From the Geniza to Goitein – On the "Arab Question" of Jewish Orientalists

Lecture and Discussion with Markus Kirchhoff (Leipzig) The Orientalist Shlomo Dov (Fritz) Goitein (1900–1985), born in Upper Franconia, who spent a long time in Jerusalem and later in the United States, revolutionized the research on the text fragments from the Cairo Geniza. In his work "A Mediterranean Society" (5 volumes, 1967–1988), he focused on the social and everyday history of Jews – and consequently also of Muslims – in Egypt and neighboring countries from the 9th to the 13th century. At the same time, as a contemporary of the Shoah and the founding of the State of Israel, he explicitly reflected on the modern Jewish-Arab relationship. The lecture compares his positioning with the relevant ideas and visions of Jewish Orientalists from the 19th century and the 1920s. Dr. Markus Kirchhoff studied Modern History, Communication Studies, and German Studies in Essen and Dublin; MA 1995. From 1996 to 1999, he was a doctoral candidate and lecturer at the Department of History at the University of Essen-Duisburg, where he obtained his doctorate in 2003 under Dan Diner with the dissertation "Text zu Land. Palestine in Scientific Discourse 1865–1920." From 1999 to 2007 and again since 2025, he has been a research associate at the Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture in Leipzig. In the meantime, from 2007 to 2024, he was the team and editorial leader of the project "Encyclopedia of Jewish Cultures" at the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig. Supporting program for the exhibition "The Orientals. Jewish Researchers and Adventurers in Search of the Own in the Foreign" | November 16, 2025, to October 4, 2026 Admission: €9 (reduced €6) No reservation required.