LBC Teaching Fellow and Principal take part in event on ‘Religion and Violence’

On Wednesday 8th October, LBC Principal Rabbi Professor Deborah Kahn-Harris and LBC Alumna and Teaching Fellow Rabbi Robyn Ashworth-Steen took part in the series of events on ‘Religion And Violence’ at the University of Leeds.

This day included presentations, panels, displays, mentoring sessions, and a campus walk, and the participation of activists, practitioners, academics, artists and students. Most events took place in the Emmanuel Chaplaincy Centre on the campus of the University of Leeds.

The events will lead up to the imminent publication (scheduled for Spring 2026) of the massive Bible and Violence Project (with Bloomsbury) – we will bring you more information about this in one of our upcoming newsletters.

In this blog post Rabbi Robyn Ashworth-Steen reflects on the event.

Religion and Violence

University of Leeds

For LBC

Rabbi Robyn Ashworth-Steen

The themes of religion and violence are acutely relevant at this moment.  Globally, and here in Britain, various violences enacted by and against religious communities are being experienced.  In an event run by the University of Leeds, and their Centre of Religion and Public Life, these themes were explored as part of a two day conference entitled ‘Religion and Violence’. Professor Johanna Stiebert, external examiner for Leo Baeck College and professor of the Hebrew Bible at UoL was one of the two organisers of the conference. Rabbi Professor Deborah Kahn-Harris and Rabbi Robyn Ashworth-Steen (PhD student at the UoL, with Rabbi Professor Kahn-Harris and Professor Stiebert as part of her supervision team) attended this event, with Rabbi Professor Kahn-Harris presenting in a panel discussion in the afternoon.

The sessions covered many topics and was an intense but important experience for participants. Scholars and community activists attended from diverse parts of the world, from New Zealand to the United States. I will pick just a few sessions to showcase the content and atmosphere of those two days in October 2025.

After the welcome, on the first day, we watched the first public showing of the film (available on You Tube here) marking the release of a publication entitled, Rape Culture and the Bible: Scholars Reflect. The film was powerful in framing the themes of the conference and in showcasing the vital necessity of centering people with lived experience in any scholarly exercises on the topic of rape culture in the Bible. The film interviewed many leading scholars who demonstrated the necessity in addressing the painful topic of violence within sacred texts.  As such quotations from the film evidence: ‘the truth is liberating’ and ‘the text I not God…human lives are more sacred’. The film prompted a helpful conversation about how best to address these sensitive topics in higher education and community settings, with teachers sharing best practice.

After lunch we stood beneath a very contentious sculpture by the notorious paedophile Eric Gill as Professor Jo Crawford (Head of School, Fine Arts) spoke to us about the history and context of the piece and elicited a conversation about how best to address such violence within art and its display. Whilst the description of the sculpture on the university’s website hints at the antisemitism carved into the sculpture, it does not name the extensive and horrific sexual violence perpetrated by Gill.  Speaking with Professor Crawford and the participants about this very tangible demonstration about religion both being violent and enacting violence, provided a very visceral example of the topics being discussed.

After having a very interesting tour of curated items from the University library’s special collections Rabbi Professor Kahn-Harris spoke in a panel, alongside others about how her teaching addresses the violence within the Tanach and particularly drew attention to the Megillot module which she teaches as part of the rabbinic programme.  We also heard from Rabbi Dr Barbara Thiede, the next day, with her talk entitled, ‘Not Fixing the Bible’s God: Reflections from a Rabbi and Biblical Scholar’.  The presentation navigated how to not fall foul of apologising for violence within the text and within the character of god but to confront and address such violence.

Other sessions touched upon Israel and Gaza, which were, of course, contentious and intense but it is an issue that cannot be ignored. All in all it was a thought-provoking, brave, boundary-breaking, and at times challenging, couple of days.

(Another important resource for these topics is the Shiloh Project blog which can be found here – Professor Johanna Stiebert is one of the project’s directors.)