Jewish Studies

Upcoming:

• Sep 18
  

  “Christian Supremacy: Reckoning with the Roots of Antisemitism and Racism” a Book Talk with Dr. Magda Teter

  Time:  7:00pm

  Join us for a book talk with Dr. Magda Teter as she examines how Christian theology of late antiquity cast Jews as “children born to slavery,” and how the supposed theological inferiority of Jews became inscribed into law, creating tangible structures that reinforced a sense of Christian domination and superiority

• Oct 15
  

  Jews and Blacks Repair the World: the Remarkable Life of Julius Rosenwald

  Time:  7:00pm

  Julius Rosenwald (1862–1932) rose from modest means as the son of a peddler to meteoric wealth at the helm of Sears, Roebuck. Yet his most important legacy stands not upon his business acumen but on the pioneering changes he introduced to the practice of philanthropy. While few now recall Rosenwald’s name—he refused to have it attached to the buildings, projects, or endowments he supported—his passionate support of Jewish and African American causes continues to influence lives to this day.

• Nov 19
  

  “Once We Were Slaves: The Extraordinary Journey of a Multi-Racial Family” a book talk with Prof. Laura Arnold Leibman

  Time:  7:00pm

  Once We Were Slaves provides a rare historical portrait of life as a Jewish American of Color. It examines the history of racial “passing” in an international context and uses an intersectional lens to untangle the family history of Blanche Moses, an obsessive genealogist and descendent of one of the most prominent Jewish families since the American Revolution. This book overturns Moses’ assumption about her family history to reveal that her grandmother and great-uncle, Sarah and Isaac Brandon, actually began their lives as poor Christian slaves in Barbados. Tracing the siblings’ extraordinary journey throughout the Atlantic World, Leibman examines artifacts they left behind in Barbados, Suriname, London, Philadelphia, and, finally, New York, to show how Sarah and Isaac were able to transform themselves and their lives, becoming free, wealthy, Jewish, and–at times–white. While their affluence made them unusual, their story mirrors that of the largely forgotten population of mixed African and Jewish ancestry that constituted as much as ten percent of the Jewish communities in which the siblings lived and sheds new light on the fluidity of race–as well as on the role of religion in racial shift–in the first half of the nineteenth century.