Attending my 6th AJS Conference, AJS 2022

It was great connecting with fellow rabbis over beers Sunday evening

I was in the fortunate position to attend the 54th conference of the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) last week, which was my 6th time attending this conference. I am appreciative to the my work for both allowing me to attend, as well as to pay for this professional development opportunity.* As this conference always is for me, it was reinvigorating, inspiring, intellectually stimulating, and an opportunity to learn new vocabulary.

Highlights

For me, in addition to re-connecting with people, as well as meeting new people, highlights of the papers I heard were the following:

Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Zuckier delivering his paper

• The rabbis took the term גבר as a man in the Bible and made it a rooster in Mishnaic Hebrew - Roni Shweka, part of his fascinating paper, “'Torah scholars who are similar to women, but act mightily like men': Once again on construction of rabbinic masculinity"
• Chaya Halberstam mentioned in a response to a question that even though it seems Rabbinic Literature studies are a bit behind involving new methodologies, they are also WAY ahead of most other fields of studies of late antiquity (*cough* Josephus studies *cough*)
• While Tannaim and early amoraim discuss הלכה למעשה or not, later amoraim understand הלכה as always actionable, said Shlomo Zuckier, as part of his summary of his "Halakhah, Ma'aseh, Precedent, and Analogy: A Talmudic Reading" paper. This, to some degree, follows up from his 2016 AJS paper.
• Yael Landman suggested considering "halakhicization" as a term, rather than "halakhah" as a fixed notion
• Yonatan Brafman pointed out is that halakhists are not often considered by those who consider modern Jewish philosophy, even though they engage in it - their language is not composed in the way of philosophy, even if they are doing it. He also pointed out that a lot of folks who discuss "halakhah" as "The Law" in the 19th and 20th centuries often use it in a negative and backward sense.
  
• Shulamit Shinnar observed that illness is a form of temporary handicapping and it can adversely affect the way one views future possibilities of their life.
  
• Aaron Adler pointed out that Rambam wrote Mishneh Torah from ages 23-30 and he went through religious changes, which is reflected in changing his mind up until its publishing in 1138, thus not contradictions - he changed his mind, as part of his "Early Mishneh Torah Editions and Rabad's Glosses" paper.

Sophia Schmitt delivering her paper

A few other papers I wanted to note as being quite interesting to me:

• "A New Theory for the Origin and Function of the Kaddish" by Reuven Kimelman
• "We Didn’t Start the Fire: Preventing Fire Disaster in Jewish and Christians Neighborhoods of Medieval Ashkenaz" by Sophia Schmitt
• "Code-Switching: Refining our Understanding of Greek and Latin in Rabbinic Literature" by Daniel Golde

One other paper I missed, but heard a few people singing its praises was "Bringing the Bible to Babylonia: The Bavli's Infusion of the Mesopotamian landscape with Biblical narratives" by Omer Shadmi.

Meeting up with Rabbi Charlie Schwartz at Lehrhaus

Not Seeking Completionism
One of the typical practices I engage in at previous AJS conferences has been to seek to attend every single panel session offered, which includes the final session, although I know a lot of people have already departed or they have flights to catch. While I attended every single session on the first day of the conference, for the final day of the conference, I could only attend one of the two, as I had a plane to catch for the second one (if I were to have attended that final session, I would not have gotten home until late). As far as the middle day, I skipped out on the first one to go visit Lehrhaus to check out the space, as well as to record an episode of The Jewish Drinking Show, which will be very exciting when it publishes next month. And there was an afternoon session on Monday that none of the panels seemed particularly interesting to me, so I decided to use that time to visit the book floor as well as to chat with various folks, which ended up being quite a good opportunity to use at that time.

Enjoying kosher wine at the welcome reception

On The Lookout for Drinking Content
As there were a couple of papers delivered at last year's AJS concerning drinking content, especially within rabbinic texts, one of whom I was able to feature on as a guest for The Jewish Drinking Show (the other one declined as she was not used to podcasting), I was curious and open to see what would be shared. While there had been a drinking text mentioned in the course of one of the papers I heard, actually, there was one paper that had nothing in the title to do with drinking, yet it was chock-full of Talmudic drinking texts, all of which were entirely new to me if they came from the Palestinian Talmud. In Prof. Shulamit Shinnar's "The Animalization of Illness in Rabbinic Literature: Models of Illness and Rabbinic Subjectivity", she discussed a whole bunch of incidences of people drinking wine and what would happen in their exposure to potential venomization (see here for the front side of her source sheet and see here for the back side of her source sheet). This was particularly fascinating to me and I look forward to see if that ever gets published or what she wants to do with that material, but that was particularly exciting as I was not expecting a drinking paper there, but it was all about Talmudic drinking texts.

Souvenir from the Schnitzer Book Awards Dinner

Meals
A wonderful opportunity was made available for the first evening of the conference: attending the Jordan Schnitzer Book Awards Reception and Dinner Sunday night only required signing up ahead of time and costing no money. Wow! It was an incredible gift that I made sure to take advantage of. In addition to drinks beforehand, they also offered wine during the meal and the food was incredibly delicious. I also had a brand new culinary experience for me: having lox on top of a latke - it was such an incredible delightful experience. Additionally, the book awards allowed us to take home the winning books of the award, so I made sure to pick up Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism by Sarit Kattan Gribetz, about which I am very excited to read, as I know she is an incredible scholar. I also had wonderful conversations over that dinner table and meeting people and that was such an incredible experience.

For Monday dinner, I met up with a friend for a delicious Chinese dinner at The Kosher Wok. For lunches on Sunday and Monday, there was an incredible opportunity for those who keep kosher as AJS conferences are typically not located near anywhere that is under kosher certification, but this was a phenomenal opportunity, as there was a local kosher-certified restaurant that was not only close by, but one did not even have to go outside in the mid-December Boston weather to reach and it was a very delectable food, so that was quite felicitous. Also, while I did not take advantage of this for Sunday lunchtime, I did for Monday lunch which was pre-ordering the food on their app and it being ready as soon as I left my conference session, so that was also wonderful.

It was wonderful meeting Prof. Henry Abramson

Minyanim
Although having minyanim for prayer was useful for praying amongst others, I also found it to be an opportune space to either re-connect with people, as well as to meet people for the very first time. This was especially so, since Orthodox Jews are a minority at AJS, so it's an easy way of connecting with people, as there are not so many at these minyanim. 

Hallel was quick and efficient

I did get to meet Prof. Henry Abramson, which was wonderful, as well as meeting others who might be potential guests of The Jewish Drinking Show. One further note: as both mornings of AJS were Hanukah, that meant including Hallel - if you want to know how academics do Hallel, it's straightforward with no singing; I actually greatly appreciated that😉

I was surprised to see signs requesting always masking

Masking
As most of the country has moved away from masking this year, I assumed there would be no expectation of masking at AJS 2022. However, as I pointed out prior to the conference, the conference website requested people wear masks: "We ask conference attendees to wear masks, fully covering their noses and mouths, when in the AJS convention spaces, unless actively eating, drinking, or presenting in a session. We will have masks available at the registration desk. Please know that neither the Sheraton nor the city of Boston has a mask mandate, so other hotel guests may not be wearing masks." This was some weak wording and I expected similar messaging. 

I ended up wearing masks during the sessions

However, when I arrived at the conference, I was surprised to encounter signs that were actually strongly recommending people always mask unless eating, drinking, or delivering a paper. This communication was not well done, creating some weird ambivalence. While I knew attendees who adamantly refused to ever wear a mask there, I at least decided, out of a sense of courtesy, to mask while in sessions when people were delivering papers, but I did not mask outside of the sessions. Yes, this is drastically different than last year's conference where there was a mandate in place even for those delivering papers and that was understandable at the time, especially with the rise of Omicron, but this year's conference was much different and a lot of us were not used to having to wear masks anymore. We shall see what happens with masking for AJS 2023 in San Francisco....
 

Submitting a Paper Proposal?
One question I have received every single time I attend is "Are you delivering a paper?" While it was flattering my first two appearances, it has begun to grow on me. Attending last year's conference, I got an idea in my idea for a paper to submit, although I did not pull the trigger to submit a proposal for it this year. However, both in the weeks leading up to this year's conference, as well as at the conference, I received a lot of encouragement to deliver a paper, in general, as well as for the topic I have in mind, in particular. However, a further piece of advice I had never previously considered, but heard from a handful of people is to put a panel together, which makes the chances of getting the paper proposal accepted a lot higher. So, I am currently working on seeking out a panel to put together to submit along with my paper proposal.

Conference Guidebook
Perhaps due to what happened at last year's AJS with so many sessions being reshuffled or outright cancelled, causing everyone to stay updated by looking at the conference app, the conference program books contained no information about any of the schedule nor any program content. Instead, the book contained select information about the conference, as well as exclusive advertisements, offers, and opportunities from conference sponsors and exhibitors.This was useful in that I ripped out the pages with the hotel map and got rid of the rest of the guidebook, following the conference program in the app. Again, while I do not know if last year's events directly caused this change, it's my speculation. I am totally fine with this change as I largely used the conference app in previous years anyway. I wonder what the older conferencegoers must have thought of this change.

Tweet Threads of Panel Sessions I Attended

Sunday 18 December 2022

• "Magic, Methods, and the Mishnah: The Dynamism of Medieval Texts"
• "Refining our Research Methods in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities in Scholarship on Rabbinics"
• "Human-Divine Relations in Liturgy and Theurgy"
• "Gender, Embodiment and Animality in Rabbinic Texts"

Monday 19 December 2022

• "What Is Halakhah: Methodological Reflections"
  "On Bavli Narratives/Normativity in Midrash and Talmud"
  "Late Antique and Medieval Reflections on the Hebrew Bible in Their Contexts"

Tuesday 20 December 2022

• "Social Consideration and Innovation in Medieval Ashkenazic Halakhic Culture"

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* I am thankful to my current employer, Majestic Care of Cedar Village, for allowing me to attend, as well as Jewish Home of Cincinnati for funding this professional development opportunity.

Looking Forward to Attending AJS 2022 Next Week!

I'm once again looking forward to attending this year's Association of Jewish Studies (AJS) conference! This year's conference, the 54th annual conference, will be my sixth time attending.

After having attended in 2008 and 2009, this will be my fourth AJS conference out of the past six conferences (having attended in 2016, 2018, and 2021).

Just as with attending last year's AJS conference, I am grateful to my employers for permitting and funding my attendance as professional development. In addition to it providing me with intellectual stimulation, it also provides some fascinating fodder for me to bring back to the residents of the senior living facility where I work. In fact, last year, I spoke about highlights of papers I heard; I plan to do similarly this year.

While I enjoyed the intimacy of last year's conference, as many people either decided not to attend in the first place, or decided not to attend in the weeks leading up to the conference (seriously, it was a really fascinatingly small conference-size, allowing a greater opportunity to connect with conference attendees), I hope we do not have another experience of panels collapsing and people presenting papers scrambling to re-assemble a new panel with whomever was left. That was unfortunate and caused people to have to check for updates online for each set of panels.

One thing that will be interesting will be with regards to face masks. While face masks were expected to be worn at all panels and any official conference program (but not in the hotel bar or while eating or drinking), which made sense, as the new variant, Omicron, was on its rise, it will be interesting to see what happens at this year's conference. Fortunately, according to communications sent out by AJS last year, there were no reported cases of COVID-19 following the 2021 conference, which is great news. However, how will people behave at the 2022 conference? A lot of people are over wearing face masks. Nevertheless, the conference website requests people wear masks: "We ask conference attendees to wear masks, fully covering their noses and mouths, when in the AJS convention spaces, unless actively eating, drinking, or presenting in a session. We will have masks available at the registration desk. Please know that neither the Sheraton nor the city of Boston has a mask mandate, so other hotel guests may not be wearing masks." This should prove interesting, as I suspect that a lot of people will wear masks, while many, many others will not.

In any event, I am greatly looking forward to the conference starting in just four days for the intellectual stimulation, new ideas, re-connecting with people I have known for years, and for connecting with people I will be newly be meeting. I'm excited!