Centre awarded LAHRI network grant for ‘Rethinking Jewish Cultural Heritage Today’
The Centre for Jewish Studies has been awarded a LAHRI network grant for a new project, Rethinking Jewish Cultural Heritage Today.
Managed by the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute, LAHRI Network Grants offer a unique opportunity to build an interdisciplinary research network involving partners and collaborators within and beyond the University of Leeds and the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures.
The grants foster the generation and development of new ideas and research agendas and provide a platform for ongoing exchange and collaboration.
Convened by researchers from the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Leeds, Rethinking Jewish Cultural Heritage Today is one of four networks to be awarded funding for 2025/6.
Recent global events have profoundly unsettled Jewish cultural heritage, creating ethical, political, and conceptual challenges. Escalating antisemitism, the instrumentalisation of Holocaust memory, and polarisation around Jewish history and identity have made heritage work both more fraught and more essential.
Foundational narratives are under pressure, and Jewish institutions are implicated in contested debates, demanding renewed reflection and critical engagement.
Laura Nathan, Processing Threads, 2023-2025.
Rethinking Jewish Cultural Heritage Today convenes researchers and heritage professionals to address these challenges collaboratively with care and rigour. Drawing on memory studies, history, theology, anthropology, the arts, and social sciences, this new initiative adopts an interdisciplinary approach to navigate shifting meanings and responsibilities.
Focusing on areas where heritage is most contested, the project supports researchers, educators, and institutions in grappling with ethical and political dimensions amid heightened scrutiny. Its aim is to respond to the present moment and shape inclusive, rigorous, and forward-looking approaches to Jewish cultural heritage for the future.
The network is led by Professor Jay Prosser (School of English), Professor Helen Finch (School of Languages, Cultures and Societies) and Dr Eva Frojmovic (School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies). Partners include smaller or emerging museums and academic collaborators across the global heritage sector.
Over a period of six months, the network will run three co-designed workshops addressing areas where heritage is most contested and undergoing transformation. Themes include:
- Critical Jewish Heritage Studies: Contested Pasts, Living Futures (30 March 2026)
- The Future of Holocaust Memory: Museums and Education
- Crossing Boundaries: Decolonization, Diversity, Dissent
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Detail from Laura Nathan's Processing Threads, 2023-2025.