"The Idea of Jerusalem" – A Symposium
April 15-17, 2005
Agenda
Has any city in the world captured the imagination of so many generations in both the East and the West as Jerusalem? Is there any city that has been the object of so much love and longing and at the same time has been the center of so much conflict? Jerusalem, Yerushalyim, Al-Quds is the heavenly city for each of the three Monotheistic religions. It is a physical place where people live and a spiritual place that lives in people's hearts and minds.
Jerusalem's religious importance is defined in its landmarks, which have come to symbolize the religions as a whole through infinite reproduction in art and literature. The Temple Mount (Har Habyit), at the top of the Mount of Moriah, is to where Abraham was called to sacrifice his son Isaac; it is where the city of King David is located and the Jewish holy temples stood. The Western Wall of the temple is the most sacred Jewish site still in existence. The central Muslim marker in the city is Temple Mount (in Arabic Haram as-Sharif) with its Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosques, from which Muslims believe Muhammad ascended to heaven. Jerusalem's Christian sacred sites are associated with the life and death of Jesus: the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and Via Dolorosa, which commemorates the path that Jesus took on his way to the crucifixion.
When we read the landscape as an historical text and understand the religious attachment to Jerusalem, we see that it belongs to all of us. But throughout the city's history, factional forces have interfered with the fulfillment of its proper status as a universal possession. It is plagued by violence that appears political in nature but more accurately involves control of the sacred sites. Considering the length and intensity of these struggles we may conclude they are intractable and no solution will satisfy all sides. Even as the struggles have continued, the sites that are their focus have remained a source of inspiration for artists, clergy, and lay people alike.
Organized by Professor of Geography Tamar Mayer, Assistant Professor of Religion Suleiman Mourad, and RCFIA, "The Idea of Jerusalem" symposium brought to Middlebury an extraordinary gathering of academic experts from Europe, the Middle East, and across the U.S. to Middlebury, April 15-17.
"The Idea of Jerusalem"
Agenda
Opening remarks: Allison Stanger, director, Rohatyn Center for International Affairs, and professor of political science, Middlebury College; Tamar Mayer, professor of geography, Middlebury College; and Suleiman A. Mourad, assistant professor of religion, Middlebury College.
Keynote address: "One City, One God, Three Faiths" by Francis E. Peters, professor of history, religion, and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies, New York University.
Panel 1: The Religious Symbolism of Jerusalem
Papers:
"The Temple Mount in Jewish Tradition" by Yaron Z. Eliav, Jean and Samuel Frankel Assistant Professor of Rabbinic Literature, University of Michigan.
"Jerusalem in Jewish History, Tradition and Memory" by Lee I. Levine, professor of Jewish history and the Rev. Moses Bernard Lauterman Family Professor of Classical Archeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
"Jerusalem in Early Christianity" by O. Larry Yarbrough, Pardon Tillinghast Professor of Religion, Middlebury College.
"The Transformation of the Holiness of Jerusalem in Islamic Scholarship" by Suleiman A. Mourad, assistant professor of religion, Middlebury College.
Chair: K. Parker Diggory, Class of 2004, Middlebury College.
Moderator: Robert Schine, Curt C. and Else Silberman Professor in Jewish Studies, Middlebury College.
Panel 2: The Struggle over Jerusalem
Papers:
"Jerusalem in the Visual Propaganda of Contemporary Iran" by Christiane J. Gruber, doctoral candidate in art history, University of Pennsylvania.
"The Jerusalem Syndrome" by Alexander van der Haven, doctoral candidate in the history of religions, University of Chicago Divinity School.
"Jerusalem in and Out of Focus: The City as a Mirror of Changes in Jewish Nationalism" by Tamar Mayer, professor of geography, Middlebury College.
"Palestinian Jerusalem in the Early Twentieth Century" by Issam Nassar, professor of history, Bradley University.
"The Palestinian Leadership of Jerusalem, 1948-2004" by Elie Rekhess, senior research fellow, Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University.
"The Walls of Jerusalem: Past, Present, Future" by Bernard Wasserstein, Harriet and Ulrich E. Meyer Professor of Modern History, University of Chicago.
Chair: Maija Cheung, Class of 2005, Middlebury College.
Moderator: Febe Armanios, Febe Armanios, assistant professor of Middle East history, Middlebury College.
Panel 3: Thoughts on the Future
Papers:
"Can there be Peace Without Negotiating Jerusalem?" by Sari Nusseibeh, president, Al-Quds University, Jerusalem.
"Yerushalayim, al-Quds, and the Wizard of Oz: Facing the Problem of Jerusalem after Camp David II and the al-Aqsa Intifada" by Ian S. Lustick, Bess W. Heyman Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania.
Chair: Suleiman A. Mourad, assistant professor of religion, Middlebury College.
Moderator: Jeffrey Cason, associate professor of political science, and director of international studies and Middle East studies, Middlebury College.
Panel 4: Jerusalem in the Arts
Papers:
"Nineteenth Century Photography of Jerusalem" by Emmie Donadio, associate director and chief curator, Middlebury College Museum of Art.
"The Map Has a Message: Reality, Ideology, and Symbolism in the Early Printed Maps of Jerusalem" by Rehav Rubin, professor of geography, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
"Fayruz, Jerusalem and the Leba-stinian Song" by Christopher Stone, assistant professor of Arabic and international studies, Middlebury College.
Chair: Amer Barghouth, Class of 2005, Middlebury College.
Moderator: Pieter Broucke, associate professor of history of art and architecture, Middlebury College.