As the Shared History Project enters its chapter on the Weimar Republic and the beginning of National Socialism, our panelists will discuss how German-speaking Jews seized on the era of cultural freedom ushered in by the Weimar Republic to rediscover, revitalize, and transform Jewish culture and identity in a modern context. Michael Brenner (American University/Munich), Rachel Seelig (University of Toronto), and Kerry Wallach (Gettysburg College) will discuss how…

Elements of Border and Infrastructure: Earth I October 20th, 2021 / 12:30 pm EST/ Link for Registration The land question is an age old in the political history of the Middle East, but only more recently has scholarship on the politics of conservation and resource management brought such questions to bear on this topic. This panel invites its participants to…

Judah P. Benjamin (1811–1884) was a brilliant and successful lawyer in New Orleans, and one of the first Jewish members of the U.S. Senate. He then served in the Confederacy as secretary of war and secretary of state, becoming the confidant and alter ego of Jefferson Davis. In this new biography in the Jewish Lives series at Yale University Press,…

During the Space Race, space science fiction cinema on both sides of the Iron Curtain was often a tool for articulating visions of the future; today, this cinematic subgenre is a site of – often nostalgic – memory. Soviet science fiction cinema is an especially interesting case in point. Once a prophecy of 'great things to come' under the auspices…

From the 1880s to the 1940s, an upsurge of explosive pogroms caused much pain and suffering across the eastern borderlands of Europe. Rioters attacked Jewish property and caused physical harm to women and children. During World War I and the Russian Civil War, pogrom violence turned into full-blown military actions. In some cases, pogroms wiped entire Jewish communities out of existence.…

A conversation with Silvana Patriarca (Fordham University), Pamela Ballinger (University of Michigan) and Giulia Bonazza(Ca’ Foscari University & Columbia). Coordinator: Konstantina Zanou (Columbia University).   This event celebrates the recent publication of three books, which are here presented and discussed in dialogue with each other: Giulia Bonazza’s Abolitionism and the Persistence of Slavery in Italian States, 1750–1850 (2019), Pamela Ballinger’s…

Giacomo Puccini named three criteria of Italian music: clarity, spontaneity, and simplicity. In this meeting we explore the music of Francesco Provenzale, founder of the Neapolitan school of opera, especially for his use of harmony. Provenzale’s expressive dissonances heighten the clarity of his overall harmonic scheme. "What Makes It Italian?": According to Puccini is a music listening and discussion group that…

DNA has the potential to be an essential and exciting genealogical tool. But many Eastern European Jewish testers find their DNA results completely overwhelming and unnavigable. In this talk, Jennifer Mendelsohn, an internationally renowned journalist and professional genealogist, will help those with Ashkenazi heritage learn how to make sense of their DNA results. She’ll cover the basics of DNA testing, including…