Dear Colleagues,

This special volume aims to explore new paths for the study of Jewish engagement with visual culture. The articles will consider a variety of ways in which Jews reflect on their experiences as Jews, and manifested their beliefs, desires, and fears, as producers, consumers, curators, and critics of visual arts. The growing interest in this field during the past decades has resulted in a number of studies, research groups, and journals dedicated to particular aspects of Jewish visual culture. In reconsidering this body of work, the objective of this volume is twofold: to present the latest developments in the field, including novel methodological approaches, new consequential findings, highlighting vital yet hitherto overlooked themes, etc.; and to contextualize these novelties within and vis à vis the existing literature on Jewish visual culture. The volume will thus culminate in a thorough examination of the field, which will function as an essential steppingstone for future studies on Jewish visual culture.

Recent studies have underscored the roles played by visual culture in everyday lives, in the imagination and in the self-perceptions of Jews—and in their interactions with non-Jews—in various historical settings. From ancient arrangements of religious and mundane objects to interior design, art, and architecture, visual symbolism has been recurrently applied to communicate, remember, and assign meanings in Jewish experiences. Modernity has introduced new spaces of Jewish visual culture—e.g., museums and monuments—as well as new practices of participation in such culture, namely, painting, photography, film, and television. These developments both catalyzed Jews' integration and acculturation in non-Jewish societies and fundamentally contributed to the definition of Jewish nationalism, secularism, and new religious perceptions. These developments also granted curators, critics, and editors of visual culture significant influence on Jewish identity discourses and Jewish politics. In emphasizing the importance of such developments for Jewish experience in various contexts, this Special Issue will discuss new approaches to the study of Jewish visual culture, from antiquity to the 21st century.

The length of submissions is expected to be 7,000–8,000 words.

Submissions can address (but are not limited to) the following themes:

• Jews' production and consumption of visual arts, photography, and film.
• New media's influence of Jewish visual culture.
• Architecture, visual experiences, and Jewish life.
• Jewish museums: curation and visitors' experiences.
• Visual aspects of Jewish religious objects and rituals.
• Jews' engagement with/critique of visual culture.
• Religious–Rabbinic discussions of visual culture.
• Jewish Visual culture and memory culture.
• Visual aspects of Jewish politics (political campaigns, conflicts, etc.)
• Visual culture and Jewish interrelations with non-Jewish societies (in and outside of modern Israel).
• Visual cultures and contemporary identity politics among Jews (Mizrahi, Ashkenazi, ultra-orthodox groups, etc.).
• Jews and Judaism's influence on modernist (and post-modern) visual arts and culture.
• Visual culture and Jewish experience of exile, transit, and migration.
• Visual representations of Jewish nationalism.
• Jews' participation in modern (visual) national cultures outside of the Zionist endeavor.
• Impact of print on Jewish visual culture.
• Jewish visual culture prior to print.

Dr. Ofer Ashkenazi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Jewish
• visual arts