Musings: SJM Journal

As the ‘People of the Book’ Jews have always engaged with scholarship in different languages, from Hebrew and Aramaic of antiquity to later ‘hybrid’ languages that developed as Jews were dispersed throughout the world as a result of exile, expulsion and migration. The SJM is dedicated to keeping alive the memory of the Holocaust and the rich Jewish life that existed in Europe before its destruction. Lives that played out in a multitude of languages that were at times responsible for the creation of diverse literature, scholarship and other cultural outputs. So too the rich but too often overlooked languages and cultures of Jews in the Middle East and North Africa whose lives were similarly derailed by the Holocaust, the Farhud (1941), and expulsions in the period after the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel. In all of these instances, language provides a prism through which the cultural production of these diverse communities is generated.

But what are ‘Jewish’ languages? Are we speaking only of Hebrew and ‘hybrid’ languages that developed over thousands of years of Jewish living among other peoples resulting in Ladino, Judeo-Arabic and Yiddish? Or might we also include the ways in which Jews (today and in times past) have spoken ‘non-Jewish’ languages, such as the way an Australian Jew might speak English differently to other Australians?

The editors of Musings invite contributions from scholars and practitioners for Volume 3 (2025) that address any aspect of the theme Jewish linguistic and cultural production, and their interconnectedness. Submissions may focus on any geographic location/cultural sphere or period of Jewish history. Articles should be based on original research and be between 4,000 and 7,000 words. Book and exhibition reviews between 1,500 and 3,000 words will also be considered.

Please review the author guidelines below for word length, reference style as well as further stylistic information.

Deadline for submissions is 1 September 2024. Submissions can be made via the form below.