as he claimed: "Conversion is like a journey to a distant land, leaving all my friends and all my goods behind".
Kalman finally decided not to convert to Christianity and returned to the bosom of the Jews and to Judaism; however, several days later Kalman was arrested and was accused of being a renegade and spy for the Jewish community by Duke Ludwig of Bavaria Landshut. Kalman was never baptized and so could not have been tried as being a lapsed convert. Instead, he was accused of being sent by the Jewish community in order to study Christian theology and later write polemical books for the Jews. Moreover, Kalman was questioned about a request made to him by the rabbis of the Regensburg community, to bring them some of the Eucharist- the sacred bread, to this Kalman answered that they did ask him but he had forgotten to bring the bread with him when he returned to the Jewish quarter. Kalman was designated to write polemic writings based on his scholarly background in both religions. As he tried to balance his liminal position between Christianity and Judaism, he was perceived in the Jewish and Christian communities as an opportunity to confirm speculations about the competing religion and was questioned about secret passages, stolen saints and the powers of the Eucharist. Based on a chain of letters between the city of Regensburg and the Duke, records of receipts, and especially the 6-page confession of the almost Christian cantor, this unique case sheds light on the thirst for greater knowledge of the neighboring religion and the balance between power and religion. Understanding Kalman and the political and social world he acted in may help unravel some of the foundations of Jewish-Cristian relations on the threshold of Reformation in general and most specifically in Regensburg.  Jews had lived in Regensburg at least since the 11th century and Jewish-Christian relations were more or less stable in Regensburg throughout the Middle Ages. A turn in the attitude towards Jews in Regensburg began mainly in the second half of the 15th century due to numerous causes, as Raphael Strauss, Markus Wenniger, Ronnie Po-chia Hsia and others have noted. Kalman’s tragic end, sentenced to death by drowning in the river, on June 18th 1470, could be seen in my view as a first swallow announcing the beginning of the end of the Jewish community in Regensburg, expelled but 50 years later in 1519.

Ahuva Liberles Noiman: 

 

"Forgetting Conversion in Late Medieval Ashkenaz", at: Describing Dynamics of Jewish Ritual Practices In  Pluralistic Contexts from Antiquity to the Present", Erfurt, Germany, October 28, 2016.

 

"'Like a Journey to a Distant Land'- Considering Conversion in Late Medieval Germany", at: 500 Years of Reformation: Jews and Protestants – Judaism and Protestantism, Annual International Conference of the Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem, February 14, 2017.

 

"Concepts of Localization in the Writings of Rabbi Yehuda heHasid", at: Sefer Hasidim in Context, National Library and Beit Belgia, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, March 21, 2017. 

Alexander van der Haven:

 

"Predestination and Toleration: The Sole Persecution of Jews in the Dutch Republic in the Context of Calvinist Debates about Free Will", Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem for the Study of German and Central European Jewry. 500 Years of Reformation. Jews and Protestants – Judaism and Protestantism, February 2017.

Amir Ashur: 

 

"Maimonidean and Maimonidean-related Documents from the Genizah - New Discoveries and Future Plans", From Fustat To Haifa: an International Research Workshop of the Israel Science Foundation Celebrating 120 Years of Genizah Research, University of Haifa, May 15th-18th 2017.

“Oral and Written Torah (Jewish Law): Reality and Ideology”, Lecture at the Islamic Museum in Beer Shebba, February 2017. (Hebrew)

 

"En Ata O'med Be-Meimecha' (You Don't Stand in your Water) - The Meaning of an Enigmatic Phrase,” Bar Ilan 1st Workshop for Early Career Researchers of Talmud and Halacha Studies, March 2017.

“The Scientific-Philosophical and Apocalyptic-Messianic Traditions”. Seminar at the Shalem College in Jerusalem, November 2016.

(together with Katrin Kogman-Appel), “The World and the Holy Land in Medieval Maps,” in: Graduate Interdisciplinary Seminar, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, March 26, 2017. (Hebrew)

Ayelet Harel-Shalev:

Daniel J. Lasker :  

 

Dennis Halft:

 

“The ‘Book of Books’ in Persian,” in: M. Pehlivanian, Ch. Rauch, and R. Vollandt, eds, Oriental Bible Manuscripts from the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – PK: An Illustrated History, Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2016, 150-154.

“A Persian Gospel Manuscript and the London Polyglot,” in: M. Pehlivanian, Ch. Rauch, and R. Vollandt, eds, Oriental Bible Manuscripts from the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – PK: An Illustrated History, Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2016, 155-157.

“Towards a New Perception of Islam: The Influence of Marie-Dominique Chenu’s Theology of Incarnation on Christian-Muslim Relations,” in: M. Attridge, D. Dias, M. Eaton, and N. Olkovich, eds, The Promise of Renewal: Dominicans and Vatican II, Adelaide: ATF Theology, 2017, 225-239.

“Kinship, Expectations and God”, forthcoming in HAWWA. 

Pnina Arad:

 

“Frederick III’s Holy Land Installation in Wittenberg during the Cultural Transition of the Reformation,” Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies 48.1 (2017). 

Were God’s People Destined to be Ruled by a Mortal King? A Judeo-Converso-Christian Tradition,"Journal
of Levantine Studies. 6 (2016): 13-33