Maud Mandel's guest appearances

Maud Mandel

Voices on Antisemitism

Jewish History Matters

Rachel Harris

Marc Dollinger

Jonathan Sarna

Jeffrey Veidlinger

Joshua Shanes

James Loeffler

Susannah Heschel

Steven Weitzman

Hasia Diner

Laura Arnold Leibman

Ran Abramitzky

Sarah Abrevaya Stein

Benjamin Netanyahu

Robert Alter

David Biale

OwlTail

Lisa Moses Leff

Ethan Katz

Join our community on Facebook | Join our mailing list Lisa Moses Leff, Ethan Katz, and Maud Mandel join us discuss Colonialism and the Jews, an edited volume bringing together essays from a 2014 conference on the subject. Listen for our conversation about the place of Jews in the history of colonialism and the role of empire in the varied Jewish experiences of modernity, how examining these topics helps us to rethink modern Jewish history, and the question of Zionism and colonialism. Purchase Colonialism and the Jews on Amazon Ethan Katz is Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims from North Africa to France, and is the coeditor of Secularism in Question: Jews and Judaism in Modern Times. Lisa Leff is Associate Professor of History at American University. She is the author of Sacred Bonds of Solidarity: The Rise of Jewish Internationalism in Nineteenth-Century France and The Archive Thief: THe Man Who Salvaged French Jewish History in the Wake of the Holocaust. And Maud Mandel is the president of Williams College. She is the author of In the Aftermath of Genocide: Armenians and Jews in Twentieth-Century France and Muslims and Jews in France: History of a Conflict. This volume, Colonialism and the Jews, is the product of a 2014 conference at Brown University which dealt with the subject. It’s great because while there were only so many people who could attend that meeting, it is part of such an important conversation — one which we will be continuing in the episode today. The essays explore colonial history, culture, and thought as they intersect with Jewish studies. Together, they consider what the “Imperial Turn” means for Jewish studies — how changes in the way in which scholars study and consider empires means for the field of Jewish history. Because it is quite important. As Maud, Lisa, and Ethan note in the introduction to the volume, modern Jewish history has often been thought of in terms of the nation-state: the effort to gain the rights of emancipation, to participate in and integrate into the wider culture, and also the effort by Jewish nationalists to attain a state in various forms. However as they argue in the introduction to the book, we need to rethink the nature of the modern Jewish experience, and colonialism provides one potential set of tools to do that. That’s because Jews have often lived in colonial settings, and certainly within empires, and the tools and practices of colonialism have sometimes been used on the Jews even within Europe. If one thinks about Jews in the Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman empires — to name just three of them — we can understand that it is also the imperial framework and not just the western European model of the nation-state which provides a useful frame for understanding modern Jewish history. The book contains a set of 14 essays that deal with three major issues: Jews as subjects and agents of empire, Jews in colonial politics, and the issue of Zionism and colonialism. Altogether, it presents an important contribution to the study of Jews in the modern era and a great point of departure for what I’m sure will be a great conversation about why colonialism matters for Jewish history, and why the Jewish case helps us understand colonialism and empire as a whole.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/JewishHistoryMatters/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Join our community on Facebook</a> | <a href="https://www.jewishhistory.fm/join-our-mailing-list/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Join our mailing list</a> Lisa Moses Leff, Ethan Katz, and Maud Mandel join us discuss Colonialism and the Jews, an edited volume bringing together essays from a 2014 conference on the subject. Listen for our conversation about the place of Jews in the history of colonialism and the role of empire in the varied Jewish experiences of modernity, how examining these topics helps us to rethink modern Jewish history, and the question of Zionism and colonialism. <ul><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Colonialism-Jews-Modern-Jewish-Experience/dp/0253024579/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1538798527&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=Colonialism+and+the+Jews" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Purchase Colonialism and the Jews on Amazon</a></li></ul> Ethan Katz is Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims from North Africa to France, and is the coeditor of Secularism in Question: Jews and Judaism in Modern Times. Lisa Leff is Associate Professor of History at American University. She is the author of Sacred Bonds of Solidarity: The Rise of Jewish Internationalism in Nineteenth-Century France and The Archive Thief: THe Man Who Salvaged French Jewish History in the Wake of the Holocaust. And Maud Mandel is the president of Williams College. She is the author of In the Aftermath of Genocide: Armenians and Jews in Twentieth-Century France and Muslims and Jews in France: History of a Conflict. This volume, Colonialism and the Jews, is the product of a 2014 conference at Brown University which dealt with the subject. It’s great because while there were only so many people who could attend that meeting, it is part of such an important conversation — one which we will be continuing in the episode today. The essays explore colonial history, culture, and thought as they intersect with Jewish studies. Together, they consider what the “Imperial Turn” means for Jewish studies — how changes in the way in which scholars study and consider empires means for the field of Jewish history. Because it is quite important. As Maud, Lisa, and Ethan note in the introduction to the volume, modern Jewish history has often been thought of in terms of the nation-state: the effort to gain the rights of emancipation, to participate in and integrate into the wider culture, and also the effort by Jewish nationalists to attain a state in various forms. However as they argue in the introduction to the book, we need to rethink the nature of the modern Jewish experience, and colonialism provides one potential set of tools to do that. That’s because Jews have often lived in colonial settings, and certainly within empires, and the tools and practices of colonialism have sometimes been used on the Jews even within Europe. If one thinks about Jews in the Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman empires — to name just three of them — we can understand that it is also the imperial framework and not just the western European model of the nation-state which provides a useful frame for understanding modern Jewish history. The book contains a set of 14 essays that deal with three major issues: Jews as subjects and agents of empire, Jews in colonial politics, and the issue of Zionism and colonialism. Altogether, it presents an important contribution to the study of Jews in the modern era and a great point of departure for what I’m sure will be a great conversation about why colonialism matters for Jewish history, and why the Jewish case helps us understand colonialism and empire as a whole.

15: Colonialism and the Jews with Lisa Moses Leff, Ethan Katz, and Maud Mandel